Then again, a simple timer on your phone could do the same thing.
Comment on Homeowner baffled after washing machine uses 3.6GB of internet data a day
tal@lemmy.today 7 months agoI guess it can notify you via your cell phone when a load is done. I could see that having value.
kent_eh@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
riskable@programming.dev 7 months ago
Wait: Do the times listed on the screen of your washer/dryer actually reflect reality‽
My dryer will say it’s got 20 minutes remaining for like an hour and a half. And yes, I clean the lint screen and vent regularly (all the way up to the roof!).
bus_factor@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Washers usually give better estimates than dryers. How long something takes to dry depends on the material used. The washer doesn’t care about anything but weight.
agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 7 months ago
You don’t really need an accurate timer. If it says 2:30, just set an alarm to 3h and you’ll be fine most of the time.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 7 months ago
My 30 year old, no electronics dryer takes consitent time.
tyler@programming.dev 7 months ago
Modern machines don’t display accurate cycle times at all. They use sensors to detect when to finish.
mundane@feddit.nu 7 months ago
Exactly, it’s just an estimate.
jabathekek@sopuli.xyz 7 months ago
Or even just knowing approximately how long the cycle goes for.
LordKitsuna@lemmy.world 7 months ago
I know so many people that will tell me that that is important to them. Those same people will hear the little jingle on their washing machine know that it’s done, and then not go move the laundry around for 3 hours
madsen@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Couldn’t you just program it to start (and stop) at a given time, or make a note of how long it says on the display that it’ll take?
It seems (to me) like a very, very minor improvement for a huge cost, namely that your washing machine is on your network and is internet connected.
agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 7 months ago
And I bet you it reduces reliability, because all those fancy electronics are absolutely crucial for it to work at all and brittle as a sand castle. So you’ll end up with a white brick if the wifi module craps out or a capacitor gets too warm.
NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 7 months ago
Yeah.
Growing up, the washer and dryer were in the basement and you could really only hear that if you were in the living room with the TV off (so… never). But as an adult (who is finally living somewhere with its own washer/dryer…), I can hear that jingle throughout the entire house if I am not watching a loud movie at the time.
Growing up, we would more or less time it. Start a load and set the alarm on your watch for when it is done. But basically any modern washer/dryer is going to use fuzzy logic based on load weight and water levels and humidity and so forth. You can approximate how long it takes, but you don’t really have a proper timer. Which was annoyhing when my friends’ washer broke and they had to do loads at my place and it was always “Can you text us when it actually finishes?” or “So… I see you play Warframe. A lot… Uhm… It says there is five more minutes left”
So yeah. I can definitely see value in a networked washer or dryer depending on your living situation.
Also, while it is immensely wasteful (or a great way to get mildewy clothes), there is something to being able to start a dryer load when I pass the gas station about 20 minutes from home on a ski day. Because that would mean that I would have time to get home, take a really quick shower, and put on toasty warm clothes to compensate for having spent a few hours bouncing in the snow. And I would allow SO much spyware to enable that…
Empricorn@feddit.nl 7 months ago
An 1830’s egg timer already resolved this problem, Future Boy…
freebee@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
It would be neat if it would then hang it to dry and when dry fold it and put it in the closet. It doesn’t so it isn’t. Its is just an old school jingle alert with extra (datatracking, most likely) steps.
kescusay@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Mine plays a loud jingle when it’s done, which seems to be enough for me.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Yup. There are two situations here:
If I’m at home and won’t hear the sound for some reason, I’ll just set an alarm on my phone. My washing machine tells me how long it’ll take, so there’s no guesswork here.
BorgDrone@lemmy.one 7 months ago
Washing machines exist that are smarter than just running a fixed program. They adjust the program, and thus duration, based om how dirty the clothes are. The same goes for dryers that look at the actual humidity of the clothes to determine if they’re finished.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Sure, and if I’m off by a few minutes, that’s totally fine. I honestly don’t need to know the moment my clothes are done, it can wait 20-30 minutes usually. In general, a laundry run takes an hour, plus whatever soak time I choose.
So I really don’t need any network access. I guess it’s fine if others want it, but I see it as a liability. If it connects to a network, that’s a security vulnerability (don’t want a laundry DOS) and another thing to break.
BearOfaTime@lemm.ee 7 months ago
Hahaha, but why?
I’ve used the shortest cycle, on cold, for 30+ years, with less than half the detergent “recommended”. Clothes are always clean.
And my clothes get dirty. Mechanic dirty (oils are tough). Welding. Tree sap from cutting down/splitting.
amelia@feddit.de 7 months ago
Not trying to defend stupid internet connectivity but my washing machine is in the basement in a shared laundry room while I live on the second floor of the apartment building. No way I’ll hear it beep so a notification would be very useful actually.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Is this washing machine yours? Or is it owned by the landlord? If it’s the landlord’s, that’s a different problem entirely, since now you need multiple people to have separate configurations on the same device to get notifications, but only when their particular load is finished.
I can absolutely see a reason to have “smart” laundromats for things like error codes, abandoned loads, usage statistics, maintenance history, full coin reservoir, etc. That’s the type of problem a shared laundry room would have as well, and it would be fairly easy to add a “tap to notify” feature where you scan a QR code or tap with NFC to get remote access to it.
But for a typical home situation where the laundry machine is the apartment or house, I really don’t see a point, and it’s just a liability.
umbrella@lemmy.ml 7 months ago
i have an old one without any of it and i dont even care, ill be there eventually and see its done.
im okay with my clothes waiting for a bit
transientpunk@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
Mine is in my garage, and I can’t hear the jingle from inside the house.
But two power monitoring smart plugs+ home assistant fixed that issue
woelkchen@lemmy.world 7 months ago
A timer on your phone would have done the same with less hassle.
shinratdr@lemmy.ca 7 months ago
Most washing machines have sensors and do not dry based on a timer. The program time is just a rough estimate, if clothes are still wet or soap bubbles are still present it will do extra rinses or spins.
transientpunk@sh.itjust.works 7 months ago
You underestimate the strength of my ADHD. Automation keeps me from having to rely on ol’ unreliable
bisby@lemmy.world 7 months ago
Its enough for me too. But not everyone has the same use case and environment. I definitely see why someone would want this.
What I disagree with is that it needs to communicate to the internet to do this. It adds delay and potential for outage if your internet is out. But they do this so they can force you to get their app and milk you for extra data to sell. Internet capable smart devices are to harvest data not grant features. Features could be done better by ZigBee and a hub, but that doesnt grant the device a way to phone home