Vent: Bought that $40 smart plug from a random brand and it caught fire after 3 months

Picked up this off-brand smart plug off Amazon back in June to control my living room lamp. Was just sitting there working fine until last Tuesday when I smelled burning plastic and saw it actually melting into the outlet. Now I'm out the plug and had to rewire the socket myself. Has anyone else had a cheap smart gadget almost burn down their apartment?

2 comments

2 Comments

ray_patel271mo ago

Is it just me or does it feel like cheap tech stuff is getting worse instead of better? I noticed the same thing with my phone charger last year, it started smelling like burnt plastic after a month. Seems like everything is made to barely work until the return window closes then it falls apart. My buddy had a cheap WiFi camera that just started smoking one day while he was at work. Companies are probably cutting corners on the little things like the plastic casing or the wiring inside to save a buck. Makes you wonder if saving money upfront is really worth risking your whole place.

the_spencer1mo ago

That 40 dollar price point on a smart plug is actually right in the danger zone. In my experience working with electrical stuff, UL listing is the minimum for a reason. Those cheap ones often skip proper flame retardant plastic and use thin gauge wire that can't handle the heat. Ray brings up a good point about cutting corners, but it's not always the plastic casing. It's usually the internal relay and solder joints that fail first. When those melt, the plastic is just collateral damage. My buddy had a similar thing happen with a no-name power strip and it almost took his whole home office.