Aeotec Smart Switch 6 keeps switching off

Hi guys, newbie to Smartthings here. 2 weeks in and loving it

Forgive me if this has been asked before. Searched hard but couldn’t find my exact problem.

I’m running a couple of Z-Wave Aeotec Smart Switch 6’s for my washer and dryer, primarily for power metering and Alexa announcing that the cycle has finished (I have a laundry external to the house).

The plug and automation works fantastically for the washer, but for the dryer, despite using fundamentally the same automation, the plug itself switches off after around 4-5 minutes, cutting power to the machine. Nowhere in the automation is there a signal to cut the power, I use a separate virtual Alexa switch to trigger the announcement.

Have any if you guys had or ar aware of the same issue? What can cause the plug to shut down? A power surge maybe? There’s no evidence on the plug metering.

Thanks in advance for your help

You mean the power plugs?

When that happens, go to the power plug and feel the temperature of the plug :electric_plug:.

Maybe there is an overheat caused by an overload or the contact resistance between plug and receptacle is too high.

Grtn Ben

PS swap the plugs from the washer and dryer for trouble shooting.

PS/2 Or the settings/values in the plug are too low, ie the current limiter is set to a low amperage.

Configuration Parameters

Z-Wave products are supposed to work out of the box after inclusion, however certain configuration can adapt the function better to user needs or unlock further enhanced features.

IMPORTANT: Controllers may only allow configuring signed values. In order to set values in the range 128 … 255 the value sent in the application shall be the desired value minus 256. For example: To set a parameter to 200 it may be needed to set a value of 200 minus 256 = minus 56. In case of a two byte value the same logic applies: Values greater than 32768 may needed to be given as negative values too.

Parameter 3: Current Overload Protection

This parameter is used for the overload protection, which means the load will be disconnected after 2 minutes when the current more than 14A.
Size: 1 Byte, Default Value: 0

Setting Description
0 Overload Protection Disabled
1 Overload Protection is Enabled
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You could just be running in to a general problem that occurs when more than one of these are in your network. They are very chatty devices and they can cause your Z-Wave traffic to get bogged down and do weird things. Something like the unintended offs you are seeing could be related. I had three of these in my network some time back and they caused havoc until I pulled them completely and my issues went away. The devices themselves were very slow to respond to commands and other devices sometimes suffered too. Nothing I did to tweak the parameters through the custom DTH I used helped. Once I got rid of them all was good. I went with Zooz ZEN15s instead and I’ve not had any of the same issues.

I have heard having just one in your network may be okay. It seems the issues are something to do with them trying to pass messages between themselves. It was disappointing having to sell them as I like the form factor but they are expensive and I could not live with the performance or the problems they caused across my network.

It’s worth saying that I used to see a lot of ‘ghost’ offs on the app, ie, the device was not actually turning off even when the app reported as such. No one could ever explain that to me. I do realize you are saying you are getting actual offs. But I think you are likely having problems just having two of these devices.