WiFi Heater Switch 20A - White

This WiFi geyser switch is a white glass touch panel that puts the water heater on your phone. It replaces the geyser's existing wall switch, so the plate on the wall stays a plate on the wall and still works by touch when the internet is down. What it adds is everything you cannot do with a rocker switch: turn the geyser on from bed twenty minutes before you get up, set it to heat for an hour each morning and evening rather than sitting on all day, and see from the app whether somebody left it running.

• The countdown is the setting that pays for it
• It is still a wall switch
• The rating, honestly
• Fitting a WiFi geyser switch
• What to tell your electrician

The most useful setting is the countdown, which the manuals call inching. You tell it a duration, say thirty minutes, and from then on every time the heater is switched on, by touch or by app, it turns itself off again after that time. For a household where somebody always forgets, that one setting pays for the switch.

It is rated 20 A, 4,400 W, which is the rating printed on the relay physically inside the panel rather than a number off a box. Ratings in this corner of the market are often quoted optimistically, so if you are comparing this against something cheaper that claims more, ask the seller which figure is on the relay.

4,400 W is comfortably above a typical Tanzanian geyser element, which is usually 2,000 to 3,000 W, so the panel is rated for the job. Two honest caveats even so. First, sustained full-load switching is harder on a relay than occasional switching, so on the largest elements it is worth asking your electrician whether to drive a contactor from the panel instead of running the load through it. Second, the supplier copy describes the glass as waterproof: no manufacturer publishes an IP rating for these, and what they mean is that the glass is safe to touch with wet hands and wipes clean. It is not a bathroom-rated fitting.

It needs a neutral at the switch position, and it is a mains switch on a heater circuit, so it belongs to an electrician.

The countdown is the setting that pays for it

The manuals call it inching. You tell it a duration, say thirty minutes, and from then on every time the heater comes on, by touch or by app, it turns itself off again after that time.

In a household where somebody always forgets, that one setting is the whole argument for the switch. It does not depend on anybody remembering, on the schedule being right, or on the phone being in the room.

It is still a wall switch

The panel replaces the geyser existing wall switch, so the plate on the wall stays a plate on the wall and still works by touch when the internet is down. Nothing about the house becomes dependent on the app.

What the app adds is the part a rocker switch cannot do: turn the geyser on from bed twenty minutes before you get up, heat for an hour each morning and evening rather than sitting on all day, and see from anywhere whether it was left running.

The rating, honestly

It is rated 20 A and 4,400 W, and that is the figure printed on the relay physically inside the panel rather than a number off a box. Ratings in this corner of the market are often quoted optimistically, so if you are comparing this against something cheaper claiming more, ask that seller which figure is on their relay.

4,400 W sits comfortably above a typical Tanzanian geyser element of 2,000 to 3,000 W. Two caveats even so. Sustained full-load switching is harder on a relay than occasional switching, so on the largest elements ask your electrician whether to drive a contactor from the panel instead of running the load through it. And the supplier copy calling the glass waterproof means only that it is safe to touch with wet hands and wipes clean. No manufacturer publishes an IP rating for these, so it is not a bathroom-rated fitting.

Fitting a WiFi geyser switch

It needs a neutral at the switch position and fits an 86 x 86 x 35 mm position, on tempered glass over a flame-retardant ABS body. Wi-Fi is 2.4 GHz only with no hub, running in Smart Life or Tuya with Alexa and Google Home. This is a mains switch on a heater circuit, so it belongs to an electrician.

What to tell your electrician

Two things. That there must be a neutral at the switch position, which not every older geyser drop has. And what your element draws, because if it is at the top end it is worth driving a contactor from this rather than putting the whole load through the panel. Ask them before ordering, not after the wall is open.

The same panel is stocked in black if the room suits it better, and there is a Zigbee version for anyone already running a hub. Both sit under AC and heaters, and the app is at tuya.com.