THIRDREALITY ZigBee Smart Plug Review: Worth Buying?

You bought a smart plug to automate a lamp, and instead you got a device that drops off the network every third day. That is the actual problem most people are trying to solve. Cheap Wi-Fi plugs flood your router, clog the 2.4GHz band, and die the moment the cloud server hiccups.

The THIRDREALITY ZigBee Smart Plug takes a different route. It runs local, joins a Zigbee 3.0 mesh, and acts as a repeater for every battery sensor in your house.

I have run these plugs across Home Assistant, SmartThings, and an Echo (4th Gen) hub for months. Here is what holds up and what does not.

In a Nutshell

• Local control, no cloud dependency. The plug speaks Zigbee 3.0 directly to your hub. Automations keep firing even when your internet goes down, which is the single biggest advantage over Wi-Fi plugs.
• It doubles as a Zigbee repeater. Every plug you add strengthens the mesh. Battery sensors that sat unresponsive in the garage came back to life once a plug landed nearby.
• Three generations, three price points. Gen1 offers on/off only, Gen2 adds power metering, and Gen3 brings an upgraded SoC with roughly 14dB signal strength versus 10dB on Gen2.
• A hub is mandatory. No hub, no plug. Compatible options include Home Assistant (ZHA and Z2M), SmartThings, Hubitat, Aeotec, Homey, and Echo devices with built in Zigbee.
• Best for tinkerers, not casuals. If you want an app, unbox, done experience, this is the wrong product. If you run a dashboard with 40 entities, it fits perfectly.
• Metering accuracy has caveats. THIRDREALITY claims ±1% on Gen3, but Gen2 owners report the math between volts, amps, and watts rarely reconciles cleanly.

THIRDREALITY ZigBee Smart Plug

Last update on 2026-07-26 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API Some of the links on this website are affiliate links, which means that at no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. I only recommend products and services that I believe will add value to my readers. Thank you for your support!

The base model is the Gen1 four pack, sold as a 15A outlet with timer function and Zigbee repeater duty. It carries ETL certification and skips power metering entirely.

Model numbers matter here. The metering version is 3RSP02028BZ (Gen2), while Gen3 carries 3RSP019BZ.

Physically the unit measures roughly 2.6 x 1.5 x 1.1 inches. That low profile is the point, since it leaves the second socket on a duplex outlet usable.

The housing uses PC and ABS plastic with flame retardant properties, sealed by ultrasonic welding rather than screws. It feels solid and survives being knocked off a counter.

Voltage is 120V, Type B, North American only. European buyers need the E2 or E3, and UK buyers need the UZ1.

One button sits on the front face. It toggles the relay locally and handles pairing when held down, so the plug still functions if your hub dies.

Unboxing and First Impressions

The packaging is unremarkable in a good way. A small cardboard box, four plugs in a plastic tray, and a folded quick start card.

No plastic clamshell, no excessive padding, no branded tissue paper. THIRDREALITY spends nothing on presentation and it shows in the price.

Pick one up and the first surprise is the weight. It is light, around 60 grams, which feels cheap in the hand but keeps strain off the wall socket.

The finish is a matte off white plastic with a slightly textured face. It does not yellow the way glossy plugs do after a year near a window.

There is no scent. Some budget electronics arrive smelling of solvent, and these do not, which suggests reasonable factory ventilation.

The prongs slide into a wall outlet with moderate resistance. No wobble, no arcing, and no sag on older loose outlets in my 1970s rental.

The status LED is small and amber, not the blue searchlight that ruins a bedroom at night. That detail alone earns points from anyone who has covered a plug with electrical tape.

Build Quality, Size, and Outlet Fit

The space saving claim is honest. Two plugs fit on a standard duplex outlet at the same time, side by side, without fighting.

That said, they fit snugly. If your outlet plate is thick or decorative, the two units will touch.

Behind a couch or under a desk, the depth of about 1.1 inches keeps furniture flush against the wall. Bulky Wi-Fi plugs fail this test constantly.

The relay is rated 15A at 125VAC, confirmed in the internal FCC photos. That is the full rating of a standard household circuit.

Here is the honest observation, though. A 15A relay rating does not mean 15A of inductive load is safe.

Motors, compressors, and pumps produce inrush current that welds relay contacts over time. Owners running mini fridges, recirculating pumps, and space heaters have reported failures.

Treat 15A as a ceiling for resistive loads like lamps, chargers, and computers. Leave real headroom for anything with a motor.

Top 3 Alternatives for THIRDREALITY ZigBee Smart Plug

If the THIRDREALITY plug does not fit your setup, these three cover the most common gaps.

SONOFF Zigbee Smart Plug S40 Lite

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Aqara Smart Plug

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TP-Link Tapo Smart Plug Mini P110M

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The SONOFF S40 Lite is the closest direct rival. It matches the 15A rating and repeater function but omits power metering on the Zigbee variant, so pick it only if you want on/off control.

The Aqara Smart Plug adds overload protection and an Apple HomeKit path through the Aqara hub. It costs noticeably more and uses an older, chunkier body.

The Tapo P110M is the outlier. It runs Matter over Wi-Fi, needs no hub at all, and includes energy monitoring, which suits renters and beginners who do not own a coordinator.

Pairing It With Your Hub

Pairing is the strongest part of this product. Plug it in, hold the button until the LED blinks, and open your hub’s discovery mode.

On Zigbee2MQTT it joined in under fifteen seconds and reported the correct model string immediately. No custom quirks or external converters needed.

ZHA was equally painless and exposed the switch entity, plus voltage, current, power, power factor, and cumulative energy on Gen2 and Gen3.

SmartThings picks it up as a native device with an energy dashboard and routine support. This is the smoothest path for non technical users.

With an Echo (4th Gen), Echo Studio, or Eero 6, you just say the discovery phrase and Alexa finds it. Note that Alexa exposes on/off only, not metering data.

Hubitat and Homey both work, with Hubitat surfacing real time wattage properly.

The friction point is Apple. HomeKit requires the separate THIRDREALITY Bridge MZ1, sold on its own, which pushes the total cost past the point where a Matter plug makes more sense.

Zigbee Repeater Performance

This is the reason experienced users buy these in four packs. Every mains powered plug becomes a router node in the mesh.

My detached garage door sensor used to report once an hour and miss events. One plug in the hallway outlet fixed it permanently.

Gen3 measurably improves on this. THIRDREALITY quotes around 14dB signal strength under test versus 10dB for Gen2, thanks to an upgraded chip and RF module.

In practice I saw Gen3 units hold LQI values in the 180 to 220 range where Gen2 sat closer to 140 at the same distance.

Routing behavior is stable. The plugs do not hoard child devices or drop routes after a hub restart, which is a genuine complaint against some competing brands.

One caution. Zigbee shares the 2.4GHz band with Wi-Fi, so pick a Zigbee channel away from your router before blaming the hardware.

Dense mesh users report running twenty or more of these without network congestion.

Power Monitoring Accuracy Gen2 vs Gen3

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Metering is where marketing and reality diverge. THIRDREALITY advertises ±1% detection accuracy on Gen3, calibrated at the factory.

Gen2 tells a messier story. Long term Home Assistant users report that multiplying volts x amps x power factor does not equal the reported watts.

Totals also fail to reconcile. Plug three devices in separately, then together through a strip, and the numbers do not add up.

Some of that is genuine physics with capacitive and inductive loads. Much of it is coarse sensing on inexpensive hardware.

My own comparison against a clamp meter put Gen2 within roughly 10% on steady resistive loads and considerably worse below 5W.

Gen3 is better. Small loads register more consistently and the reporting interval feels tighter.

For trend spotting, both generations are fine. Watching a dryer cycle finish or catching a device stuck in high draw works well.

For billing grade measurement, buy a proper circuit level monitor instead.

Living With It Day to Day

The relay makes an audible click when it switches. It is a sharp mechanical snap, not a soft thud.

In a living room this is invisible. In a bedroom, a plug that switches at 2am will wake a light sleeper.

Response time is genuinely fast. Voice command to relay click runs well under a second on a healthy mesh.

The power restore setting is the underrated feature. You can set the plug to return to on, off, or its previous state after an outage.

That matters for fridges, routers, and aquarium pumps that must never stay dark after a blip. Support currently sits with Home Assistant and the THIRDREALITY Hub Gen2.

Gen1 has one quirk the newer models dropped. It supports a toggle mode where power cycling flips the relay state.

Gen2 and Gen3 add local timers, so a plug can revert on its own even if your hub is offline. That is real resilience, not a spec sheet line.

Firmware, OTA Updates, and the Clicking Problem

You need to know this before buying. Early Gen2 firmware carried a serious defect.

After a power outage, affected plugs would cycle on and off at roughly one hertz until the Zigbee coordinator came back online. One owner reported computers and NAS units failing after hours of that behavior.

THIRDREALITY fixed it in firmware v1.00.71, confirmed directly by their support team and by multiple owners who applied the update.

The lesson is simple. Update firmware over the air through ZHA, Z2M, or your hub before trusting these with expensive gear.

Gen3 addresses the deeper issue. Its upgraded chip lets the relay hold its state during OTA updates, so an update no longer interrupts the load.

Home Assistant users also get an option on Gen3 to keep the relay permanently on while still logging consumption.

My advice regardless of generation: put anything valuable behind a UPS or surge protected PDU, not just a smart plug.

The Downsides Worth Knowing

The hub requirement is the first barrier. Buying a Zigbee coordinator adds cost and setup time that Wi-Fi plugs skip entirely.

Metering accuracy on Gen2 is inconsistent, particularly under 5W. Phantom load hunting will frustrate you.

Inductive loads are a real risk. Fridges, pumps, and compressors shorten relay life, and the listing does not warn you clearly.

The relay click is louder than premium competitors. Bedroom and nursery installs need thought.

Apple households pay a penalty. HomeKit needs the MZ1 bridge, which undermines the value argument.

There is no built in app worth using without a hub, and the THIRDREALITY hub ecosystem is thinner than SmartThings or Home Assistant.

Customer support responds by email but does not publicize critical firmware fixes well. Owners found the clicking fix through forums, not official channels.

Finally, no surge protection is built in. This is a switch, not a safety device.

Price, Value, and Who Should Skip This Plug

Pricing sits in a sweet spot. Gen3 singles have hovered around $14.99, dropping to roughly $12.74 during sales, with four packs near $44.99.

Gen2 runs cheaper at about $12.99 single or $38.99 for four. Gen1 undercuts both since it drops metering.

At that price, per node mesh coverage plus switching is hard to beat.

Skip it if you are a renter with no hub who wants three plugs and nothing more. A Matter or Wi-Fi plug serves you better.

Skip it if you plan to switch a refrigerator, well pump, or air compressor. Use a heavy duty relay or contactor rated for inductive load.

Skip it if you need certified energy billing data. Buy a whole home monitor.

Buy it if you run Home Assistant, SmartThings, or Hubitat, want local control, and need your Zigbee mesh to reach further. For that user, this is one of the best value devices available.

Expert FAQs

Does the THIRDREALITY ZigBee Smart Plug work without a hub?

No. Zigbee is not Wi-Fi, so the plug cannot reach your phone directly. You need a Zigbee 3.0 coordinator such as Home Assistant with a USB dongle, SmartThings, Hubitat, Aeotec, Homey, or an Echo device with a built in Zigbee radio.

Which generation should I buy?

Buy Gen3 if you want accurate metering and the strongest mesh signal. Choose Gen2 if you want metering on a budget. Pick Gen1 only if you need simple on/off switching and repeater duty at the lowest cost.

Can it handle a space heater or air conditioner?

The relay is rated 15A at 125VAC, but sustained high draw and inductive inrush are what kill these units. Owners have reported failures at loads near 1500W. Keep continuous draw well below the rating and avoid compressors entirely.

Does it work with Apple HomeKit?

Not on its own. You need the separate THIRDREALITY Smart Bridge MZ1 to expose the plug to HomeKit, Google Home, and Alexa through one gateway.

Will it keep my device on after a power outage?

Yes, if configured. The power restore setting lets you choose on, off, or last state after power returns. Support is available through Home Assistant, ZHA, Z2M, and the THIRDREALITY Hub Gen2.

How do I update the firmware?

Use over the air updates through Zigbee2MQTT, ZHA, Hubitat, or the THIRDREALITY hub. Do this immediately on Gen2 units to avoid the older relay cycling defect fixed in v1.00.71.

Is the power monitoring accurate enough to track my electricity bill?

For trends and appliance comparisons, yes. For precise billing figures, no. Gen2 readings drift on low loads, and even the ±1% Gen3 claim is a factory calibration figure, not a metrology guarantee.