Jaycar Smart Plug WiFi Controlled Mains Switch

two failed within 12 months – I purchased 2 of these in 2022 and both failed within 12 months. When they worked they were fine, but basically a waste of money. Do not buy.

Unbelievable Failure Rate! – I purchased three of these units. Every one of them failed within 6 weeks! I've had to drive over the other side of the city to get all three replaced at different times. The last one I took back in today. As I received the replacement, I joked with the staff that it would be a real beggar if the one I had behing our TV cabinet failed, as that requires a lot of gear to be moved in order to pull it out to replace it. I got home with the new module and was setting that up when the one behind our TV cabinet failed!!! So now I have to return that! These things keep dropping off the wifi, sometimes need reprogramming to get connected, then they stop functioning with the manual button on the side.

Useless – I had 3 of these fail over about 3 months Jaycar ended up refunding What a waste of time Staff had no one else report failures Can’t believe that

Jaycar MS6106 mixed firmware versions make this product hit and miss – These smart sockets from Jaycar are great when they work reliably but are a real pain when the randomly disconnect and refuse to reconnect until either powered down or reset (if they don't fail all together) As I discovered, jaycar stock has mixed versions of the firmware and version 1.0.0 has proven to be the faulty smart sockets. The problem is that unlike the Tuya products that they are the Jaycar product always says no firmware update available so you can fix this issue which appears to be resolved in OTA update V1.1.2

If you think that the solution is simple, just purchase sockets from Jaycar with the latest version firmware then you would be wrong as there is no way to identify the firmware versions on the product.

I have to rate this a s 1 star because it is an unacceptable problem with no solution.

Smart Plugs (WiFi Controlled) – In 2017 a house in our estate caught fire because a computer ignited. A year later my PC's power supply overheated and was smoking and possibly could have resulted in a fire (I was not at home but my vigilant wife switched-off the electricity). As a result I commenced switching off household appliances, if practical to do so, and which could present a fire-risk.

In 2018 I discovered Smart Plugs that can switch power off and on remotely (from anywhere in the world), serve as a timer (far more convenient than conventional mechanical or electronic timers), have count down timers and also measure the cost of electricity, for any particular appliance. Until relatively recently, such plugs were in the region of $50. I found that Jaycar had Smart Plugs that worked well, with good management software (smartphone). The latter cannot be underestimated. ( The software of some other retailers' smart plugs which were cheaper, had software that was difficult to set up and non-intuitive and "flaky" in usage).

Smart plugs enabled me to "clean and hibernate" my PC after use and then employ the Smart Plug to count-down-off, so that I did not have to attend whilst the shut-down process was in progress. A good smart plug must "remember" the time schedules even when the WiFi is turned off, and have intuitive and easy-to-use software. Jaycar's earlier models (eg MS6147) were from NEO had these characteristics and had the option for energy measurements that enabled me to obtain an estimate of the cost of electricity usage for running various appliances. Also, they had good WiFi sensitivity and operation-reliability. Under hard-usage the plugs worked well - I only had to reset one hard-worked smart plugs a few times. The plugs were not huge but did cover the second unused power outlet.

The latest 2019 incarnation of Jaycar's smart plugs (MS6106) are much smaller. They have worked very well. (Unfortunately ,the electricity-measurement option is no longer available.) The software is quite powerful. One trivial minor observation is that there appear to be two countdown functions. Whilst one works very well, I have not worked out how to utilize the second (which also has a bizarre Chinese lettering). The pricing of these Smart Plugs have been very satisfactory. Recommended.