Remote Controlled mains sockets x 4 Aldi @ £15.99 17/11+ WSL

amanda40

Ideal if you have fitted kitchen with integrated appliances. I have to empty a cupboard (NO MEAN fEAT!) take ou the shelf and backpanel eveytime i want to defrost the freezer. Also dishwashe r and washing machine are hard to get to the sockets too. Will check out if they have any left - B&Q do a pack of two or three for twenty pounds.

gromituk

Amanda, you ought to be able to turn your fridge's thermostat to zero before you defrost it, so you don't have to unplug it. Regulations demand that you have accessible switches for built-in appliances, so either your kitchen pre-dates these regulations, or it wasn't wired in accordance with them.

Are you sure there will be enough room for these behind the appliances?

captainsensible_3

Maplin have these (or similar) for £24.99 reduced from £39.99 -
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=42504&doy=18m11
There is a picture if you want to see what they look like.

timmo44

We have loads of various coloured net lights all around our little garden and in the conservatory along with lava lamps that we switch on in the evening but it can be a pain going out to the conservatory and unplugging them all before bed - especially this time of year when it's freezing out there.

These remote plugs sound ideal - I hope they haven't sold out by the time I get there.

smokieUK wrote:

I can understand gromituk - these look a great idea but what practical use are they?

I use mechanical timers on table lamps, so each evening the lamps come on and go off at a set time. Even when I am away, giving the appearance of being occupied.

sandybrag

I hope there wouldnt be a problem if the neightbour also had a set?.

Could you imagine the chaos with each person switching one anothers lights and appliances on and off! :rotfl:

mk-donald

captainsensible wrote:

Maplin have these (or similar) for £24.99 reduced from £39.99 -
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=42504&doy=18m11
There is a picture if you want to see what they look like.

They are definitely SIMILAR but the Aldi specification referred to ability to DIM (although I believe will just be on one unit, it was with my Lidl set last year), and the ability to turn ALL on/off whereas the Maplin set just seems to have four buttons, ie one per switch.

My Lidl set had 12 buttons with 4xOn/Off pairs + 2 all on/off + 2 dim up/down. Sorry can't tell you about the Aldi set as not seen anything beyond that 17/11+ website listing (now expired)

ALDI certainly had some left after one day of selling them at their Milton Keynes branch this morning - as got my parents to pick up a set as a Xmas present for friend who was covetting my Lidl set.

Stabilo

I have been thinking of buying these for a while, price is right now, thanks to OP.

I plan to attach one to babies CD player so we can remotely turn it off once she has fallen to sleep. The CD has a sleep function but we don't know how long she will take to nod off. Her room has a monitoring device but when the CD is playing it is difficult to hear our baby (unless she cries). So rather than disurb her by going into the bedroom we can switch the CD player off when we hear her sleeping soundly.

The CD we mainly play for her is an effective white noise CD (few quid off Ebay).

I also have a few sockets that are controlled by telephone access i.e. you can ring home when you are a few minutes away and the kettle is boiled when you get in. Can't find a link for them but I believe they came from the always over priced retailer known as Maplin.

We also have one of these http://www.maplin.co.uk/module.aspx?ModuleNo=34899&doy=18m11 so we can have telephone access in any room of the house. I think the spec states they don't work with modems, they do, we got speeds of about 40K with ours compared with 50K without. Well over priced at £60 when you consider cordless phones and wireless routers etc, anyone seen them for £20 or £30?

mk-donald

sandybrag wrote:

I hope there wouldnt be a problem if the neightbour also had a set?.

Could you imagine the chaos with each person switching one anothers lights and appliances on and off! :rotfl:

Sandybrag

Remember the range is only that far in open space.

This Aldi set almost certainly operates in the same radio frequency/licensing bands as car alarm/locking remote controls (my Lidl set does, and similar units friends bought out in Italy for around 4 TIMES! the price do too).

So the real hassle is that depending on which of the random or sequential code sets the remote/switch are tuned to, you MAY experience "interference" from visitors/neighbours parking their cars within range. It certainly happens to me from time to time (and to my friends in Italy who thought they had faulty units and had already swapped their set twice before I explained to them) and you have to relearn your units to a new codeset. (Sounds technical but it isn't, you just "relearn" the switch according to the manual.)

In my case it only ever affects one switch and only turns it OFF, never on. As I use mine exclusively to control lights it's not really a fatal flaw, but I would certainly NOT recommend connecting a device like a freezer or kettle to them (even if the switches are rated for that wattage) due to that uncertainty/potential for a "stray tranmission" (or negligent keypress!) to switch off/on something that could cost you dearly in defrosted food or burnt out units/house!

Finally don't forget Aldi's no quibble 1yr returns policy - WITH RECEIPT - for a full refund if you're dissatisfied with the product.

gromituk

sandybrag wrote:

I hope there wouldnt be a problem if the neightbour also had a set?

Read the thread carefully - I have already clarified this one.

RightRevBod

I have purchased four sets from Lidl over the past couple of years (they have had them on offer at least twice in that time).

One thing that I would like to correct is that they do not seem to have random codes. That is to say that the "1" button on one controler will generate the same code as the "1" button on the other controlers.

We use a set of these for our outside lights. We have a controler in each car to turn the lights on when we arrive home in the dark, and another in the house to switch them off again.

You can train as many sockets as you like to each code, so if you had enough sockets you could switch the whole house off with one button.

In the Lidl offer, one socket from each set of four had a dimming function. We are using these in the boys bedroom to dim the bedside lights.

I have bought a set of the Aldi ones to try, but have not unpacked them yet. It will be useful if they use different codes to the Lidl ones as having only 4 codes has started to be a liddle restrictive.