I’m a busy dad who works from home. It’s not uncommon for me to throw in a load of laundry, start it, and then completely forget about it until my clean clothes sour. This is the reason I need a laundry automation - not to start my laundry remotely - just to remember to put the clothes in the dryer. Here’s my Aqara automation for how I accomplished this.
What you’ll need:
- Aqara Hub - I’m using M3.
- T1 Vibration Sensor
- Apple Home
- Apple Shortcuts
- Home Assistant - the title says it’s advanced. I have to assume you have some working knowledge with Home Assistant otherwise I couldn’t make this post succinctly.
- Pushcut - Yeah, I really meant advanced, but keep reading.
In Aqara
- Pair your T1 and place your T1 on the side or back of your washing machine and test it’s sensitivity. I have mine set to Low with a reporting interval of 5s.
In Home Assistant
- Pair your Aqara Hub via Matter to expose your T1.
- Create a Helper for an Input Boolean called “Washer Running.” This is important because it creates a virtual/dummy switch that you can use later on for knowing the State.
- Create an automation: If Vibration [occupancy] is Detected for duration of 2 minutes, turn on Input Boolean.
- Create a second automation: If Vibration [occupancy]stops detecting for a duration of 1 minute, turn off Input Boolean.
N.B. The durations you choose in your automations should account for any brief pauses that your cycle might have. Also not, the cycle starts with the machine filling with water. I don’t particularly care that the virtual switch might turn on until mid-cycle when the drum is spinning. I just need to know when it stops.
- Use HA’s HomeKit Bridge feature to expose the Input Boolean as a virtual switch into Apple Home
Now, we can start to shape up our reminders.
In Shortcuts
- Create a shortcut that will run certain actions when triggered. For me the shortcut can do two things depending on the scenario. If I am at home, it can set a 10 minute timer to remind me about the laundry. If I am not at home, it will set a reminder that will trigger when I arrive at home. It looks like this:
In Pushcut
- Pushcut allows you to create custom notifications that can trigger many actions, including running a Shortcut.
- You will create a notification that can run the Shortcut you just created.
In Apple Home
- Apple Home, now create an automation with Convert to Shortcut. When “Washer Running” [this is the virtual switch created from your Home Assistant Input Boolean] turns off, Run Shortcut.
The shortcut calls my PushCut URL triggering my Reminder, and also sets a laundry scene that can change a lightbulb blue or send an audio file to my HomePods if needed.
The final product is a simple [none of this has sounded simple, has it?] notification which sets a foolproof reminder whether I’m home or away.
A few final notes.
-
I wish this were a straightforward automation which could be completed directly in the Aqara or Apple Home ecosystem without these extra tools. Unfortunately they don’t have the nuance required.
-
I did at one point use a power monitoring socket to do this automation. My new washer has too many options with varying power draws that made this now inconsistent.
-
Finally, the T1 vibration sensor makes the difference here. The original vibration sensor was not quite sensitive enough for this task.
What do you think @AqaraBot? It’s complex, but works well!