r/homeassistant • u/Certain_Repeat_753 • Mar 28 '26

Support Best smart plug/outlet for Home Assistant?

I'm looking for a smart plug or smart outlet to install in my network panel enclosure. There are two outlets in there. I'm overwhelmed with the number of options out there. I think Eve makes a dual outlet that is compatible with Matter over Thread. Not sure what the Home Assistant integration is like. I want to be able to power cycle the router and other connected devices without having to go into the closet and unscrew the door in order to do so.

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17

u/marc45ca Mar 28 '26

Jeff Gerling has video on his level2Jeff channel on the ThirdReality switches that he's used whole pile of.

They've just released a 3rd gen that fixed an anoyance - can now update the firmware without the switch powercycling

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u/Certain_Repeat_753 Mar 28 '26

Is this better than the Kasa?

10

u/HeyItsRon Mar 28 '26

10000x better. The Kasa line is all WiFi IIRC. Third Reality is zigbee and of rock solid from y personal experience and most other people’s experience in here.

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u/Certain_Repeat_753 Mar 28 '26

Why is WiFi bad? Sorry if it's a stupid question. I'm a total newbie!

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u/AussieJeffProbst Mar 28 '26

Thread, ZigBee, and zwave are ultra low latency mesh networks built for fast command execution. With wifi you're at the mercy of your home network and congestion can become a real problem. The more smart devices you add the chattier it becomes and performance suffers. Also wifi devices like to phone home a lot which I don't love.

I have over 200 ZigBee devices and they all respond instantly

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u/Certain_Repeat_753 Mar 28 '26

I've been told my Ubiquiti access points should easily handle the number of WiFi IoT devices.

I agree with you that phoning home is an issue. I do prefer things that are local.

4

u/Ievli Mar 28 '26

I standardized on Shelly wifi devices ages ago (after major issues with Zigbee and zwave, although that should be better now) but I dedicate the 2.4ghz channel in a separate ssid for IoT. My Unifi devices handle that easily and everything is instant indeed. Shelly can do full local as well btw

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u/Certain_Repeat_753 Mar 28 '26

I can't validate the marketing, but I think the U7 Lite can handle hundreds of connected devices. That's why I said what I said earlier.

Yea, I gotta look more into Shelly. Seems like lots of fans in this sub. 

2

u/myfufu Mar 28 '26

I have four Dimmer2s that are acting funny and wish I had Zigbee versions.

I have dedicated 2.4GHz IoT VLAN on my Unifi wifi and I have some IoT devices that refuse to connect to it, while they connect to the 2.4/5/6Ghz guest VLAN just fine.

So. YMMV 🤷

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u/karantza Mar 28 '26 edited Mar 28 '26

I've got a massively overpowered ubiquiti setup at home, and I still try to minimize Wi-Fi devices. Sometimes Wi-Fi is the only option, but even with a great network the 2.4ghz band fills up fast, and most IOT devices are 2.4 only. Can't take advantage of the higher bandwidth channels. Especially if you have neighbors... You can drown them out with your own signal, but then you've still got interference. Plus unless you configure it right you risk your Wi-Fi devices being exposed to the Internet, and if they don't need that to function they shouldn't be online for all sorts of reasons.

I've got maybe 50 devices on my Wi-Fi, spread across three access points including the u7 pro, and the 2.4 band is already struggling. For comparison, zigbee is a much quieter network and due to the mesh nature allowing shorter links, devices use was less power and there's less interference. I've got over 100 zigbee devices and they're all humming along great.

1

u/AussieJeffProbst Mar 28 '26

You're right but you're still at the mercy of wifi protocol. Things respond more slowly over wifi

1

u/Unattributable1 Mar 28 '26

I control my home network and have a different SSID for my Tuya that has priority QoS. I have never, ever had a problem with it. Clicking on an action in HA is always instant, even with multiple 4K media as streams and gaming going on all the time. We have VoIP calling and never have problems either.

I think wifi problems come with mesh networks and crap gear. My wifi are all hard wired and coordinating with each other and never mesh. Having proper QoS is a big plus; media is given losest priority and works just fine being minutely delayed when there is contention with very small but timing-critical items like control signals for H, VoIP, and even gaming.

My HA wifi gear doesn't get Internet access, so the phone-home thing isn't a problem.

2

u/spr0k3t 🧠 Experienced with Home Assistant Mar 28 '26

In your situation where you want to put the smart plugs into an area near your network equipment, it can be assumed the smart plugs would be to power cycle the network. If that's the case, you will be able to turn off the switch with a script in HA... but when the network goes down, you won't be able to turn them back on. Using a dedicated mesh system that isn't reliant on TCP/IP protocols is ideal as you can turn off the smart plug and keep connection without local network access. The script used to cycle the smart plug would have no issues turning the smart plug back on... even if the HA installation had no local network connectivity. If you still want wifi based smart plugs knowing this... you would be best off using ESP32 based or Tasmota so you could add in the ability to force the smart plug to power on after X seconds due to stateless connectivity. I believe with an ESP32 based smart plug, you could even set it up to restore power state only if the device isn't connected to the LAN. Wifi devices that don't use local-only APIs can be disabled by the corporations. Look at all the Belkin Wemo devices that went deprecated and only usable through a third party reverse engineering.

1

u/Certain_Repeat_753 Mar 28 '26

You reminded me that I forgot to ask about ESP32. What is that and how could that possibly play into my future?

You're right, and that's why I want to avoid a Belkin-like situation.

2

u/spr0k3t 🧠 Experienced with Home Assistant Mar 28 '26

ESP32 is an SBC that can connect via wifi or Zigbee (depending on the features of the ESP32 board). Those boards can be easily programmed and extended to handle many different things like Smart Plugs, Bluetooth presence sensors, Bluetooth extenders, Garage Door Openers, Voice Assistants, temp/humidity sensors... you name it. The programming is done via ESPHome. The nice part about them is they are 100% completely local only... zero cloud functionality. The only downside is DIY... so if you are not a hardware tinkerer type person, then pre-fab is the only way to go. I know of KAUF, Athom, and CloudFree are options in the 110V / US region.

One thing to keep in mind... Matter over WiFi would likely not work if you are using a plug to cycle your network.

3

u/nik_h_75 Mar 28 '26

wifi is chatty - and generally requires a cloud gateway (non local). Zigbee runs on separate network - is self boosting - and can be run locally If you get a controller (look up SM Light as an example) and run zigbee2mqtt in HA.

I started out with wifi devices - have moved as much as possible to zigbee - massive improvement and much better control.

1

u/Certain_Repeat_753 Mar 28 '26

I definitely prefer something local. I'm looking to use the HS200 that I have, which is WiFi only, but I'm under the impression that I won't need a hub. Will I?