Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Is It Dry Yet?

badgerbadgerbadgerbadger.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 147 posts

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#131

Post by Scoundreller »

dfc wrote: post #129
valicord wrote: post #87

Not to knock other people's hobbies, but our dryer plays a loud jingle when done, no Internet connection required. Do other models not have this feature?

The thing that I am not sure of is why it's so important to know when the dryer finishes? And if it's that important how does it slip your mind that the 45 dryer cycle started at the top of the hour? Is it a kids thing?

“Modern” dryers will vary their run time and stop once they stop sensing some threshold of humidity in exhaust air.

A load of jeans will take longer than a polyester shirt load.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#132

Post by theshrike79 »

culebron21 wrote: post #30

Mechanical kitchen timer will suffice. You usually know the duration of most used programs. Doesn't need a hundred taps in the phone to get it working. Mental effort to set the timer is lower than with phone timer. You dial it and carry in a pocket. Zero distraction when you set it up or get notified -- you won't sink into the timer scrolling for half an hour. And in the end you'll get the notification.

I would need to remember to set the timer every time.

This solution is fully automated.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#133

Post by theshrike79 »

msrenee wrote: post #88
reyostallenberg wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working, but so boring. For some of us it's nice to build needles stuff instead of using a better (but boring) solution ;) I like the needles stuff, you like the mechanical 'easy' solution

I was wondering what was going on in their life that the alert sound from the washer and dryer weren't sufficient for the purpose. My GE dryer sings a happy "laundry's dry" song when it's finished. You're right though, this way is more fun.

I wear noise cancelling headphones and can’t hear anything.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#134

Post by jtriangle »

jchw wrote: post #72

I've wanted to do this sort of thing for a while, but I am a bit concerned about using many of the smart plugs on the market with large motors, and I assume most dryers contain a fairly large electric motor (not sure how large.) I'm in the midwest U.S., so my dryer is a gas dryer; so presumably, the only real thing being driven off the electricity is indeed a micro-controller and a fairly large motor of some kind. I…

Temperature sensor, tape it to the exhaust duct, when temp falls below X for Y minutes, send an alert, sleep until temp rises above Z.

Super simple, cannot be fooled if your values for XYZ are set appropriately.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#135

Post by Scoundreller »

mbil wrote: post #31

Hah, this reminds me of one of the first programs I wrote for personal use. My Macbook at the time had an accelerometer or gyro of some kind. So I made a program to monitor the output from that sensor, and it would send me an email when the motion stopped. I'd run the program, set the laptop on top of my running dryer, and go upstairs. In retrospect it was probably not smart to leave a laptop on top of the dryer for…

Make an app that does this and people can tape their old cell phone to it and report. Could just work with sound if no accelerometer/gyro.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#136

Post by gambiting »

ajuc wrote: post #39
blowski wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many British houses are already damp and small, and heating them to dry clothes doesn’t save energy. Putting clothes outside when it’s -2 degrees or raining consistently also doesn’t help. I think I’ve seen the kinds of indoor drying lines you are perhaps referring to, but I don’t know how compatible they are with Northern Europe.

Dunno what counts as "Northern Europe", but in Poland nobody uses powered dryers, it's all natural. And it gets to -20 C in the winter here sometimes. Dry cold is not actually a problem for drying clothes.

>>but in Poland nobody uses powered dryers

I'm Polish and we've always had a dryer at home, no idea how my mum would have gone through that pile of loundry she always did otherwise. So YMMV.

And the problem in the UK is that relative humidy is so high you literally start getting mold inside your house if you just use an airing dryer, as most people do, a lot of houses have that characteristic "musky" smell because they are just too damp. In poland the air is a lot dryer(especially in winter!) so you don't get this problem.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#137

Post by jtriangle »

dfc wrote: post #129
valicord wrote: post #87

Not to knock other people's hobbies, but our dryer plays a loud jingle when done, no Internet connection required. Do other models not have this feature?

The thing that I am not sure of is why it's so important to know when the dryer finishes? And if it's that important how does it slip your mind that the 45 dryer cycle started at the top of the hour? Is it a kids thing?

Wrinkles. If you yank your clothes out of the dryer and get them hung while they're still warm, they don't wrinkle nearly as much than if you let them cool down in a heap in the drier.

45 minutes is more than enough time to get thoroughly engrossed in a myriad of activities, so, easy to forget, and not all drier cycles are predictable. Timed dry is, but, anything smarter than that isn't (and most driers still in service are smarter).

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#138

Post by jtriangle »

Scoundreller wrote: post #131
dfc wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing that I am not sure of is why it's so important to know when the dryer finishes? And if it's that important how does it slip your mind that the 45 dryer cycle started at the top of the hour? Is it a kids thing?

“Modern” dryers will vary their run time and stop once they stop sensing some threshold of humidity in exhaust air. A load of jeans will take longer than a polyester shirt load.

Simple solution is to place a temperature probe on the exhaust duct and alert based on that. That's what I'm doing and it never fails.

My dryer beeps, but, it's in the garage, so, impossible to hear.

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#139

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

marcinzm wrote: post #116
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that a product you bought or something you made yourself? I've been wanting something like that but haven't figured out how to get it

I used a YoLink vibration sensor. The lack of a local mode for YoLink is a big negative but there's also Zigbee vibrations sensors. The positive is that in my experience YoLink has been very reliable across the board while Zigbee has been hit or miss. Also unlike other cloud based services (ie: Kasa for example) they provide a MQTT integration so there's very low latency.

Thanks; I actually do prefer zigbee, but that tells me what I'm looking for

Re: Is It Dry Yet?

#140

Post by nuancebydefault »

Scoundreller wrote: post #128
chongli wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dryer (I live in Canada) has a 240V plug with a heavy-duty cable, no exposed wires. My dishwasher is wired directly into the mains (I installed it myself) but neither the laundry washer nor the dryer are hard-wired.

> My dishwasher is wired directly into the mains (I installed it myself) but neither the laundry washer nor the dryer are hard-wired. You probably have an “American” dishwasher like a GE or Whirlpool. If you upgrade to a “European” one like a Bosch or Miele, you’ll need to wire up a socket in an adjacent cabinet and plug it in, or buy their ~$50 junction box. The Europeans like to move with their appliances instead o…

We just installed a new kitchen that replaced our old and were told that appliances like fridges and microwaves need to be plugged into an accessible wall socket, due to safety regulations. We even needed to move a few in-wall mains sockets to accomplish that. The 2F 7kW induction furnace is hard wired though.

That said, in either case it should not be hard to single out an L or N wire and clamp it to detect flowing current. However a vibration or acoustic sensor is probably easier and cheaper.

Post reply on HN