Smart Switch For Washing Machine
Scat Laboy
I want to do a rule, or install an app to Hubitat, that will simply send me some signal (that I can then use for anything like to trigger an email, flash a light, I don't know yet how I'll do it) when the washing machine finishes. Based of course on the power activity of the plug.
Search these forums for "Laundry Monitor" there are at least two apps that handle this exact scenario. If you have Hubitat Package Manager, these apps both should be available in there, or they were the last I knew.
I did this quite successfully. But it was only useful on the first washer load. My dryer has a loud buzzer. And it always takes longer for the dryer to finish than the washer. So after the first load it was kinda useless.
Not gonna claim any rule I script is as good as some of what the sharper tacks in this forum can come up with...but this worked after I figured out the timing & power thresholds that the washer goes through. The announcement in "Nicole's voice" is a real hit; tho she's suppose to be Australian it's reminiscent of the dryly obnoxious computer voice in BBC's Red Dwarf if I recall right.
While there are apps, as above, here is a simple rule I wrote that works for my machine. You may need to adjust values depending on the power levels yours actually uses (this is small front-loader) as well as the the reporting settings on your outlet.
The rule in the post above is certainly another way you can handle this (and even mine could be written a bit differently given that the "duration" option could be used on that first wait instead of two waits in a row, but this rule pre-dates that feature and still works fine) ... so, lots of options.
I may have applied a belt + suspenders approach having seen how the Priv Bool protects me from what I don't yet know will hurt me (as experienced in other cases/rules). Or I might have been testing and found that I ended up spawning multiple instances of the rule unintentionally with human intervention at the machine.
Probably not trusting a clean start & stop of the rule with a human lingering over a momentary button in the middle and the rule-end being highly dependent on a new device's measured wattage levels that I had not fully worked out yet.
Hi,
I also have the same issue. I have 2 Aeotec smart switch 6 devices next to each other (washing machine and tumble dryer) It is always the switch of the washing machine that stops reporting the energy.
It never is 0 at that time, but always has some value. Mostly a restart of the Aeotec app fixes the problem. Every once in a while I have to cut the power to the Aeotect smart switch 6, to get it working again.
Thanks for the update, The one I am concerned about is the one plugged into the TV, When in use it could be using 130W when in standby its around the 25W mark so there is a sudden jump when you turn the TV on.
You would have to be thinking its not fit for purpose if a smartpower plug cant measure power usage properly when a device is turned on lol.
I have the same issue with aeotec heavy duty switch is updating some values but not all. Energy(watt) updated 8 hours ago, kwh 2 minutes ago, volts a few seconds ago, Amp 3 hours ago, temp 7 minutes ago. Watt should be same time as Amps, as I have 0 amps and 3184 watts now . Tried restarting the app but did not work . Homey pro 2023
This is a driver for the Aeotec Heavy Duty Smart Switch ( -z-wave-switch) model ZW078. It's a port of the Smart Switch 6 code with appropriate functions add/removed. You can safely use the built-in HDSS driver for this device, but there were a couple of functions missing and I didn't like having dimmer and color settings on the switch controlling my dryer, even if the device would ignore those commands.
Edit 5/14/19: (This is now a whole new device driver since my original post)
Edit 6/12/20: I'm no longer on HE, so this driver is unsupported. I will say that no combination of my driver or the from-scratch drivers by syepes ever did get me what I felt was consistent power reporting with the HDSS, unlike the perfect reporting I got from my ZEN15's. I don't know if that's a problem with Hubitat or with the HDSS. I did resort to putting in a Rule Machine rule to poll the device every minute, and that seemed to get things "good enough" (I only used the HDSS for reporting power usage to monitor laundry).
My dryer is electric. I pondered how to best do this for days on end. My dryer is 2 feet from my electrical panel and it's an older house so I needed to replace the 240V outlet anyway, so I had a number of options. But because it's an old house and I have some electrical and plumbing projects planned, I didn't want to risk doing something that wouldn't be code compliant and cause problems down the road.
I couldn't figure out a good way to hardwire the HDSS that would be code compliant, so I cheated. I got a few feet of 10-gauge 4-conductor flexible cable from Lowe's, and ran that from the dryer to the smart switch (It fit perfectly in the gasket on the switch, and I put terminal connectors on the cable to make it more secure on both ends), then I wired the dryer plug to the smart switch. Basically, I made the switch part of the appliance rather than part of the house. I think that should be legit. The one thing I did do for good measure was secure the switch to the wall rather than to the dryer - didn't want the vibration to cause any problems.
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Thank you for this. I have it working. I did have difficulty pairing the switch. Had to dig out my old WinK 1 hub to exclude it before I was able to pair with Hibitat. For the dryer I used the power meter setting in rules to create an Alexa TTS message. The other half is very happy. A Sonoff tasmota'd S31 for the washer notification and this Aeotec Heavy Duty for the dryer. "The dryer is done!"
I just switched to your driver. The peng1can driver was misbehaving. Not sure why. Switching drivers got my dryer notifications going again and seems to have resolved some hub slowdowns. And maybe there was a bit of corruption on the device and switching back would yield the same results. I don't know enough to know.
Before using a smart switch or plugin energy monitor on a high energy device (such as a washing machine/dryer/dishwasher), always check how much power your machine will draw from your smart switch/energy monitor.
These automations will change theinput_select component to the value according to where the dishwasher is up to. Once someone turns the dishwasher off, the power will drop below 1 (aka zero) and the dishwasher will be marked as clean.
My washing machine is a newer model, with an energy star rating. If your washing machine is older, it may draw more power than a smart switch can handle. You may risk burning out the smart switch, or under-powering your machine and causing damage.
Or maybe just split the power input by adding a second plug/cord, according to the wiring diagram, the Dryer and Washer both have separate circuits joined at the input from the single plug/cord, see attached.
Yeah I have. In my personal experience, I found the automation firing to be slower than Home Assistant, and flows etc a bit more difficult to work with. Could be because I much prefer to write the code than to visualize it.
Hi Phil, first of all thanks for this amazing post! Im trying to get the dishwasher part to work and im struggling with my dishwasher not to consume power when in clean state (so standby power = 0), so it goes from drying to dirty. Any ideas of how I can improve it to work with my dishwasher?
Actually yes that might be the issue as well. Sounds like with the polling set that high, your z-wave device is slamming the network and HASS. Might be best to reduce it to something like 10 to see if that makes a difference
I came up with a simple way of doing this, at least from a software standpoint. My washer and dryer have buzzers that are powered by 120VAC so I found some small relays with 120VAC coils and used quick connect splitters to wire one across the buzzer in each machine. I took apart a cheap wireless door/window sensor, removed the reed switch and ran wires to the relay contacts. Now when the washer or dryer buzzer sounds, the relay also activates and sends a state change via the 433MHz door sensor. Works great, and very simple to set up in Home Assistant.
Excellent!!! I was able to integrate my washing machine with these instructions. I am new to Home Assistant and was wondering if you could help me. I would like to see the way to repeat notifications up to a maximum of 3 times (15min, 30, min 60min) or that the door of the washing machine opens. The 30min and 60min notifications after the cycle ends should say another message. I hope not to disturb you with my message and thank you for your excellent work.
More than five years in, this is still one of my most useful home automations. Thanks Phil. Question, today in 2023 with all the advancements to Home Assistant over the past 6 years, would you build this differently? For example, it seems like this could be built as a single blueprint rather a collection of automation?
I wish Blueprints were more than just automations. It would be awesome to see whole packages of automations/sensors that could be bundled and shared via the UI for ease. But alas for now it will still be blog posts and gists for sharing things like that for now.
With SmartThings, you're no longer forced to linger near your washing machine, listening for the signal. Your phone, Samsung Smart TV, or Family Hub refrigerator can alert you when the wash cycle is done, if the Smart Control status changes, or if any errors occur.
Open the SmartThings app, then tap the Devices tab, and then navigate to the location with your washing machine. Then, select your washing machine. Tap Laundry Recipe to open the feature. Select the types of laundry you are washing, and then tap Next. As you select the types, tips may appear to help you get more out of your washing machine.
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