Home Assistant

Home Assistant washing machine notification

Home Assistant

In this post we will go over my simple Home Assistant washing machine notification that I setup in Home Assistant. I’ve been using Home Assistant now for a couple of months and have been very pleased with it. Home Assistant is in active development and updates come out multiple times each month with feature upgrades and bugfixes. Between my washing machine and netpower I have this Zigbee smart plug from Frient: Smart Plug Mini. This smart plug allows for energy monitoring and control via the Zigbee protocol. In my Home Assistant installation I am using the Zigbee2mqtt addon for connecting all my Zigbee devices. With the energy monitoring from the Frient Smart Plug Mini we can automation that will send a notifiction to our phone.

The automation

Home Assistant allows for notification on your mobile phone when you have the Home Assistant app installed and connected. With this in mind we will go over my configuration in the Home Assistant Automation.

- id: '<id>'
  alias: Washok - Wasmachine
  description: ''
  trigger:
  - type: power
    platform: device
    device_id: <device_id>
    entity_id: sensor.washok_wasmachine_power
    domain: sensor
    above: 5
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 1
      seconds: 0
  condition: []
  action:
  - wait_for_trigger:
    - type: power
      platform: device
      device_id: <device_id>
      entity_id: sensor.washok_wasmachine_power
      domain: sensor
      below: 5
      for:
        hours: 0
        minutes: 1
        seconds: 0
  - service: notify.mobile_app_iphone_van_tim
    data:
      message: Wasmachine is klaar!
      title: Notificatie!

This automation does a couple of things:

  • First it uses a trigger based on the power usage when it reaches above 5 watss for 1 minute.
  • Then it waits for the next trigger when the power usage goes below 5 watts for also 1 minute.
  • It then sends a notification to my iPhone that the washing machine is done!

Before you use this automation make sure to check the idle power usage of your washing machine. It is normal for washing machines to pause for a few minutes and the power usage will drop. My washing machine doesn’t drop below 6 watts when pausing so 5 watts is the right trigger for me.

Conclusion on Home Assistant washing machine notification

This post should help you out getting with a Home Assistant washing machine notification. Ofcourse this automation can also be used with different appliances or devices. You should now get a notification similar to below.

Home Assistant washing machine notification
iPhone notification

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