Hey all, a quick question regarding device detection vs smart plus for a washer and dryer.
It’s only been a few weeks, but Sense has not detected anything regarding my LG washer & dryer (gas). I’ve also read comments from several people noting that detection of modern washer/dryers is difficult due to the high variance in the motor patterns.
I have a couple of HS300s that I have used to address some of my Always On consumption and I have been happy with them. I also have a couple of Kasa KP-115s that I haven’t deployed yet, and I am considering using these for the washer & dryer. I am wondering people’s opinions regarding this… both positives and negatives. Is there a downside to using smart-plugs for these devices? Should I just wait and hope that Sense eventually recognizes the washer and dryer?
I assume that if I do put smart plugs in place for the washer & dryer, I will need to leave them there. Is this correct? Or can I use the smart plug to train Sense what the washer & dryer look like and then move them somewhere else to use for a different purpose?
Smart plugs do not “train Sense”. They replace Sense’s inability to detect devices with a separate power monitor that talks to Sense.
Sometimes (rarely) devices that are on smart plugs do eventually get detected by Sense, in which case you can remove the KP-115 and disconnect the communication. Normally, you just leave the smart plug forever.
I have an 1 year old LG washer and dryer pair. The washer uses an inverter fed DC motor so I put that on a smart plug. Pretty clear looking at the usage, its hard to discern any pattern that Sense would find.
Sense did find the heating element on the dryer, and since it runs off of 240V, I can’t put it on a smart plug. The heating element gets conflated with one of my floor heaters, so my measurements aren’t perfect.
I have way too many HS110s. One of which is on my LG washer. My electric LG dryer is somewhat detected. I wish there was an smart plug for the dryer that works with sense.
I have my washer on a kasa smart plug. Works great, however, Sense just found a new device it called “pump3”. Every time my clothes washer is on, pump 3 cycles on and off so I know it is part of the washer. My question… doesn’t the kasa smart plug measure all the power the washer is using? If I merge the smart plug with pump3 wouldn’t it be double counting some of the energy? Should I delete the pump3 device? Thanks for any help you can give me.
All the power your washer is drawing is detected and reported by the smart plug. It’s possible for Sense to detect devices (or parts of devices as in your case) that are already being reported by smart plugs, but unfortunately no way for it to know that. So you have to tell it.
You go into the pump 3 device and tell Sense that’s part of washer.
Do I “merge” the two? It will only let me tell the smart plug (washer) what it is plugged in to. If I go to the found device (pump3) it does not give me that option. Thanks
You merge the Pump 3 into the smartplug using “What’s plugged into this?”. That’s a special kind of merge to avoid double counting - Sense just uses the smartplug reading and hides Pump 3, because the smartplug has far more accurate data than just the detection of one component. The smarplug is also able to pull out the Always On of just the Washer.
