r/homeassistant • u/vinny0015 • 16h ago

Dryer notification idea

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

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38

u/brinkre 16h 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.

14

u/Kingboy_42 16h ago

I use the same method but with the Appliance notifications and actions blueprint which works very well and even allows you to send notifications to different devices.

5

u/Adventurous_Grape279 16h ago

I have never found a dryer plug smart outlet. If you have a gas dryer with a standard plug this works though

8

u/biblicalrain 16h ago

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.

4

u/yorb 14h ago

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 🤪

5

u/cdewey17 13h ago

Gotta throw the wet laundry on the ground if the washer is done first. Those are the rules.

2

u/i_do_technical_stuff 11h ago

Vibration sensors on each, can tell them apart if it's just a on/off notification and don't need to record power draw

1

u/yorb 10h ago

Ah but they're stacked, what vibrates one shall vibrate both, unfortunately.

3

u/i_do_technical_stuff 10h ago edited 10h ago

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).

2

u/yorb 10h ago

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.

1

u/TheBlueKingLP 14h ago

Maybe current difference?

1

u/yorb 10h ago

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)

1

u/TheBlueKingLP 6h ago

Maybe multiple thresholds?
For example,

3, < 10 = washing machine 10 < 12 = dryer 13 = both, etc

3

u/TheBlueKingLP 14h ago

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.

3

u/gre_am 11h ago

This is the way. Emporia flashed with ESP Home

2

u/CorithMalin 7h ago

In the UK and Europe, dryer plugs are the same as standard plugs because all our plugs are on 240v.

2

u/Yutenji2020 15h ago

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 ‘0’ reading.

2

u/CorithMalin 7h ago

One thing to be careful about is the tumble dryers that don’t have heat pumps pull a lot of power (3+ kW!). I wouldn’t trust a cheap power monitor with that given how long they pull it for. So make sure it’s from a deputy brand AND rated for 13amps.

2

u/GlenGraif 3h ago

Yep, that’s what I do too. I let HA send a message to my phone and my wife’s 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.

1

u/6SpeedBlues 11h ago

I do the same, but my dryer is gas.... So, only need a 110V outlet. Fur a 220V electric, I suspect you would need an induction sensor or similar.