The Brand New Sonoff iPlug S60TPF type F/E WiFi Smart Plug

You could be forgiven for thinking I just did a write-up on Sonoff – I did – but then realised I’d released it too early as two of the products therein are not released until December 20, 2023 – apologies for that – meanwhile, the new WiFi Smart Plug is released TODAY (December 04), just arrived in the post this morning so this will be a very basic review.

I have the EU version – 250v 50-60Hz, 16A, 4000W. As usual I’ll state that until I hear otherwise I’m assuming that’s 4KW resistive load – don’t go sticking a 4KW motor on there – but I expect this plug to be good enough for a typical washing machine, dishwasher etc. as well as low-power devices like lighting.

Let’s make a start… the plug as with all Sonoff products works with the eWeLink APP and is suitable for local LAN control. Voice control is stated on the box but that’s just Amazon Alexa and Google Home compatibility. The unit has overload protection and power monitoring. In the box you get the S60TFP unit and a multilingual (i.e. brief) manual. As always, Sonoff manuals are available online.

On the surface of it, nothing new here but the unit does look solid and well-made. It has a small grey on-off button on the side and a QR code printed on the other side.

I plugged the unit into one of my handy power extensions and a small blue light started to flash (3 flashes in a row – repeating), just behind the on-off button. No fancy back-lighting here. Off I went to the eWeLink APP on my Android phone and hit the + on the top right of the main screen. I was given a choice of ADD DEVICE or SCAN – so I used my phone to scan the QR code on the smart plug as per the instructions. Nothing happened despite holding the phone really steady and ensuring I had a sharp image – the right way up.

Next I tried adding “the 11-or-21-digit code” next to the QR code image, manually. There was a 14-digit code on the device near the QR code – so no.

I wondered if I needed an update to eWeLink as the instructions were very clear but no joy. I checked and my phone has v5.1.0 of eWeLink – that’s the latest version it seems…. so that wasn’t it.. So I went back and tried again – this time using “add a device” – NOT “scan”. That worked. eWeLink almost immediately found the S60TPF by scanning for it’s internal WiFi access point – and then asked me to set the phone to use that access point – I did and returned to the APP at which point I was asked to select which one of my 2.4Ghz WiFi access points to use. I told it and that was it – device S60TPF added to eWeLink. No power consumption yet of course. So, nothing wrong with the plug but perhaps a little rethink on the manual.

Meanwhile I simultaneously realised that though the shape and colour are different, this is the EU equivalent of my recently reviewed S60TPG UK plug and and a quick look at that review wherein I’d quickly realised that both my Alexa and Google devices responded to “turn on the S60TPG” – and indeed without any setup, they both work with the new S60TPF.

Not a lot you can do with a plug… “Alexa… S60TPF ON” – “Hey Google… S60TPF OFF”. If anyone knows how I can ask Alexa or Google for the power consumption on such a device – I’m all ears. I tried “Alexa, what is the power consumption of the S60TPF” – at which point Alexa started ranting on about some car. “Alexa, what questions can I ask about the device S60TPF” produced an even more hilarious response.

Expanded English manuals for both the S60TPF and S60TPG are available here.

Finally, lots of settings for this device in eWeLink APP including power-on state (off, on, last state), inching settings, LAN control on/off, network indicator on/off (the blue LED), offline alert and much more.