green plugs and failure
I understand the theory behind them, have my doubts as to their effectiveness and suitability at this price point.
For one thing, they do not "fail through" as many modern power surge protectors do at end-of-life. When these shuffle off this mortal coil, they kill the power to your refrigerator completely.
Worse, their pilot light stays lit...even tho' they are no longer working. No warning or signal that your refrigerator or freezer is thawing merrily away.
I suppose you could live without such a warning on the units for a dishwasher. But I like seeing that little green light glowing on my freezer...it says my coffee beans are at -20° and happy.
These two things, alone, would make sense and not be too hard for the manufacturer to implement.
Of more concern to me is the failure to adjust intelligently to the actual voltage on the line side at any given time. Shaving 10% (for example) off a circuit which is 10% high or even higher (10% plus or minus is tolerated in North America) would save money.
Shaving that same amount off a circuit already running below spec/marginally in spec would definitely not do your refrigerator any good. At all.
The principles are valid, the savings are genuine, this application is too much of a "one-size-fits-all" together with some serious design problems.
(Compressor powered refrigerators, regardless of their vintage, draw a great deal more energy when starting than when running. In simple terms, this is described by an old Newtonian principle: an object at rest tends to stay at rest...plus a very high resistance which may still be present on the pressure side if the compressor is "cycling" on and off.)
I have read, however, that the company is very fair about repairing for damages cause by these plugs if you provide them with proof that their device cause the damage.
