What I have been referring to so far is mostly the power strips – some kind of multi-plug device that itself is plugged into a wall outlet, that has several plug sockets in it to connect more devices to. Let’s also differentiate these two things, because different people can mean different things in different countries. It’s just not usually the most effective way to connect them. In most countries these strips have to conform to certain standards that protects the user, so there is no problem plugging powerline adapters into them just like any other device. I have heard of no safety issues of using them into extensions or power strips.
The short answer is yes – it’s safe, just not very effective. I have had some readers asking whether it’s even safe to use powerline adapters into power strips. When Will A Powerline Adapter Not Work?.Can You Have Multiple Powerline Networks on the Same Circuitry?.They work much better when plugged directly into power sockets. Powerline adapters can sometimes work in extension strips it is just not the most reliable way of using them and they will likely suffer from too much interference and signal loss in most cases. I technically could use them, but it was too annoying for me having the connection constantly dropping. This error disappeared as soon as I stopped using them in the power strip and instead went straight into the wall socket at both ends. I had both powerline adapters at each end plugged into multi-plug power strips, and whilst they did work some of the time, I kept constantly getting an “Error-DNS-Probe-Finished-No-Internet” error on my browser, where the internet connection would intermittently cut out and then come back again. Scenario #2 – I had a more recent example which I struggled with using them in a power strip. In most other cases it probably would not have worked. The two adapters were very close together in the house so there was not much distance for the signal to travel along.Nothing else was plugged into the extension apart from my adapter so there was no congestion.It was a cheap extension strip that did not have any filtering in it.There were a couple of factors that made this possible though: There was no other plug socket nearby so I had to use an extension strip to plug the adapter into, and it actually worked fine with no problems. Scenario #1 – I had a case a few years ago where I could not use a powerline adapter directly into the wall socket because it was mounted too low and I could not get the ethernet cable to fit in the port as it was on the underside of the adapter, which was already snug against the floor with the low mounted wall socket. Let’s cover of my experiences with this, that had opposite outcomes: You will find cases though where people have got them working through extensions and strips. In these cases no signal or only a very weak signal will be delivered between the adapters. In more advanced power extension models they will often not work however, as they will have special filters built in to block out the EMI and RFI signals that powerline adapters rely on to communicate with each other. They just do not tend to give off the best or most reliable signal. They have certainly been known to work in some cases when plugged into power extensions. This is often the case in cheaper model extensions which do not have any advanced filters in them to block out certain signals. Powerline adapters may or may not work in power extensions or strips, but generally work much better when plugged directly into wall outlets A Powerline Adapter May or May Not Work Plugged Into an Extension/StripĪ powerline adapter may work when plugged into an extension or power strip.