The washing machine tells me how long it’s going to take when I start it, but it’s often wrong and takes longer. I’ve been descending into the basement countless times, usually from the first floor, only to notice it’s not done yet.

This is just a small thing but I want to share anyways: I just plugged it in a Zigbee plug with power meter and put an entity icon into the default dashboard. It’s conditional and only shows up when power!=0.0.

No more pointless stairs!

Screenshot from a dashboard, showing some entities like temperature etc

Screenshot from the same dashboard, with an additional yellow icon showing its currently using 53W

I have moved it next to the basement temperature but it’s not running right now and I don’t want to forge the screenshot so it’s showing before the change.

  • 4am@lemmy.zipEnglish
    13·
    6 hours ago

    Be careful, I’ve fried a dozen smart plugs because the relays aren’t able to cope with induction motor startups.

    • Munkisquisher@lemmy.nzEnglish
      3·
      5 hours ago

      What are you using? The athom tech one has been great for about 2 years so far here in NZ with 240v power. And I have a very powerful Asko washer. They have a relay and non relay version, I’m on the relay one.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        3 hours ago

        240v power makes this better, because it means the starting current is exponentially lower for the same torque. It’s mostly a American/Japanese problem.

        • 4am@lemmy.zipEnglish
          1·
          2 hours ago

          Yep, American here. No running appliances with motors on my 120V smart plugs.

          I used to use a lot of CloudFree, but I moved and most of my smart home stuff is now in a box somewhere. It’s not really been practical to set any of it up. Long story.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        2·
        3 hours ago

        OP, note that this starting current spike is much more of an issue with older/more industrial washing models. When your drum spins up, does it make a simultaneous cachunk and deep humming noise, or does it make an irritating high-pitched mosquito whine? If it’s the mosquito whine your drum motor is driven by an inverter that really smooths out the starting current.