I’m seeing some strange behavior with some devices hooked up to a Kasa power strip. I have two strips: one in my attic that works great, and one in my living room that usually acts very good. But I’m seeing two devices on this plug turning on and going idle multiple times.
At first, it was only my stereo receiver when I was not using it - now today, I am seeing it happen with both my cassette desk and my stereo receiver. And now, the stereo receiver is doing this while it is active and playing. I have other devices plugged into this power strip that are not doing the same thing, mainly a turntable and a television.
I’m leaning towards this being an issue with the actual Kasa smart plug - but wanted to see if anyone else has seen any behavior like this. It’s obviously reporting wrong.
Just to be clear, this image below shows my timeline while I am actively playing music on the receiver. (I have the cassette deck turned off.)
Could the strip be having issues with WiFi connectivity? You can check what it’s reporting for signal strength in the Kasa app: Device > Config Gear Icon > Device Info, and then tap on WiFi logo to see the RSSI in dBm units.
You should read this. Idle is a different state than Off, On, or Always On for your device on smartplug. Idle has calculated thresholds based on the long term usage of your individual receiver. Idle is likely to be a level of power usage that is above zero and above the Always On usage of your receiver, but lower than when you have the receiver cranked up. In quiet listening, it could quite likely drift in and out of idle depending on the music/sound passages.
Finally watched the video - pretty strange but the data from the HS300 should be pretty accurate at a 2 second level (the HS300 uses a real metering chip). What does the Device Power Meter look like for the same time period ? You’ll only find the Device Power Meter in the iOS or Android app, not in the web app.
Device Power Meter is a little all over the place. Not really sure what I am looking at, but here is a sample from when I had this on earlier. Keep in mind the video above is pretty constant while using the receiver.
Even weirder is this sample waveform with the stereo receiver plug on the kasa strip being on, and the stereo receiver is turned off (standby?)
If the device is off, there is no reason for this power to be fluctuating like this.
I ended up ordering a new kasa strip today, as I can’t think of any reason why this would be happening. it seems that 2 of the plugs on this Kasa strip are doing this, but the rest seem stable.
The cassette deck waveform, when it is off/standby is very similar to this same one for the Receiver.
Interesting… What kind of receiver do you have ? I only have my Yamaha AV receiver as reference. On standby it draws around 6W very steadily. When on, it runs at a pretty steady 100W, all measured by an HS300.
@gjhead I also recently started using 2 HS300s and noticed similar issue. It is actually occurring on my eero router going on/off which I know isn’t happening since our WiFi isn’t going down and router doesn’t go through it’s connecting to the other beacons. Also noticed it however infrequently with the ring indoor camera. This strip houses several Always on items. I took it as just how the devices operate.
So, I just upgraded my receiver to a Yamaha R-N303. My old receiver was a JVC which I have had for almost 20 years. With my JVC, I was having the exact same issue I am having now, but only when the receiver was in off/standby mode. When it was on, I had no issues.
This issue was what got me to update my receiver. I figured the JVC was just starting to get old and was just showing the sign of it’s age. So I figured I may as well get a new one. (Regardless of the reason I still needed a new one anyway - old one still had “VCR” buttons!)
So I hooked the new one up yesterday, and then I saw the plug acting up even more - and when “on”. At the same time I saw that the cassette deck plug was starting to act the same way.
I have a spare Wemo plug so I am going to hook the receiver up to that today just to double check. I just can’t see any other reason for this besides a faulty Kasa strip.
Thanks for diagnosis - I’m a little confused about the last bit ? Does Wemo have a power strip that works with Sense ? I think only the single outlet Insight model is compatible.
Just wanted to circle back on this one for some closure. new Kasa Strip arrived today and I removed the old one and plugged everything into this new one, and everything is working as expected. No more fluctuating of voltage - so far everything is steady. So, i’m concluding this to be a faulty Kasa strip. Thanks to everyone that commented!
