Thank you for posting this. I was searching for the reason for the banner on their site last week, but didn’t locate this article at the time.
I presume that the Chinese company will rebrand and start selling under a new brand again - I haven’t had any issues with their products, but they do need to respect naming rights in the countries which they trade to.
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Yes, I hope so as well, I really love their smart plugs for ESPHome.
Luckily I made a purchase only a few weeks ago. So far around 10, v2 and v3 UK sockets are working well, and oldest now must be 2 or 3 years old. But only used for devices with a low loads.
Just tossing my 10 pence into the ring after I found you all via some googling.
My Athom Technology UK Smart Plug V2 keeps randomly switching off. Really not a fan of it. I only bought one to trial and had it monitor a kettle so I know when my tea is ready. I had big doubts because of the price.
It’s not up to the task. Will probably be retired.
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In fairness - a standard kettle is a huge load. It’s possibly rebooting because of the thermal load of 13A (~2700W) across the contacts. No way would I be using one with more than around 8 or 10A for much duration.
On the other hand, the plugs are rated for 16A, they shouldn’t make this claim if it can’t handle a kettle, which takes less than that and just for a couple minutes.
I will say, it’s an unusually powerful fast boil kettle. So good point.
It’s shutting down when not in use however. Just seems a bit janky. I’m tempted to move back to the Z-Wave plug. Much more expensive but more reliable.
I look at these small smart plugs and marvel at how any of them could handle high loads. There is too much going on in a small space; small solid state relays, small PCB chases. My v2 and v3 have been faultless but kept on very low amp duties, one device did fail from a software update. Slightly differently I have just had a Shelly relay fail; 7 to 8 amp Quooker tap (fancy hot water tap !). I thought I could risk it. Since the circuit is dedicated to the tap, I have the luxury of replacing the Shelly with a dedicated 20amp contactor.
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