Kasa Smart Plug Mini, Smart Home Wi-Fi Outlet Works with Alexa & Google Home, Wi-Fi Simple Setup, No Hub Required – A Certified for Humans Device (HS105)

I’m always a little hesitant when it comes to brands that I’m unfamiliar with, but I decided to give these a try. To be honest, I have zero complaints. They integrate easily with my already established smart home, they’re a breeze to set up, and, because they work with Alexa, I’m able to add them to routines that I’ve already created. Plus, at a much lower price point than the Amazon brand ones, you can’t beat it.

I am updating this rating from the poor rating I gave before. I ended up purchasing a new router and reset my two Kasa smart plugs. They are now working again. I will monitor them for a month or so and if they still work will review my overall rating again. Set up device and it worked fine for a month. Then it stopped working. Called Kasa support and ran their trouble shooting advice many times nothing worked. The lights on the device were not working per the device specs. Finally I was told to contact my internet provider to reset my modem. However, all our other home devices work fine including another TP-Link mini plug. Therefore, I am hesitant to reset my modem. I asked for a replacement as I am still well within the warranty period. Tp-Link refused to honor the warranty. Instead, I will just stop using this device and not purchase other TP-link products. It is my opinion that this is a bad product backed by a poor company.

So I needed a new smart plug (because my TECKIN quit working after 6 months) I looked at a few videos and decided on this one. I plugged it in and was working through the app when my Alexa Show 5 said it found a new device. I stopped working on the new software and opened the Alexa app. Sure enough there it was. I renamed it and tested its functions. It worked with no problems. Sooooo so far Im happy it works with the group settings and by itself, so its doing exactly what I wanted. If it messes up Ill do an update to this, but so far its the easiest plug Ive used yet.

As I recall, this was somewhat easy to install, and link to Alexa. Generally, a good device. However, for various reasons it took me an hour to link the device to another WiFi address as it couldn’t detect my new networks. Completed after much troubleshooting. Next, I tried to update my Kasa account e-mail address as I had an ISP change. I was startled to discover that their instructions are to remove all devices from the prior account, and then start a new account! This is ridiculous! I should be able to update the e-mail address associated with this account versus going through this process yet again! I doubt I will ever buy this product again.

Not that it doesnt work or that it does, I have no idea if it works or not. I got it bundled with the Dot and I keep looking at it and wondering what I should plug into it. Honestly I have no clue what I should plug into it. I can see well at night and dont need to plug it into a lamp. If I plugged it into a TV or computer I would still have to turn those only manually. Im not about to become the clapper commercial so I really dont know what all the cost is worthy of the very expensive plug. I think that is half the problem I paid so much for the plug Im not thinking that I dont have anything that is plug worthy. Maybe Ill just put the stupid thing on Craigslist or Ebay. I dont really see the need for this thing. The only thing I can think of is a lamp and have the light come on when it gets dark out or when Im out of town so it looks like someone is home but I dont know. I have close neighbors who keep tabs on my house so I dont know. I would plug it in the radio but I have the echo dots that can wake me up with music that I actually want to listen to. I also have an echo that I can use as an alarm clock even though I have never used an alarm clock. I know when I need to wake up and I wake up at the appointed time. Maybe someone in Amazon land can give me an idea what is expensive plug worthy of the expensive plug.

Its really a fairly decent product, but they are a PITA to install. Totally not really intuitive. Supposed to be easy, but clearly not designed for average people. Im guessing engineers decided what easy should look like. So vexing. Terribly bulky packaging.

Attached my lights so Alexa can turn them on when asked to. Or you can program when you’d like to turn on what’s plugged in. I set it to turn on when my alarm wakes me up I’m the morning. Easy to figure out, I’m not the best with setting up electronics. And this was a breeze.

Though I use the Kasa smart bulbs in most areas of my home, I bought this plug to use for string lights (no on/off switch) that are on top of my upper cabinets in the kitchen. The plug for the lights is in a cabinet above the microwave, and was a pain to turn them on and off. Installed the smart plug on that outlet and now only have to ask Alexa to turn them on and off, and no longer have to get the step stool out and move things around to access the outlet in the back of the cabinet to plug them in/out. Smart anything is a great convenience in our homes, but in hard to reach areas these make so much sense. And set up is a breeze!

I’m writing a review so others are aware that the Kasa app only allows 3 smart functions for all plugs. Not 3 per plug, 3 for all. This is such a flaw I can’t believe they released the product like this. Completely terrible. For example - I was using 2 plugs, one for exterior Christmas lights and one for my inside Christmas tree. I wanted 2 actions per plug - turn on at sunset and turn off at sunrise. Total of 4 actions. Due to Kasa limitations I could only have 3 smart actions toggled on at the same time. Completely inadequate. In this age of the smart home the actions should be unlimited. Luckily I just ran the 4 routines through Alexa as a work around. If not for this my review would be 4 stars. Cannot give 5 bc the product is so bulky. Also bc Amazon sent me one plug that had already been configured elsewhere (I assume it was a return). I had to run the reset on the Kasa app 4 times before it worked and allowed me to connect the plug to my network (about 15 minutes of wasted time). I also don’t care for the blue light that stays constant. What is its purpose? If I want to sit in a dark room, for example in bed about to go to sleep and am using the plug to power a fan, I don’t want a blue light in my face.

I bought this back in December so I could use our Google Home to turn on our Christmas tree by voice command. It was really easy to connect to our Google home and it works great! I now have our living room lamp plugged into it, and the app makes it super easy to change the name of what I want to call it.