[gumby271]

I put together an esp32 + accelerometer in a little 3d printed box. Made two sets and taped one of each on my washer and dryer, now they detect the start and end of a cycle and send me a notification through home assistant. The tablet in the kitchen get a notification too and makes a special sound when the clothes are done!

[goda90]

Oh I like that. We have LG washer and dryer but I have 0 interest in connecting then to Wi-Fi. Right now we have a z-wave button sitting on the washing machine that starts a timer when we press it, but since the washing machine has variable run times, it's imperfect.

[dgacmu]

Someone else on HN mentioned a couple of months ago that they were using a power meter for the same purpose. There are a lot of cheap zigbee and zwave outlets that will report power, though you'd have to implement the thresholding logic on your controller.

[gumby271]

It works pretty well, and it's nice having full control of the smarts. My washer and dryer don't have a built in buzzer for some weird reason, so it's been a nice upgrade.

[kbutler]

We have a "smart" washer & dryer, and the Alexa voice announcement when the cycle finishes is handy.