The -0001 model gets mixed reviews over at Amazon. It is suggested that you should “understand what it does” before you buy.
I bought some of these from woot a couple months ago. I wish they were just 4 way surge instead of trying to be “smart”, since they aren’t. If you have a cell phone plugged into it, once it’s charge it constantly cycles between charging and not charging to top up that last little bit of empty battery from when it wasn’t charging. Not only is this annoying because many cellphones make a noise when they start charging but having it cycle every 10 or 15mins means you’re lowering the life of the battery (cell phone batteries have a max number of charging cycles before they’re dead). Also, when you plug something in, it doesn’t always trigger and detect that something wants power, so it’s like it’s not plugged in at all.
If woot was amazon proper I’d have returned them (I got three, I was feeling hopeful apparently) but since woot isn’t amazon proper I’m stuck with them.
Yeah, buy with an end-use in mind, and use with caution. I’ve found a few uses for this:
In my garage I have a portable (but heavy) car emergency battery with jumper cables attached, which is supposed to be “topped off” with a charge every month or so. If you miss a few months, it can irrecoverably die (which happened to me once before). This device gives it just a touch of juice every 30 minutes or so, then shuts off. Seems like a safe and energy efficient compromise.
Another is connected to two of my back-up rechargeable devices, a lantern for blackouts, and an old cell phone I’m not ready to recycle yet (in case I break my current phone).
The third one is in its original packaging, waiting to be given away or dropped off at the church thrift store.
Maybe an EE can chime in if using this on things like cell phones diminishes the battery life in any significant way?
Not an EE, but I doubt it. It may tick the charge count up, but that depends on whoever designed the battery logic and if they accounted on situations where this might happen.
Got these ages ago. They are garbage and I will second the first review that was left here; I wish it were just a 4-way surge protector. (brain wave literally just this second, I am going to go crack it open and see if I can mod it to do this!)
It is not smart at all and has no means at all to detect when something is plugged in (that I can tell) instead what it does is just cycle every 10-15 (like previous review said) and then if there is nothing there it will cycle off after about 2 mins. It makes an audible click when it cycles one way or another.
Also, it does something wonky with my power outlets. I am not sure if this is something to do with my apartment building (which is pretty new) or what but I could not use it in certain outlets. When I plugged it in on the same circuit as my PC monitor, every time it cycled either on or off, it would trigger my monitor to go to sleep and come back. It was very weird because nothing else (plugged into the same power strip as the monitor) lost power. Just the monitor would lose just enough to go blank, then it would be a couple seconds before it would re-warm up and come back. (very frustrating playing fps games online)
So it was just completely unusable due to some fluke in the wiring that I still have yet to fully understand to this day!!
I used it in my bedroom for a while, but now because I have a new phone and a new setup for how I am charging things, I cannot use the “smart” outlets for anything…
Really just do not get this. I even used one constantly for over a year for my cell phone. It’s not like you will notice a difference in your power bill and the device itself takes some power, so unless both “smart” outlets have power cords, you are not getting any energy savings. So you are just paying to be inconvenienced… spend it elsewhere.
Sounds to me like these are not suited for stuff like cell phone or laptops but are definitely can be useful for certain applications … still on the fence though … maybe i’ll pull the trigger in the morning if they’re not sold out.
sigh (lol?)
I miss the old woot … when stuff used to sell out more times than not.
Epiphany:
In writing this up, I realize that I avoid turning off my stereo (ie putting it in standby) with my remote, so that I don’t have to walk to the wall and press the iGo power on button…therefore I’m wasting way more electricity by keeping the stereo on vs standby, this iGO is going in the trash…or at least I’m only using the always on side.
How it works:
When powering something like a remote controlled stereo, which is designed to be on or standby, the iGo sense standby and secures power making the stereo off.
Pre-epiphany notes:
The only thing the iGO Power smart is useful for in my house is a wireless soundbar / stereo. For the iGO to secure power to the stereo, the stereo must be powered off by the remote, not just the bluetooth signal turned off at the source (I often use bluetooth connection to my laptop).
If I turned off the stereo with the remote (ie turned it to stand by), when I want to resume using the stereo, I have to walk over to the wall and press a little button on the iGO - somewhat of a pain in the butt.
=> So basically this device vs a manual switch on the wall serves to save me 50% of the trips I would make to the wall if it was not “smart.”
To reiterate other posts, this is not useful for:
Laptops
Lights
Cellphones
Almost anything else that you can think of
Might be useful for:
Emergency equipment that occasionally needs a top off charge (this was noted in a prior post)…but then again most emergency equipment is designed with their own trickle charge electronics