You’re learning what I’ve learned the hard way (after buying 30+ smart plugs).
I’ll preface it first by saying the TAPO is probably one of the best smart plugs you can get today.
But these smart plugs are simply not rated for continuous operation. They can handle about 15 to 30 mins of full load but then they’ll start to warm up. They’re meant for high power intermittent loads like air conditioners and water heaters — they can’t sustain high loads for hours, there’s just not any ventilation and these are super compact devices, heat build-up is inevitable.
For that kind of use-case you should keep the load under 5A, preferably under 3A, even for the TAPO ones that are rated for 16A.
The GM smart plug warms up the least but it’s not made to the same high standard as the TAPO one.
For power monitoring, the solution is to have it done through current transformer (CT) sensors at the distribution board. For power control, I haven’t found anything that’s as convenient as a smart plug.
No, it’s a simple voltmeter that can also diagnose wiring faults (missing earth, live-neutral reversal, etc). But it’s the safest way to check these things thats why I recommend one for diagnosing supply issues.
My rule-of-thumb is that if it has a digital display, it needs surge protection at minimum. Or if it has a BLDC motor.
In @radiation13j’s case, the stabilizer should be for the entire house, at the distribution board. And while he will benefit from it stabilizing the voltage, the critical feature he’ll be needing is the delayed power-on after a power outage. This gives the supply 30 seconds to smoothen out before it is connected to your loads.
After I installed the high-voltage cut off modules above, I haven’t had a single burned bulb or appliance and that’s a first for me living in this house all these years. But in his case, just a high-voltage cutoff isn’t enough because he’s also having high-voltage related issues that a stabilizer will be able to mitigate.
For your situation, if you can rule out that you don’t have excessively high or low voltage (I’ve only seen burned sockets in those conditions) then the fault is just poor quality sockets.
But again, it’s very strange. We have super cheap maru brand stuff for loads like oven, mixer, toaster etc in the kitchen and they haven’t burned or melted ever. And there’s literally nothing cheaper than maru in the indian market.
If you can get a socket tester, start with that to see what kind voltages you’re seeing at different parts of the day (early morning, lunch time, after sunset and midnight).
