Smart or WiFi Connected Appliances Experience

[jratliff]

I am in the market for replacing mainly my oven to start but willing to replace all my appliances if new smart features are working well.

 

Is anyone using or had experience with any brands and can you share your pros/cons/experience?

 

Anything is fine oven/fridge/washer/dryer/dishwasher/microwave/etc.

 

Currently I have my original circa 1967 oven wired with a temp probe updating the ISY as well as a relay monitoring the heating light so I can tell in the ISY when it's turned on and done preheating initially (and announce it over Sonos). But it would be nice to have a new oven that can be activated remotely as well. So curious what each company has to offer if you have experience!

 

 

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

 

 

[lilyoyo1]

I have some smart appliances but rarely ever use the features. When we first got them, I tried to use them (new toy). Over time, I found myself forcing myself to use the features.

For example, we can start the dishwasher remotely and get notified once it's done. Reality is, once full we generally start it immediately or start the delay for later right then and there. Notifications..... Who needs them? Who rushes to unload a dishwasher?

I wouldn't purchase them specifically for their so called smart features though. 

[jratliff]

That's true. I think same probably for washer and dryer, I already put relays on my old ones so they tell me when they're done through ISY and usually start them right away when using them.

I'm curious how useful the fridge cameras are, I have been at the store and wondering if we have this or that but the way we normally throw things in the fridge I'm not sure you could see it. Maybe I can find a camera to add to my old one to try for cheap. Same for the touchscreen on the front. If it isn't Android based and customizable I probably wouldn't be happy with what I was limited to. Would like to be able to control Sonos from it.

Have you seen that brand new Leviton Load Center? I am upgrading my electric panel soon too and debating whether to waste the lot of extra money on the coolness factor of it.
https://www.leviton.com/en/products/residential/load-centers/the-leviton-smart-load-center

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk

[asbril]

1 hour ago, lilyoyo1 said:

I have some smart appliances but rarely ever use the features. When we first got them, I tried to use them (new toy). Over time, I found myself forcing myself to use the features.

For example, we can start the dishwasher remotely and get notified once it's done. Reality is, once full we generally start it immediately or start the delay for later right then and there. Notifications..... Who needs them? Who rushes to unload a dishwasher?

I wouldn't purchase them specifically for their so called smart features though. 

Same here..... I have Samsung Smart  Laundry washer and dryers, and I used the remote features once on the first day I got the washer and the dryer. The only thing I look for is a smart fridge that tells me when I need milk, eggs etc. I believe that this technology already exists, but for efficient use we may have to wait a few years when all this will become exciting and useful.

Edited October 5, 2019 by asbril

[lilyoyo1]

11 minutes ago, asbril said:

Same here..... I have Samsung Smart  Laundry washer and dryers, and I used the remote features once on the first day I got the washer and the dryer. The only thing I look for is a smart fridge that tells me when I need milk, eggs etc. I believe that this technology already exists, but for efficient use we may have to wait a few years when all this will become exciting and useful.

I definitely agree with that. Give me something that keeps me up on what's missing in the fridge. I'd love to go to the grocery store and get an alert that I need something from the fridge automatically

The only thing I like about my dishwasher is that it opens automatically once done to help with drying. That part isn't "smart" related but is the best feature. 

[larryllix]

14 minutes ago, asbril said:

Same here..... I have Samsung Smart  Laundry washer and dryers, and I used the remote features once on the first day I got the washer and the dryer. The only thing I look for is a smart fridge that tells me when I need milk, eggs etc. I believe that this technology already exists, but for efficient use we may have to wait a few years when all this will become exciting and useful.

Doesn't GH have lists for vocal usage? I would be sure they would have tried to catch up within a decade or so.    

We use
Alexa.... Add  butter. (assumes shopping list)
or
Alexa....add fertilizer to the USA Shopping list

Now vocal editing can be done also 

Alexa.... remove butter from the shopping list.

It also reports duplicates when you attempt it. The paper list that is always on the fridge when we are in the stores is not required anymore. We travel 15-20km to get to stores so grouping errands is important for gas economy and this works extremely well. Check it out on GH.

Edited October 5, 2019 by larryllix

[lilyoyo1]

2 minutes ago, larryllix said:

Doesn't GH have lists for vocal usage? I would be sure they would have tried to catch up within a decade or so.    

We use
Alexa.... Add  butter. (assumes shopping list)
or
Alexa....add fertilizer to the USA Shopping list

Now vocal editing can be done also 

Alexa.... remove butter from the shopping list.

It also reports duplicates when you attempt it. The paper list that is always on the fridge when we are in the stores is not required anymore. We travel 15-20km to get to stores so grouping errands is important for gas economy and this works extremely well. Check it out on GH.

You can do that now. I'm referring to the fridge automatically doing it for times when you don't add something to a list or the status changes while you're gone

Edited October 5, 2019 by lilyoyo1

[larryllix]

3 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

You can do that now. I'm referring to the fridge automatically doing it for tones when you don't add something to a list or the status changes while you're gone

I was thinking of purchasing an old self-checkout machine so it knows exactly what each item weighs. The only problem is it keeps asking us to take the last item out of the fridge and scan it again.   We also know we won't get spouses to put things in front of their respective photocell detectors regardless of how much Dymotape we click out.  

Edited October 5, 2019 by larryllix

[asbril]

6 minutes ago, larryllix said:

Doesn't GH have lists for vocal usage? I would be sure they would have tried to catch up within a decade or so.    

We use
Alexa.... Add  butter. (assumes shopping list)
or
Alexa....add fertilizer to the USA Shopping list

Now vocal editing can be done also 

Alexa.... remove butter from the shopping list.

It also reports duplicates when you attempt it. The paper list that is always on the fridge when we are in the stores is gone. We travel 15-20km to get to stores so grouping errands is important for gas economy and this works extremely well. Check it out on GH.

GH has that option and I use it, same as your Alexa example. Unfortunately my wife is tech unfriendly and prefers to say OK "my name"  get  this or that. It has better performance for her than using GH.  Our suburban life makes it that the supermarket is less than 1 mile (less than 1.6 km for my Canadian friend...) and Costco about 4 miles.

Edited October 5, 2019 by asbril

[larryllix]

3 minutes ago, asbril said:

GH has that option and I use it, same as your Alexa example. Unfortunately my wife is tech unfriendly and prefers to say OK "my name"  get  this or that. It has better performance for her than using GH.  Our suburban life makes it that the supermarket is less than 1 mile (less than 1.6 km for my Canadian friend...) and Costco about 4 miles.

***SIGH*** A man's work is never done.

I guess I need to know where to put the butter better. 

Edited October 5, 2019 by larryllix

[lilyoyo1]

36 minutes ago, jratliff said:

That's true. I think same probably for washer and dryer, I already put relays on my old ones so they tell me when they're done through ISY and usually start them right away when using them.

I'm curious how useful the fridge cameras are, I have been at the store and wondering if we have this or that but the way we normally throw things in the fridge I'm not sure you could see it. Maybe I can find a camera to add to my old one to try for cheap. Same for the touchscreen on the front. If it isn't Android based and customizable I probably wouldn't be happy with what I was limited to. Would like to be able to control Sonos from it.

Have you seen that brand new Leviton Load Center? I am upgrading my electric panel soon too and debating whether to waste the lot of extra money on the coolness factor of it.
https://www.leviton.com/en/products/residential/load-centers/the-leviton-smart-load-center

Sent from my SM-N975U using Tapatalk
 

That looks pretty cool but it already does what I'm doing with automation. Kimdof redundant to have 2 different systems turning stuff on/off.

In regards to knowing energy usage, to a certain degree I don't care. I've done what I could to minimize how much energy I'm using such as led bulbs, newer TVs, etc. In the end, when I turn something on, I know power is being used. How much isn't going to make me turn it off

Edited October 5, 2019 by lilyoyo1

[lilyoyo1]

5 minutes ago, asbril said:

GH has that option and I use it, same as your Alexa example. Unfortunately my wife is tech unfriendly and prefer to say OK "my name"  get  this or that. It has better performance for her than using GH.  Our suburban life makes it that the supermarket is less than 1 mile (less than 1.6 km for my Canadian friend...) and Costco about 4 miles.

I just want automation. Whether it's a voice assistant or writing it down, it's still me or someone else needing to do something to ensure it happens. I just want to get to the point where it's responsive vs reactive

[paulbates]

8 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

I'm regards to knowing energy usage, to a certain degree I don't care. I've done what I could to minimize how much energy I'm using such as led bulbs, newer TVs, etc. In the end, when I turn something on, I know power is being used. How much isn't going to make me turn it off

☝️ This. I monitor and try to make the most efficient use of electricity during and right after installation of ha controllable devices. Then I hand it over to the device and/or the ISY and not try to modify our behavior.

I didn't bother to explain the benefits of the dynamic peak power program option from our power company to my wife. The projected savings are not worth having to stop and have the ISY have alexa say "don't run the appliance right now". It would undo all of the WAF halo effect of my automation efforts.

Edited October 5, 2019 by paulbates

[asbril]

Just now, lilyoyo1 said:

I just want automation. Whether it's a voice assistant or writing it down, it's still me or someone else needing to do something to ensure it happens. I just want to get to the point where it's responsive vs reactive

So do I, but that will probably require RF codes on all food products that include date of purchase, expected limit of freshness of each product and some indicator of how much (e.g. milk) is left, smart fridges and a smart ISY user to create a nodeserver......................

[lilyoyo1]

8 minutes ago, paulbates said:

☝️ This. I monitor and try to make the most efficient use of electricity during and right after installation of ha controllable devices. Then I hand it over to the device and/or the ISY.

I didn't bother to explain the benefits of the dynamic peak power program option from our power company. The projected savings are not worth having to stop and have the ISY have alexa say "don't run the appliance right now". It would undo all of the halo effect of my automation effots.

I agree 100%. Why buy something if you're just going to turn it off or not use it to Save a few pennies. At the end of the day, none of this stuff is cheap. If you can afford to do automation, you can afford the extra 20 bucks to enjoy the fruits of your labor

Edited October 5, 2019 by lilyoyo1

[lilyoyo1]

1 minute ago, asbril said:

So do I, but that will probably require RF codes on all food products that include date of purchase, expected limit of freshness of each product and some indicator of how much (e.g. milk) is left, smart fridges and a smart ISY user to create a nodeserver......................

Everything already has bar codes on it. You can scan the items you want to track as you put it away and possibly enter the expiration date into the system. For tracking qty, it may be that an item has to be located in a certain area. While it would change how we interact with our groceries, we are already accustomed to doing things differently when we automate things. If it makes life easier long term, I know both me and my wife would be ok with it

[larryllix]

12 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

That looks pretty cool but it already does what I'm doing with automation. Kimdof redundant to have 2 different systems turning stuff on/off.

In regards to knowing energy usage, to a certain degree I don't care. I've done what I could to minimize how much energy I'm using such as led bulbs, newer TVs, etc. In the end, when I turn something on, I know power is being used. How much isn't going to make me turn it off

This right on target with my attitude. I spent about $40K now on solar PV equipment and should see about $5-10K back on my investment over the next 20 years of my life. What a waste and after replacing my last inverter system for about $15K (yeah the electronics are expected to last about 15 years for the better quality units like Outback) I will not likely even make any income from the system at all. I had a lot of fun though.

[lilyoyo1]

3 minutes ago, larryllix said:

This right on target with my attitude. I spent about $40K now on solar PV equipment and should see about $5-10K back on my investment over the next 20 years of my life. What a waste and after replacing my last inverter system for about $15K (yeah the electronics are expected to last about 15 years for the better quality units like Outback) I will not likely even make any income from the system at all. I had a lot of fun though.

That's why I didn't go solar. We talked about it when we built our house but the numbers didn't add up. When I look at our electric bill we never would've paid for it unless we kept the house for 40 years

Edited October 5, 2019 by lilyoyo1

[larryllix]

1 minute ago, lilyoyo1 said:

Everything already has bar codes on it. You can scan the items you want to track as you put it away and possibly enter the expiration date into the system. For tracking qty, it may be that an item has to be located in a certain area. While it would change how we interact with our groceries, we are already accustomed to doing things differently when we automate things. If it makes life easier long term, I know both me and my wife would be ok with it

I don't think scanning the butter each time when you put it back, and then entering you used about 1.9% of the pounds will ever fly. There are some things that will never replace the brain of a human on an easy scale.

We discouraged the usage of surprise money coins in birthday cakes years ago, I don't want to find BT coins in my food.  

[larryllix]

Just now, lilyoyo1 said:

That's why I didn't go solar. We talked about it when we built our house but the numbers didn't add up. When I look at our electric bill we never would've paid for it unless we kept the house for 40 years

Working at the local electrical utility, we found it amusing, for some time the firemen would stand back from a house on fire, and let it burn to the ground, if it had PV panels on the roof.  Their policies prevented them from entering a building until all energy sources were disconnected, and solar PV panels had their disconnects all inside the homes. ooops!

[lilyoyo1]

I'm not talking about each time you use it. I'm talking about initial purchase. In regards to milk and things of that nature that are more easily trackable it could work. This isn't necessarily for every item you would need. If you had an egg basket for example in the fridge, it could see that there were only 3 eggs left or the milk was out in 3 weeks ago so it needs to be replaced etc. Sensors could say a Gallatin of milk weighs X amount when you put it in. Now it weighs Y. because of that it needs to be replaced

[asbril]

13 minutes ago, larryllix said:

I don't want to find BT coins in my food.

I take a Bitcoin ($ 8,000) in my desert any time.

[larryllix]

2 minutes ago, lilyoyo1 said:

I'm not talking about each time you use it. I'm talking about initial purchase. In regards to milk and things of that nature that are more easily trackable it could work. This isn't necessarily for every item you would need. If you had an egg basket for example in the fridge, it could see that there were only 3 eggs left or the milk was out in 3 weeks ago so it needs to be replaced etc. Sensors could say a Gallatin of milk weighs X amount when you put it in. Now it weighs Y. because of that it needs to be replaced

We would need much bigger fridges will all those specific usage weigh scales and somebody would definitely place the marmalade on the strawberry jam scale.   Pantries and cupboards  would have to become a peripheral of the fridge system. Most products are refrigerate after opening, even bread products packed in nitrogen now.

After spending many years running several perfect warehousing systems, even my own that I wrote software to handle back in the late 70s, I know the in/out recording systems don't work. You spend more time correcting digital data than it takes to do a manual count each time. Weigh scales or some automatic scanning would be the only way to make this work but like PV systems, would it be more work, cleaning out the sticky soda pop residue from the can that exploded than just manually taking inventory? We know that doesn't work well or we wouldn't be here...LOL!

[larryllix]

2 minutes ago, asbril said:

I take a Bitcoin ($ 8,000) in my desert any time.

Ohhh geeeezzzz! Who ate the QR code off the icing?

[lilyoyo1]

Features like that most likely wouldn't be on a standard consumer fridge. Especially a counter depth one. Most likely it would be a chefs fridge or some type of larger size. 

There are sensors that can be implemented. Doesn't necessarily have to be a full scale. Ultrasonic technology can be used or some other type of sensors. 

The idea isn't too track every piece of grocery one has but mainly the bigger items that are used often

As I said earlier, it would require a change in how a person handles their fridge (as does most automated things). 

Edited October 5, 2019 by lilyoyo1