Product Library / Plugs & Outlets
Research profile · last verified 2026-08-16Meross Smart Wi-Fi Surge Protector Power Strip (MSS425FHK)
⚠ Similar names, different products: Meross ships this power strip in HomeKit and non-HomeKit variants whose product titles read almost identically, and the letters at the end of the model are the only reliable tell — this record covers the HK-suffixed MSS425FHK, and it is the HK that carries Apple HomeKit. The same family also varies by outlet and USB count across regions. Check the model string on the box rather than the listing title, which is the same mistake this catalogue already documents on the Meross MSS620 outdoor plug.
Exactly which product this is[1]
- Model number
- MSS425FHK (US version; sold as MSS425FHK-US)
- Generation
- Not established
- Region this page covers
- US
- Also sold or listed as
- Meross Smart Power Strip MSS425F · MSS425FHK-US
“Not established” means we have not sourced that detail yet — not that the product has no model number, generation or regional variant. We publish the gap rather than filling it.
Compatibility
| Ecosystem | Support | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Home | WorksWorks with this ecosystem[1] | Native HomeKit rather than a cloud bridge, and Meross states the version floor itself: 'Compatible With Apple HomeKit(iOS 13 or above), Siri'. Each of the four AC outlets is individually controlled, so they appear as separate accessories; the four USB ports are group-controlled and are not four separate things in the Home app. Remote access needs an Apple home hub — Meross names 'a HomePod, an Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD or an iPad' — which is Apple's requirement, not a Meross limitation. ⚠ Buy the HK model: Meross sells non-HomeKit variants of this strip under near-identical titles. |
| Amazon Alexa | WorksWorks with this ecosystem[1] | Named directly by Meross in its voice-control line and reached by account linking through Meross's cloud, with each outlet addressable separately by voice. Being cloud-routed it stops working when your internet does — unlike the Apple Home path on the same device, which is the sharpest practical difference between the two on this product. |
| Google Home | WorksWorks with this ecosystem[1] | Named in the same Meross sentence as Alexa and Apple, reached the same way, with the same internet dependency. Per-outlet control; the USB bank is one thing rather than four. |
| SmartThings | WorksWorks with this ecosystem[1] | SmartThings is named on this product's own Meross listing — 'Compatible With Apple HomeKit(iOS 13 or above), Siri, Alexa, Google Home and SmartThings' — which is what separates it from the Meross MSS620 outdoor plug elsewhere in this catalogue, where we left the answer open because two Meross pages disagreed about that model. The route runs between Meross's service and Samsung's, so it carries the same internet dependency as Alexa and Google here. Meross publishes no SmartThings setup article, so expect on/off and scheduling rather than a documented feature list. |
| Home Assistant | PartialPartial support — see the catch[2] | There is NO official Home Assistant integration for Meross — the page one would live at does not exist, and Meross names Home Assistant nowhere in its own materials — so nothing here is a route the maker supports. The community meross_lan project is well maintained and genuinely runs on your own network, and it names this model family in its own supported-hardware list: 'MSS425: Smart Wi-Fi Surge Protector (multiple sockets power strip)'. Even so, setting it up is not server-free: meross_lan needs a device key taken from a Meross account. We call this partial because a well-supported community project is not a supported integration — the same call we made on the Meross outdoor plug, applied here with the model named rather than assumed. |
Protocols: WIFI[1]
Needs before it works: No hub or bridge is needed to use it — Meross states 'Works with any 2.4GHz or Dual Band WiFi router. No hub required.' The one condition is Apple's rather than Meross's, and Meross spells it out: 'To enable HomeKit remote control, a HomePod, an Apple TV 4K or Apple TV HD or an iPad is needed as a Homekit bridge to connect it to your home WiFi network.' Without one, Apple Home control works at home and not from away — and Meross names its own app as the alternative for that case.[1]
What it can do[5]
You can tell it to
- On/off
It reports
None documented by the vendor
Listed capabilities are what we could establish from vendor documentation. An ability missing here is unestablished — not necessarily absent.
Subscription reality[1]
✓ Works without a subscription: Yes.
Vendor account required: Not established — we have not sourced this yet.
No plan, paid tier or recurring charge is named anywhere in Meross's own listing for this product, including around the scheduling, timer and sunrise/sunset features that would be the obvious things to gate. We record no subscription on that basis; the honest limit is that this is the absence of paywall language on the maker's own listing rather than an explicit 'no subscription' statement. A Meross account is needed for the Meross app, which is a different thing from a subscription and is recorded separately.
Maintenance reality[1]
- Works without the internet: Partly — some of it keeps working and some of it does not. See the detail below.[2]
- Four AC outlets and four USB ports, and the control granularity is uneven in a way that matters: '4 individually controlled Outlets and 4 group controlled USB ports' — so each socket is its own switch, while the USB ports move together as one. USB output is 'Up to 4.0A for four USB ports' shared. Electrical and safety as published: 'made of flame retardant PC material and has been approved for safety and quality assurance (ETL and FCC certificate) and it supports any home device up to 15A'. Cord length is in the listing title as a 1.8 m extension cord. Radio: 'Works with any 2.4GHz or Dual Band WiFi router' — the dual-band phrasing describes the router, not the device, and Meross's Wi-Fi devices in this family join 2.4 GHz. Regional fit is stated by the maker: 'Suitable for use in the USA, Canada, Mexico and other countries that use US-type plugs.' Scheduling includes sunrise and sunset triggers. It depends on Meross's servers, with the Apple path as the exception — the same shape we already recorded on the Meross outdoor plug: Alexa and Google run between Meross's service and theirs, and the Meross app's away-from-home control is explicitly a remote feature ('control home devices from anywhere anytime. No distance limitation'), while HomeKit control on your own network is not.
- Security updates: Meross publishes no security-update support date for this model. That is a gap in what the manufacturer has published, not evidence either way — some makers declare a support period and some say nothing at all.[4]
The catch
The four AC outlets are individually switched and the four USB ports are not — they move as one group — so if the point of buying it is controlling a phone charger separately from a tablet charger, that is not what this does. It is Wi-Fi and largely cloud-routed: Apple Home is the one local path, while Alexa, Google Home and SmartThings all run through Meross's cloud, so an internet outage takes three of the four platforms with it. Home Assistant has no official integration at all; the community route is real and local but needs a device key pulled out of a Meross cloud account first. And the model letters decide what you get — the HK suffix is what carries HomeKit, on a listing whose title looks the same either way. What is genuinely strong here is per-outlet control at this price with ETL and FCC certification, a 15 A rating, surge protection, and native HomeKit rather than a bridge.
Who it's for
A desk, media wall or bench where four things need switching independently — and especially an Apple Home household, since HomeKit is the one path on this strip that keeps working without the internet. It also suits a household that wants scheduling with sunrise and sunset triggers on individual sockets. Look elsewhere if you need the USB ports controlled separately from each other, if you want Matter, if you want a local-first setup outside Apple Home, or if you are on Home Assistant and unwilling to run a community integration that starts with extracting a key from the vendor's cloud.
Sources & method
Numbered sources below back the facts marked with the matching number above. This is a research profile: compiled from manufacturer documentation, certification registries, and published testing — we state facts, not verdicts, and we have not physically tested this unit. How we work →
- [1] shop.meross.com product listing 'Meross Smart Power Strip, MSS425FHK (US Version)', read via the store's structured product endpoint — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-16Backs: Product identity, Price, Protocols, Maintenance, Required hub or bridge, Subscription, Market availability, Apple Home compatibility, Amazon Alexa compatibility, Google Home compatibility, SmartThings compatibility
- [2] home-assistant.io integration documentation (absent, 404) plus the meross_lan community project's own supported-hardware list — ecosystem-page research, verified 2026-08-16Backs: Home Assistant compatibility, Works without the internet
- [3] Record created 2026-08-16 from shop.meross.com (structured product endpoint) with the Home Assistant cell settled from counterparty sources — vendor research — new record, verified 2026-08-16Backs: Research status
- [4] Meross first-party surfaces read 2026-08-20. meross.com/en-gc/security carries no support-period, end-of-support or lifecycle statement of any kind; its only update-related content is a notice that new HomeKit firmware has been released to "drastically improve the connection stability", which announces a release rather than a duration. shop.meross.com is a registered refusing host, so the storefront rung could not be walked. — vendor policy-page research (BQ-192 security-support sweep, method note 69 rungs a–c), verified 2026-08-20Backs: Security-update support period
- [5] Meross store product page, MSS425FHK — "4 Outlets and 4 USB Ports: Equipped with 4 individually controlled Outlets and 4 group controlled USB ports."; "Voice Control: … just make a voice command to turn on/off the connected devices."; "Schedule and Timer Setting: WiFi Surge Protector supports turning on and off the home or office devices automatically." — vendor-page research, verified 2026-08-21Backs: Capabilities
- [6] the record's own customer-facing prose fields as they stood before 2026-09-05 (no new external read) — consumer-translation pass (07 §2A.12) — customer-facing prose rewritten to the three-layer rule; NO FIELD VALUE, LEVEL, PATH OR TRANSPORT CHANGED. The research trail that used to sit inside those fields is preserved here verbatim., verified 2026-09-05
Compatibility and lifecycle information reflects the last-verified date above and can change without notice (firmware updates, cloud-service changes, discontinuations). It is provided as-is, for information — verify with the manufacturer before purchasing. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it. Full terms: Terms of Service.