Hey everyone. I appreciate all of your responses – a lot of clever folks here.
I wanted to provide an update in hopes that it will help others.
I went the route of the Mr. Coffee WeMo Coffeemaker only because I don’t have the resources or the know-how to “build” something on my own. It would have simply been a switch coffeemaker with a smart outlet.
As I am sure you all know (or maybe not), WeMo does not place too nice with SmartThings, so to accomplish what I wanted, I had to create a number of routines and recipes across various platforms. I can say I am 90% happy with the final result.
To start, here is a glimpse of physical pieces of my smart home setup:
• SmartThings hub
• Amazon Echo
• Sonos
• Harmony Hub
• Cree Connected Bulbs
• GE switches and dimmers
• Nest Cam
On the app side, I use SmartThings, Alexa, IFTTT, Stringify, Harmony and Sonos.
To connect the coffeemaker, I had to add WeMo into the mix. The challenge, then, was to connect the coffeemaker to Echo/Alexa, which I use more almost all interfacing.
The problem was that Echo interfaces with the WeMo coffeemaker via IFTTT. I have never been a fan of the IFTTT-Echo integration is the utterance required to start a recipe: “trigger.” I don’t feel like “Alexa, trigger XYZ” is natural language, and I much prefer the SmartThings-Echo utterance “turn on.”
Because the coffeemaker and SmartThings do not have direct integration, I created various virtual switches in SmartThings for the WeMo trigger – power on coffeemaker, water level low, change water filter, coffee ready, clean coffeemaker.
I then used Echo to turn on those virtual switches. Obviously, though, this had no tangible action, so I created recipes in IFTTT so that when SmartThings virtual switch X, Y or Z turned on, WeMo coffeemaker would perform my desired action.
The problem, then, was SmartThing did not know when the coffeemaker was off. So I used the Power Allowance SmartApp to set an amount of time for the virtual switch to be on. I set this for one minute in the case of all of my virtual switches.
So to turn on the coffeemaker with the commands “Alexa, turn on coffee,” “…coffee maker,” “…coffee pot,” “…java,” this is how I had it set up:
- Echo sends SmartThings signal to turn on “Coffee Maker” virtual switch.
- “Coffee Maker” virtual switch triggers IFTTT recipe to turn on WeMo coffeemaker.
- “Coffee Maker” virtual switch turns off, but coffeemaker stays on and continues to brew.
For the water filter, here is the set up:
- If the coffeemaker water filter needs to be changed, an IFTTT recipe is triggered.
- IFTTT recipe turns on SmartThings virtual switch “Coffee Maker Water Filter.”
- “Coffee Maker Water Filter” triggers SmartApp Speaker Notify with Sound.
- Sonos announces that the water filter needs to be changed.
- “Coffee Maker Water Filter” virtual switch turns off.
For the alert to clean the coffeemaker, the set up is the same as the water filter: WeMo to IFTTT to SmartThing to Sonos.
Now, one more piece I wanted to figure out was the alert that my coffee is ready. The WeMo app sends a push notification, so I know there was some way to get that information to my set up. To do this, I’m using the Yonomi app.
Here’s how I’m doing that:
- When the coffee is ready, Yonomi sets my Sonos volume to 50% (I’m using in-ceiling speaker in my kitchen connected to a Sonos Connect.
- Yonomi tells Sonos to “play,” this essentially wakes up the Connect.
- Yonomi sends a message to Sonos to announce “Your coffee is ready.”
I really like the British voice from Yonomi 
I also have a Yonomi-Echo interface set up so that “Alexa, turn on morning routine” trigger a routine I have set up in Yonomi. The coffee starts brewing, and over my Sonos speakers in the kitchen, I hear “Good Morning,” followed the day’s weather report.
My only complaints are the water level alerts – I haven’t figured out how to make those work when I truly need them – and having to use the WeMo app to schedule my morning coffee.
Again, thanks to everyone for the input. I’m going to have a cup of smartly brewed coffee now.
lol