This was posted 11 months ago, and might be an out-dated deal.

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Crest Smart Single Adaptor Power Monitoring - $7.50 + Delivery ($0 C&C/In-Store) @ BIG W

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I went into Big W a few days ago to grab one of the previously popular Eko smart plugs. My local only had Crest branded ones, but seemed to be the same thing for the same $15 price tag. I don't shop there often but presumably Crest their generic in house brand like Kmart's Anko ?

They seem to be Tuya based and recognised in seconds using my existing kogan smarthome app.
I went back today to grab another and was pleasantly surprised to see them scan at half price for $7.50. Absolute bargain, and quite possibly a record low for a smart switch, let alone one with energy monitoring too.

https://www.bigw.com.au/product/crest-smart-single-adaptor-p…

They also have the model with 2 USB-A sockets also 50% off, $20 down to $10. The USB stays powered even when the socket is off which aside from obvious applications I find it handy for running an Alexa - I can use voice commands to turn off the power point it's plugged in to
https://www.bigw.com.au/product/crest-smart-single-adaptor-w…

They're a slim plug that doesn't block the power point next to it and the USB one is just longer, not wider.

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closed Comments

  • Does this take up 2 socket space?

    • +5

      Last sentence of description says…

      "They're a slim plug that doesn't block the pointpoint(sic) next to it and the USB one is just longer, not wider."

      Assuming this is your question.

      • +1

        oops yep typo there - and correct, they only take up a single socket

      • +16

        apologies. I have eyes yet failed to see

        • +5

          Thank you for confirming you do have eyes, I wasn't sure if they were an additional DLC these days.

  • Home Assistant compatible in any way?

    • +1

      They look like Tuya ones so my guess is they are.

      • +3

        Dumb question but what does tuya compatibility mean? Does that mean it'll work with an Alexa?

        • +3

          Yes, once you Enable the Tuya Smart Skill in Alexa

        • +8

          Tuya is the underlying electronics/software used. There are lots of white label versions of Tuya, but basically they can all be run off the same app, and have the same capabilities. They can often also have their firmware swapped for different versions - which sometimes get used to give them particular capabilities, for example you will see references to Home Assistant, running these locally, rather than reporting back to the cloud (in china). I've lot track of the different labels I have in my home, but they are all controlled by the same app.

          Most will also work with Google, or Alexa.

          An example of a brand that's not Tuya based is LifX.

    • +1

      I have the usb model. Setup with google home was easy & quick.

    • Tasmota anyone ?? The USB one is listed in depository list but has a warning 25/05/2023

  • +2

    hmm what do you use this for? like turn on heater/cooler while on your way back from work?

    • +5

      Personally I use them to turn off/on hard to reach outlets but I did toy with having coffee machine ready when I woke up.

      • +2

        That's exactly what I do. The coffee machine takes a solid 20 minutes to heat up (before anyone asks, it's a proper espresso maker), so I have a smart switch configured to come on a half hour before I get up on weekdays.

        Edit:based on other comments some people have made about high power drain appliances, I'll specify that my smart switch is a TP-Link Kasa. Haven't had any trouble with it in nearly two years of use.

    • +4

      Regardless of the rating or quality of the unit I'd be hesitant to run anything with a persistent high load such as a 2kW heater from these sort of switches.
      Even a regular consumer extension lead will get a work out with a large heater, do it and you'll know why they say do not operate unless fully uncoiled.

      • +1

        I used a Xiaomi Zigbee one on my vented clothes dryer. Plug failed pretty quickly and was stuck on despite the app saying otherwise. Somehow got it working again but don't use it on the dryer or any high powered appliance anymore. Used a Tuya based one with the two USB ports for power monitoring on my dryer and it seemed ok when I was using it. Also use a Zigbee 4 way power board in my kitchen to run my sandwich press, pressure cooker and other things - just not at the same time. Works perfectly for this especially since most sandwich presses don't have on off switches

        • Which power board do you use? I’ve been looking for one with energy monitoring for a while.

      • Yeah I had the kogan branded versions previously - had one on a powerpoint that was connected to my EV "trickle" charger that maxed out the 10A rating. It ran for a few months then died one day.

    • +8

      I have one on a powerboard in my home theatre that turns off all the gear at midnight so save standby drain. My kids also play xbox in here so it doubles as a ban/punishment switch if they're misbehaving. I have another on my pool pump set to come on mid-morning when there should be ample solar to run it, or control it on demand with my phone or voice via alexa (it's sealed away in a dry box away from the wet area)
      I also have one in my bedroom that turns the heater on 30 mins before my wife gets up for work. It's not cold enough yet that we run it all night but she likes a warm room when she's getting dressed at 5am

      I also had one on a low powered EV charger that turns on when offpeak rates kick in but it burned out, presumably they're not designed to run at their max rating for 8hrs at a time.

    • +1

      Turn off/on my electric blanket, suxs when i drive home and forgot to switch it on, imprtant too having timers set in the morning to switch of every morning at a set time so dont have to worry about remembering to switch off

      I've actually got a 4 port power Arlec board type using with their Grid Connect app, been trying too find a 5 port board version at a reasonable price, well Arlec doesn't have the 5 port in Australia, anyone suggest any 👍😉

      The Crest Smart Single seems very useful for one's power consumption, shame these and other brands can't switch off the USB ports off/on remotely, have a wifi smart circuit board I wired into my pc (powered by USB) to switch my pc off/on remotely, very handy when used with Google's desktop remote app, use too actually switch my pc off and on with similar device as this single smart crest device just had to setup in my pc bios to switch back on after power failure otherwise my pc wouldn't switch on, did have a critical powersupply failure not sure of later method was the culprit, I don't think so

      • +3

        timers set in the morning to switch of every morning at a set time so dont have to worry about remembering to switch off

        Imagine putting so much trust in a device to prevent your house burning down 🤦‍♂️

        • -2

          True but i set the timer before im meant to wake up to be on the safe side and set it to switch off every hour till 12pm, the cold certainlly wakes me up lolz

          Edit: important to know the timer part on these well on mine for sure is cloud based, if no internet it won't switch off or on by timer, im guessing the app in my mobile is the timer sending instructions to my smart board, obviouslythrough the internet,,.. so yeah so true need to be that extra careful, might actually install the same software and set the same timers times to switch iff my electric blanket on my other mobiles/Android devices also to be that extra safe 😀 honestly im more worried mum coming across my electric blanket still on during the day and freaking out at me, not sure which would be worse the house burning down or her non stop yeah, suxs not having the money to move out lolz

          • +1

            @Italkdigital: I just wouldn’t use an electric blanket. I’ve never owned one my entire life. Just seems so dangerous. But I’m from QLD.

            • +1

              @PainToad: Melbourne and certainly gets cold here,.. and at my age certainly aint handling the cold well, getting old suxs too,.. 🤣

            • +2

              @PainToad: best invention ever!! but prob not cold enough for one in qld

              • @derdew: We need northly winds, blow some heat down too Melbourne from lovely sunny Queensland lolz

    • +2

      I use it to turn of the property electric fence. We have small average and use the fence to keep goats in. If I discover damage like a branch on the fence I can give google assistant on my phone a voice command and switch the fence on or off.

      I have another connected to my EVs charger. I have the charger switch on and off to match solar production from my panels 10am to 4pm this time of year. It also keeps track of the amount of Kwhs the car uses.

      While my son is in NZ I have another switch the battery charger on to give my son's car battery a boost for an hour once per week.

      When we are on holidays another one switched a table light on and off so it looks like we are home.

      I have a pet heating mat for the cat. It switches it on and off to keep her warm at night.

    • +1

      I have 2x in living room connected to 2x lamps which I use with google home.. I say 'turn on the living room' and the 2x lamps, TV and ceiling star projector turn on. I also have one for my CCTV monitor so it stays on between 06.00-23.00

    • turn on my lights when i'm out off the house at night/makes it seem like someone's home…

      turn on the electric blanket before i sleep
      turn on the kettle when i wake up

      lots of things

      • +1

        turn on the kettle when i wake up

        Do you ever forget to fill it up at night? Sounds like to me just one more thing to remember before going to bed.

  • +3

    Does anyone know if these can be flashed with Tasmota or is soldering required?

    • +3

      Almost certainly not, unfortunately - over the last few years Tuya has seemingly gone to a bit of effort to kill Tasmota. Nothing that's been manufactured in the last two years will let you flash OTA, and most devices now use a different chip that you can't even flash over serial. Really sucks 😞

      Still some smaller OEMs that work great (like Shelly) and if you can find very old Tuya stock (like a huge Bunnings) you might get lucky.

      • Thanks! I'm keen to dip my toes into home automation but not keen on running random firmware on my network.

        • I'd start with Sonoff if you're more interested in control, or a D1 mini if you're more interested in monitoring. Then Home Assistant is imo the best glue to combine the two halves into automation.

      • Is that just due to the move away from esp32 chips, or is it more complicated than that?

        • Even before the chip switch they were updating their firmware to close out OTA tasmota exploits. Like a lot of tech today they're all about LTV so lots of work to lock you into the garden 😞

  • +1

    These work well in home assistant via tuya integration (I believe needs internet) with about 0.5 sec latency.

    • +4

      Just use Local Tuya integration for private access

      • just found out that tuya is broken in 2023.5 :(

        • I am running home assistant 2023.5.3 and was running .0, and .1 before that. I wasn't aware of any issues with tuya or tuya local and both of them are working fine for me alongside each other right now

          • @tombuttersp: dang, jealous! my light is no longer connecting and it's reported in comments on the 2023.5 release and the tuya integration github that it's broken!

            • @jupy: Move across to Local Tuya

              • @10101010101: Do you have any success with the automatic recognition for LocalTuya? My existing Tuya light and this new plug haven't shown and I need to manually configure (which is a bit time involved it seems?)

  • +6

    Can be used via blueprints in home assistant to send you notification when example dryer finishes a run or dishwasher finishes via power monitoring for those interested in a use case for these.

    https://community.home-assistant.io/t/notify-or-do-something…

    • Super cool. Thanks for sharing

    • Exactly what I do with our dryer. Sends the wife a message stating there's a fresh hot load ready for her.

  • going fast! max quantity of 1 delivered here on the plug only one, and while i was looking around its gone! grabbed 2 (max now) on the usb ones.

    scratch that, seems the plug only one has gone back up?

    dont forget to boost your everyday rewards if youve got this targeted! https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/776297

    • Cheers. Got 2x of the ones with USB. Regular ones sold out.

    • Wanted 4 so now I gotta do a scenic tour of Syd eg to click & collect

  • Will this work just fine if you are wanting to know how much current is getting used for 1 appliance?

    I brought 1 and wondering now if it would be any decent cause I'm interested in how much power my PC is actually using

    • +1

      yep you can see the power draw in real time and also cumulative for each day.
      I was surprised to see how much my washing machine was drawing. I knew the dryer would use heaps but the washer was also pulling 2kw just sloshing water around which was alot more than I expected

      • +1

        Aha thanks,

        I wasn't interested in the Google assistant stuff.. I just wanted to check how much power was getting used to I then can possibly undervolt my CPU (i9 13 gen) as I've left it on default settings but only runs at 5.3ghz

      • What did finding out how much power your washing machine is using actually achieve? It’s not like washing is optional.

        • Washing half loads is.

        • +2

          Just determines when I run it. If I know it pulls 2kw for an hour or so I won't run it in peak times. Ideally it'd always be left until cheap off-peak times but that's not always practical. I also have solar so sometimes delaying the start time an hour would mean it effectively runs for free. I also have an off-grid weekender that runs solely on battery power. My inverter can run up to 5kw loads which is plenty for a household, as long as all the high powered devices aren't turn on simultaneously. Eg if cooking breakfast and have the microwave going at the same time the kettle is boiling and toast is cooking it'll trip, but wait 30 seconds for the kettle to finish before popping down the toast and it's fine.

      • What type of washing machine do you have and how much power did it use? I’m guessing it also depends on what stage of the washing cycle (e.g., spin cycle uses more power than wash?)

      • +5

        That 2kw would be the water heating element. If that power level continues for the whole wash there's definitely something broken

  • +1

    Anyone know if power monitoring works with home assistant?

    • +1
      • +2

        Thanks.

        So far i found that the Bunnings Arlec ones dont either.

        But the Kmart one does

      • +4

        They will if you flash Tasmota.

        • People above arr saying it doesn't work

  • I bought the USB version for full price a few days ago. Besides the price I'm happy with it. I've got it working in Home Assistant using Local Tuya and everything seems to work as it should. I use it run cycle a heater element on and off every couple of minutes for my baby chickens and so far it's been fine.
    Looks like I'll have to get some more.

  • These look verrrrrry similar to the Kogan branded plugs that are known to fail quickly due to using a 1 cent part when a 2 cent part would've lasted a lifetime. Or something like that, there's a whole thread on the Home Assistant forums.

    • +1

      If you're not using them on something critical like a freezer, then at $7.50 I treat them like the disposable Chinese unwarranted hardware they are.

      Having said that I've got one of the Eko branded identical ones monitoring my EV charger, channelling 2kW for several hours at a time daily, and it's not yet dead. But as noted YMMV.

      • I use my Eko one the same way. Still working well.

  • +1

    why do i need this?

    im going to buy 2, but i dont know why, lol.
    seems like a good deal.

  • Can't find any stock :(

  • +1

    Dumb question, could this be used to switch off power to chest freezers during peak times?

    • +2

      Yes.

    • +2

      Is that a good idea though? For food safety.
      Though you have got me wondering how long an unpowered chest freezer would maintain a 'frozen state' without being opened. Queue the discussion…

      Edit: CDC says 24-48 hours!! End discussion.

      • +2

        Yes, chest freezers are incredibly efficient (unless you're opening them all the time). They're not even on most of the time. They just don't know when it's cheaper to turn themselves on.

  • Does not measure we electric usage

  • No stock anywhere near me - melbourne CBD and western suburbs. is there a stock checker link of some kind?

  • Just bought two and they just refuse to show up on either of the Crest app or the Tuya app. Have Kogan smart bulbs that constantly need reconnecting, but they never have issues with actually showing up in the app to start with.

  • +1

    Strangely enough, nothing cheaper at AliEx.

    Get 4 of the USB ones (or half a dozen of these here) — or any linear combination thereof — and you'll be paying 25% (22%) less!

  • Can you schedule on & offs? I'm thinking of using this to switch off the Wi-fi late night.

    • +2

      That you can schedule on the router itself!

      But if you really want to use a socket timer for that, you're better off using an olefashioned mechanical one, as it doesn't depend on the wifi itself to work.

    • +3

      Yes you can schedule but if you switch off the wifi you can't use the wifi to turn them back on! Ie you'd have to do it manually in the morning, which for me defeats the puprose. As others have mentioned above I'm pretty sure it doesn't flash the on/off timer locally - it requires connection to their server. If you've got a mesh network though you could turn off the repeaters.
      For what you're asking an old school mechanical timer would be a better option

  • +1

    Anyone have a link to a guide on how to flash tasmota on these ?

  • Very limited/No stock in Sydney. Where is your local?

    • Menai. I grabbed 3, was still 3 left. I'd say they've all been snapped up now

  • For the people who have got it, which app are you using to monitor the plug. Is it the Crest app ? I have mix of Tapo power plugs as well and was wondering if there is an app to control & monitor bot Crest and Tapo plugs.

    I am surprised with the plug so far and its working very much similar to a Tapo P110 which costs almost 3 times !

    • I got 2 of these and use the Tuya app, mainly because I want Home Assistant integration. If you don't need Home Assistant, IMHO, all the apps are pretty much similar, if not the same and should be able to pick up both brand plugs. FYI, I have these plugs and Mirabella Genio plugs being controlled in the same Tuya app.

      • Thanks @geek001 I have now installed HA to start building my home automation. However I have seen that the HA doesn't show the KWH readings from these plugs. Have you managed to get it across ? Tapo it shows the KWH but not historical value.

  • I have not been able to pair these with the Crest app, any advice?

    • Mine paired instantly through the kogan app. Maybe try smart home or one of the other tuya ones. I assume you're connected to a 2.4ghz wifi network and not a 5ghz ?

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