Welcome to Tech on a Budget. I'm your host. Today, we’re exploring five sub-$15 gadgets from AliExpress. Top of the list is the Tuya Zigbee Smart USB Adaptor Switch, a $5 device with three USB-A ports that links to SmartThings. It earns “an A for value and functionality.” Next up, a $14 USB-powered ceiling fan that's “surprisingly quiet” with three power settings but only “produces a light breeze”—I give it a B+. The $4.59 Tuya Zigbee water sensor didn't connect out of the box, but after driver tweaks I had a responsive leak detector—C+ grade. Then there's a $14 smart Wi-Fi clock movement that took two hours to set up and exposes your network password to anyone—a “major vulnerability” and a D-. Finally, the $12.32 smart portable clothes dryer literally melted mid-cycle, earning an F for being “unsafe.” This experiment shows that cheap tech can be a mixed bag—buyer beware.
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