“Kassenrutsch” tests 13 smart plugs. Three is insufficient.
Author:
Adrian Zehnder
14.01.2025, 20:41
Deter burglars, save electricity or switch on electrical devices remotely. Smart sockets can do that and more. The price range of the devices tested is large. The cheapest plug costs 12.95 CHF – the most expensive just under 50 francs.
What’s the point of a smart socket?
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- Comfort:
Lamps and other electrical devices can be switched on or off remotely. Depending on the model, via an included remote control or via the app.
- Save electricity:
Smart sockets also measure power consumption and display the values on the mobile phone app. This is how power guzzlers can be identified. Smart plugs are also suitable for scatterbrained people. When you leave the house, appropriately programmed apps switch off forgotten lights and devices.
- Burglary prevention:
Smart sockets can also deter burglars. The apps can be programmed to turn the sockets on or off randomly. In this way they simulate that someone is at home.
The laboratory at the Graubünden University of Applied Sciences tested both single and multiple sockets. Some of the smart sockets can be controlled via an app. The other devices are switched on and off using an included remote control.
Ikea and Hombli perform best
The Ikea “Tretakt” device and the Hombli plug performed best across all four test criteria (comfort, performance, safety, electromagnetic compatibility, EMC). At CHF 12.95, the Ikea socket is the cheapest in the test. Made in China, like most of the plugs in the test.
This is how the smart plugs performed
This is how the multiple plugs cut off
Deficiencies in parental controls
The test included sockets with and without child locks. Test leader Patrik Janett from the Graubünden University of Applied Sciences focuses on models with child locks: “Mother and father must be able to rely on the child locks actually working.”
This was not the case with the Powercube multiple plug: the testers were able to insert a sharp object into the socket relatively easily. Test verdict: unsatisfactory.
This is how it was tested
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At the end of 2024, experts from the Graubünden University of Applied Sciences in Chur tested 13 of the best-selling smart plugs in Switzerland on behalf of “Kassenrutsch”. Both single and multiple sockets were tested. Test criteria were:
Security:
Does the socket switch off automatically if it is overloaded? Does child protection work?
Comfort:
How easy is the socket to put into operation? How space-saving are the devices?
Performance and electromagnetic compatibility
Test losers exceed limits
The CE mark is printed on all tested sockets. It is mandatory for all products manufactured worldwide and marketed in the EU. The CE mark regulates, among other things, how much emissions the plugs are allowed to feed back into the power grid.
Opinions
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Marmitek, rating unsatisfactory:
The seller Galaxus is removing the plug from its range because the laboratory has determined that it has insufficient electromagnetic compatibility.
Ledvance, rating unsatisfactory:
The manufacturer writes that internal investigations have been started because of the poor Kassenfall rating. And literally: “The product you named was tested on our behalf by an accredited EMC laboratory before being placed on the market, so the product is compliant and flawless.”
PowerCube, rating unsatisfactory:
Due to the discovered insufficient child safety lock, the seller Galaxus is removing the multiple socket from sale.
This ensures that electrical devices function properly and do not interfere with each other. The sockets from “Ledvance” and “Marmitek” have exceeded these limits.
Test results in detail
Swiss
