I'm looking for a small light up button or something I can use so my wife can see when the dryer is done. I'm going to use a vibration sensor. And was thinking of a small led sign but looking for other ideas also
I use a smart socket with power measurements (3680W) that show direct when it's finish because the energy consumption drops to 0 right when he's finished.
I use CT clamps to monitor current of the wires in my main panel. Look at something like the Emporia Vue or similar. One benefit is that if you go this route, you can get a lot of different power info at once.
I just started doing this with the Vue, works great except my washer and dryer are on the same circuit so I haven't figured out a good way to distinguish them yet. My notification just says "Laundry is finished" and you can figure out which it is when you get there š¤Ŗ
Bummer. Well then, at least in US, dryers have high amp plugs but washers have normal plugs -- so could use a normal power monitor plug on the washer and compare it against the circuit total draw.
Circuit has amps, washer does not: dryer running
Circuit has amps == washer plug amps, washer is running
Circuit has amps > washer plug amps (both non-zero), both are running
Circuit has no amps, nothing running
I agree with another commenter tho: you can probably tell them apart by their amp draw. A dryer will pull far more amps than a washer. I plot my Vue power draw into HA and I know I can tell apart which fans are running in my greenhouse based on if I see 80 watts vs 130 watts draw (or a combined 210 watts).
Yeah except the washer plugs into the dryer with a special plug, not easily accessible the way it's mounted either. So literally only the dryer plugs into the wall. Good idea though, if we had normal appliances.
Good idea, except they don't have consistent currents. Both have a really random-seeming sawtooth-like pattern, so even though the dryer is like 10x power draw, it's really difficult to tell them apart when they're overlapping (which is most of the time, we usually run multiple loads back to back)
The Vue is a good one. Especially the newly released one. Finally has Ethernet. It runs on a unlocked ESP32 I.e. esp home is possible without soldering anything. I would like to get my hands on one but I think my panel is too crammed for it.
Came here to say this. My only refinement is that I test the average of the last 5 readings at 1-minute intervals in case I get a false ā0ā reading.
One thing to be careful about is the tumble dryers that donāt have heat pumps pull a lot of power (3+ kW!). I wouldnāt trust a cheap power monitor with that given how long they pull it for. So make sure itās from a deputy brand AND rated for 13amps.
Yep, thatās what I do too. I let HA send a message to my phone and my wifeās when the power usage of our dryer drops below 5W for more than 3 minutes.
That automation can only trigger when a toggle is turned on that gets turned to on when the dryer starts using more than 300W.
I use an LED strip mounted under a photo frame in our living room. The strip is running WLED and split into two segments, left side for washing machine, right side for Dryer. Power monitoring runs automations to change helpers and change the LED colors. Blue means running, green means done/needs unloaded. Then everything clears with a door sensor on the dryer.
I do basically the same thing! Red is running, green is done. It's an animated effect when the laundry room doors are open. (Still easily viewable when doors are closed)
Thatās a cool idea and well implemented where itās not an eyesore. And I canāt help but noticeā¦ is your kid unintentionally flipping you off in one photo? š
I stuck a temp probe to the outside of the dryer vent with some of that metal tape. A little bit of tweak to get the trend sensor right and I have a dryer done notification
I have temperature plus abosolute humidity on the vent (it isnt ducted anywhere rather than in the room as is typical for Australia), plus power. I compare it to the temperature and humidity nearby to see when the temperature is high enough and the humidity is low enough for the clothes to be dry.
I actually use a method that sends a notification every 30 seconds until the dryer detects movement again (or I go into the app and hit the kill switch)
It works really well because I will forget after 1 notification lol
I have mine reset when the power usage goes up to the level based on when the dryer is opened and the light bulb inside turns on. Otherwise, yup, sends a reminder once an hour when home, or 15 minutes after arriving home.
I just use SMS text because it works with other household members who don't want to have HA installed, but I can still detect their home/away based on phone MAC address on the network.
Vibration sensor has worked great for me. Triple notification - message to HA app, voice announcement on the speakers, and an LED strip over the kitchen cabinets that is used for a number of notifications.
I use an ESP32 with a KY037 sound sensor. Itās triggered when the roomās noise goes above 39db for over 10 minutes, waits for the noise to drop below 39db for at least one minute, then sends an alert.
We light up above our cabinets in the hallway outside the laundry roomāred for wash is done, green for dryer is done. Anyone who walks by sees it and moves the laundry over. Works really well!
For energy monitoring I recommend an "appliance module" instead of an ordinary switch plug. Appliance modules are built for a continuous heavy draw. A switch plug isn't designed for long term heavy current draw and will burn out prematurely.
Source: my fridge and a cheap smart plug after about 2 years.
It depends where OP is located, in my case I needed a 220v energy monitor and couldnāt find any on Amazon, so I went the vibration sensors route and made sure to add proper coding/automation so it doesnāt falsely trigger when my laundry is doing a different cycle
It depends, if the vibration sensors is attached to a esp32 you can automate it to wait until 5 mins after las vibration to actually send the notification, thatās how I set it up, I donāt have the light but I get phone + Alexa notifications
I coiled a 1m rope light in an existing lamp. Different colors indicate status of different things. The white lamp works still as a regular lamp. Here the blue is telling me to put my industrial bin out.
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funny, half the responses were suggesting other ways to evidence the dryer finished, the rest addressed your question. Iād 2nd or 3rd the Third Reality nightlight/pir with LED, I think either sonoff or Shelly makes a similar one also. kind of expensive compared with a smart bulb though.
I recently got myself a esp32 and vibration sensors, (first full diy project), I have a tower (washer + dryer) so I set an automation that tells me 5 minutes after it ends, and works perfectly, I get a phone notification and also my Alexas let us know that the laundry is done, you could add a LED to it as well
I've got a Divoom Pixoo 64. It's got an API I can call in order to send animated GIFs to it, so I use that when the washer and dryer are done.
The Pixoo 64 isn't cheap, but I use it for a few notification types (e.g. as a bin indicator to remind me which bin goes out that night) and it's fun to rotate through some nice GIFs
Vibration sensors were not working for me as I got lot of false alarms. Like a lot. Final thing which works is Ikea smart outlet behind washing machine and some blueprint from HA forums. It measures energy and sends notifications to phones and also says it via Nest speaker.
I have my gas dryer and washing machine monitored for power usage with a TP-Link Kasa power strip. When it detects the dryer drops to zero power after 15 minutes, and when she is home, it simply texts here that the dryer (or washer) is done.
If she is not home and a cycle completes it then waits until she is detected home for 15 minutes and then texts her.
Same with a single TP-Link Kasa plug on the dishwasher.
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u/brinkre 13h ago
I use a smart socket with power measurements (3680W) that show direct when it's finish because the energy consumption drops to 0 right when he's finished.