Not a good idea, for multiple reasons, Beginning with the fact that we are talking about a washer. So, you know, water, batteries, all that.
Or if we’re talking about a dryer, they get very hot. And again, not a good idea with batteries.
Next, drums in both washers and dryers are finely calibrated. Affixing anything to it will throw it off balance, and throwing it off balance will either cause it not to spin or wear the bearings unevenly.
I meant the outside. As to calibration, the constantly changing weight of the water/clothing shifting around kinda puts that reasoning to rest. A one-ounce sensor is nothing compared to a tub full of wet clothes sloshing around.
You could also put the sensor inside a ziplock bag to ward off moisture or humidity.
[Edit] Just thinking aloud here, but if you have any experience with wiring, I know my dryer gives off a pretty loud buzz when it’s done. It would be interesting to see if some sort of inline sensor could be wired along the electrical line to the buzzer, although I guess you’d need a secondary power line for the radio. [Edit] Scratch that, if the sensor is battery-powered, duh. Or perhaps putting the sensor next to the buzzer? I’m sure that sucker vibrates like hell when it goes off.
As we’ve often discussed in the forums, batteries outgas. They should never be put in a Ziploc or any other airtight container unless the batteries are specifically designed for that purpose.
As far as how calibration works, the whole point is that you want the empty drum to spin perfectly on empty. After that, when you have clothes in the washer, Because the drum is calibrated you will get the “out of balance” warning when it’s out of balance. Even a one ounce sensor will throw that off. Which again will lead to uneven wear on the bearings. And that generally does not end well.
But check with the manufacturer, they can explain in more detail.
I just thought of this right before you sent this message. I got the Big Talker Announcement set up with a virtual swtich. I just cant get the Webcore piston to turn on the Virtual Switch. The Sensor seems to be sense the vibration just fine so far.
That’s a nice one that I will keep in my back pocket now that I have the Washer done. Now onto the Dryer. What kind of metering socket do you have, and where did you get it?
Hi,
I tried to setup this scenario in my webcore with the ST sensors and I can see the sensors going active / inactive during the laundry process due to multiple stops in the process (Samsung 1Yrs old Washer but not a smart device). I see in the piston logs the sensors activities but the time counter is not kicking in at any time for some reason - any idea why? this is the setup I put in place:
When I had X10 fifteen years or so ago, I had a power sensing clamp around the dryer cable. When the dryer shut off, the clamp was attached to an X10 module that sent the signal to my system and notified me verbally “The dryer has shut off”. When X10 worked, it worked pretty well, but it never worked at 100% for me. Z-Wave and Smartthings has worked much better.
I decided I’d like to do this again. I ordered this clamp:
It has the dry contact switch I can use with a Ecolink 2.5 open/close sensor, (DWZWAVE2.5-ECO). If it functions as it should, then Alexa can notify when the dryer has shut off.
Note:
I had a gas dryer before that was 110v. My dryer now is 220v.
I have a couple options to use the clamp.
I can buy a short 220v dryer extension cord, and split it open and attach the clamp to one of the hots. Unfortunately the cheapest I could find was a 1 1/2 ft for about $50. Pricey.
Take the back of the dryer off, and where it’s pig tailed to the dryer attach the clamp there.