Best way to open a Plug?

I have a failed relay in one of these plugs. The relays are definitely not capable of handling 16A - I had one fail after half an hour at 13.7A.

I have a PG04V2-AU12A UK plug that was bricked on arrival. Decided to try to take it apart, found it was glued with some kind of solvent based adheive, like it was fused together. This made taking it apart impossible without damaging it.

I have exactly the same plugs as you @Andrew and was able to open case just using fingernail and going around the edge of enclose. But my case is different - my relays died (on 2 devices out of 6), so was looking for the relay model. Model is Y32F-SS-105LMH, but these relays aren't available anywhere... Waiting, maybe some days they will appear on Aliexpress. For now using one of these plugs just to monitor power (as long as it stays NC), but second one - no usage at all, as it stays in NO, maybe will bridge the relay with some thick copper wire and will use for the monitoring as well. Most probably will add some wifi contactors to get full functionality and reliability (as these 16A relays definitely not capable to handle 11A twice daily.

Ive bought 2 EU plugs from aliexpress, I've had the same problem, i dont need the relay, only power measurement, and the relay takes a additional 0.4 watts.

I was able to break the shell open, and solder a 1.5mm2 wire over the relay contact, bypassing the relay all together. and superglue the case back together again.

Maybe in the future a option to order a plug without a relay, pure power measurement?

Hi Andrew, I was curious how you got on with mods to your plug? Did you managed to open them and did you try to flash them. I bricked one of mine & have managed to open the plug cleanly but it's not obvious where all the ftdi connections should go.

Hi Athom, thanks for the advice, that will be my plan, to adjust the code so the relay comes on and and can't be turned off. I guess I was more looking at removing the relay, to remove the small power draw required to keep it on. While your plugs are really good in this space compared some others I have needing nearly 2w just to energize the relay, so that usage adds up over a year when you have a few plugs. Are these units glued/melted together? Or are the snap together. Best way to open one or no chance of opening it without breaking it?

Thanks

https://github.com/athom-tech/athom-configs/blob/main/athom-smart-plug-v2.yaml

You can modify the yaml configuration, recompile the firmware to update, you don't need to remove the relay, you delete the part about the relay configuration