I bought 5 cheap home appliance products from AliExpress to see if they were any good

I’m a big fan of YouTube videos breaking down cheap products that people can find at discount retailers like AliExpress, Temu, and Wish. My favorite is Great Scott’s AliExpress Hidden Gems Serieswhich constantly surprises me. I think it’s time to try my hand at some inexpensive home tech finds (or fails) from AliExpress.

My ground rules for this experiment:

• Products must cost less than $15.
• The devices should be cheaper than the mainstream equivalent.
• Strange devices are more likely to make the list.

I’m happy to report that it was an authentic experience with a mix of good products and some really bad ones. From best to worst, here’s how my AliExpress order went.

Best: Tuya Zigbee Smart USB Adapter Switch

USB chargers for lights and small devices take up too much space in my smart plugs, so I’ve always wondered if I could get a USB smart plug. I received Tuya Zigbee Smart USB Adapter Switch — which includes three USB-A ports — for a measly $5.02. Tuya devices like these are hidden gems for smart home enthusiasts, although they aren’t always the easiest to work with. I’m glad it was easy to connect to my SmartThings home automation system.

It’s not much more than an on/off switch, but I like the fact that I don’t need a bulky multi-port USB charger to run several small USB devices on my nightstand. You can’t control the ports independently — and the output power is too low to charge most devices, but it’s a good option for portable speakers or slow-charging headphones. Plus, it can connect to virtually any USB power supply, including empty ports on my computer.

The Smart USB Adapter Switch earns an A for value and functionality. As a Zigbee device, it is also less at risk from cybersecurity than any Wi-Fi device from AliExpress and Temu.

Better: USB-powered ceiling fan

Ceiling fans have always been out of reach as I live in an archaic apartment without them. This means relying on a fleet of circulators in my bedroom and office. But what if tenants could add a ceiling fan without having to ask the property manager to install it? Enter small ceiling fan I got it for $14.

I like the design of this fan, especially the 12-foot USB cable, which is long enough to reach a ceiling hook without much effort. The fan is surprisingly quiet and uses three power settings. It’s not particularly powerful though, with the highest setting producing a light breeze of a few feet. The speed and timer controls are easy to learn, which is great because the entire manual is written in Chinese. You can get the gist of the guide by using Google Lens to translate the text, but that’s largely unnecessary.

I give this product a B+ for being useful, albeit in niches where normal ceiling fans aren’t practical.

Good: Tuya Zigbee water sensor

Unlike the Tuya Smart USB Switch, Tuya Zigbee Water Sensor it didn’t connect properly to my SmartThings system on the first try. SmartThings classified it as a generic Zigbee device – it couldn’t see when the sensor detected water. This is a textbook example of Tuya devices not always working well with smart home hubs.

So I rolled up my sleeves and dug in SmartThings Edge Driver Buildera developer tool for assigning drivers to smart home devices. After selecting my Tuya leak sensor from the list of devices in my smart home, I selected the Zigbee Water Leak Sensor driver and configured it as a water sensor. Like magic, the sensor started working. It’s pretty responsive and I like that it uses regular AAA batteries.

The extra effort might be worth the $4.59 I paid for the Tuya Zigbee Water Sensor, but I can’t give it more than a C+ for someone who wants smart home compatibility out of the box with SmartThings. I can’t tell if it’s great on other smart home platforms, but I suspect it’s even better on Home Assistant.

Worse: smart Wi-Fi clockwork

I recently started transitioning most of the analog clocks in my home to non-ticking clock movements, which are less annoying than the second hand ticking when you’re trying to sleep at 2am. Let’s try smart Wi-Fi clockwork to automatically set the time as the digital clock on my Google Nest Hub. What followed was one of my most frustrating setup experiences in years.

Out of the box, the watch I bought had no hands for seconds, minutes, or hours. I spent way too much time trying to mount some leftover hands from a previous DIY project only to find that the clock didn’t work.

The included instructions, which come on a sheet of printer paper, were not helpful. They don’t say you have to remove the gray “locator pin” from the back of the watch before it will work. This pin locks the gears in place at noon, presumably to keep the clock aligned during shipping and when placing the hands, which makes sense for a self-adjusting Wi-Fi clock. It was two hours before I got to work.

I’m even more disappointed with the Wi-Fi connection, which isn’t even close to secure. Anyone can open the watch’s Wi-Fi connection to see your network name and password. I’m so glad I used my phone’s hotspot for a temporary network. I give this $14.01 product a D- for working as advertised, even if it takes a while and comes with a major Wi-Fi vulnerability. However, it’s not the worst product overall.

Worst: Smart portable clothes dryer

I got the Beauty-Health Store Smart Portable Clothes Dryer for only $12.32. I won’t waste your time: this is the most dangerous product of my AliExpress order. How do I know this? It literally melted in about 2 hours in my first drying session. The plastic in this product is not heat resistant in any way. It didn’t even dry a single shirt completely, so there’s no reason to buy a cheap portable clothes dryer when laundromats can handle much larger drying loads for a fraction of the cost.

When I went online to see if other customers had this problem, I noticed that the product page was no longer available. Now that my suspicions have been confirmed, I won’t even delve into the features of this terrible product. Instead, I’ll use it as an example to confirm why buying general electronics from AliExpress, Temu, Wish and other cheap retailers is risky. With certain categories of technology, you are betting on your safety and privacy. As you can imagine, this device earns an F for being unsafe.

Now, excuse me while I navigate AliExpress’s 90-day return policy, which is a bright spot. Hopefully it does better than the last two products.