Twittering washing machine

posted Jan 2nd 2009 11:47am by Caleb Kraft
filed under: home hacks, tool hacks

If you don’t have at least one twittering appliance in your household, you’re getting behind. The latest addition to the spread is a twittering washing machine. [Ryan] tells us that he kept accidentally forgetting to retrieve his clothing from the washing machine, resulting in smelly mildewy clothes. Now, his washing machine twitters to announce it is done. It also has a sign in the house that displays its status to help him remember. We’ve seen unborn babies and toasters twitter, what’s left? Remember those refrigerators that were supposed to let you know that you’re out of certain food? Why don’t we see a twittering fridge yet?

Comments [32]

tagged: twitter

Reader Comments

I think the most interesting thing about this story is that the washer actually has 15 followers :D

Posted at 12:39 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by XtaZy

Ok, Props for the hack, but i think, as an appliance repair tech, he should have at least chosen a washer that has more than 5 years of usable life in it. Granted this particular maytag washer is the kind that made them famous, but you won’t find one less than 15 years old and even then it may not work. and all for the tidbit of information to remind you that you have clothes in the washer? come on, set a timer, it’s cheaper.

Posted at 1:04 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by aztraph

What about @laundryroom, which has been around since Fall 06-Spring 07 (ish)?

Posted at 1:14 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by nlee

This is a one-man project, so that makes it better than @laundryroom

Posted at 1:23 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by rdonkulous

Well this one has been around for a while but you can have your plants twitter you as well http://www.cheapvegetablegardener.com/2008/12/plants-reveal-your-gardening.html Guess all that is left is a device to tell you to actually check your twitter…

Posted at 1:34 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

aztraph i totally agree. when i saw the maytag machines i just about stopped the video. im a miele dealer down in carmel ca. i think the mildew smell is more of the machines as well. i can leave laundry in my mieles all day and wont smell bad at all.

Posted at 1:51 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by Tommy

e-mail is the new twitter.

why exactly use twitter for this kind of thing? seems lame. just send an e-mail.

Posted at 2:36 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by error404

Actually, why not just send a Text (or sms as we Norwegians more correctly call it ;) )

Posted at 3:09 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by XtaZy

OK, so Im a little confused. Does this trick require an antique, energy and water over guzzling relic like what he’s got? or will it also work on more e & h2o efficient, post art deco era models? bc if your keepin around old equipment like that just to show off to ur friends how savy u are, not taking away from the fact that im sure its practical & useful….then over the course of time, this could prove a very expensive hack indeed. btw couldnt u do the same thing w/a newer set simply by installing an audio sensor in proximity to the buzzer that lets u know the wash is finished? foregoing all the electro-mechanical contraptury which btw requires even more current draw?

Posted at 3:28 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by twiek9

@twiek9:

Why use expensive audio sensor? you could simply take the buzzer out of the machine, add long wire from the machine to your room. costs nearly nothing. add few cents and parts and you have buzzer that stops buzzing only after the mahcine door is opened

Posted at 3:53 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by asdf

people… this machine has NO BUZZER — thats the point of the hack.

Posted at 3:54 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by rdonkulous

@rdonkulous:

Nope..
the real point is that it’s a needlessly complicated ’solution’ to a problem that shouldn’t be there in the first place – it’s a bandaid at best.

If he used the hardware to upgrade his piece of medieval junk to 21th century standards (water and energy saving fuzzy logic, optimized rinse and spin cycles, ETA display) – now _that_ would be a worthwile hack!

Posted at 4:26 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by elal1862

General reply to comments in no particular order:

I’ve never seen a washing machine with a buzzer, i’m sure some have one. Even if this machine had a buzzer, relocating it would not be as cool as twittering.

Why use twitter? Because everyone can follow your twitter, only you can read your email (in theory). Letting the world now when your laundry is done is bad assed.

And, who the hell cares what type of washing machine it is? This is an insanely useless hack designed to be both educational and entertaining. It’s not supposed to be practical.

Posted at 6:56 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by amk

Why are all you guys freaking out about what kind of machine this guy has? It doesn’t freaking matter. He had a problem, used what he had to come up with a fun project. Chill out.

Posted at 7:17 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by captain obvious

Why not a twittering fridge? Do we want any new found sentience getting its first inklings of the big wide world through the internet? Do we want the local swat and bomb disposal team showing up on our doorstep when toxic biohazard level four gets detected? Also, I could imagine some of my friends monitoring the “beer out” indicator so they could pull a raid when I’m at work, which would kind of tick me off seeing it show inventory out just as I’m headed for home. Just saying…

The washing machine thing though is cool, no more sour clothes that need to be rewashed. Just for the Rube Goldberg Hack of it…

Posted at 8:19 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by Sean

I want to make a twittering microwave with pics of the food inside, want to complain about energy waste, my Microwave is an Amana Radarange from the 70’s cause it cost me $5 working and I cant afford a newer one. Also have you actually tried to buy one of those new fangled washer dryer sets, I don’t know about you but I don’t happen to have a couple grand lying around, and If I did it would be more use for something else, this is cool, and uselessly complex which makes it cooler.

Posted at 9:24 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by mykeyFinn

@ capt obvious

I was going to say the same thing about people obsessing about how old the washing machine is lol

Posted at 10:06 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by theweirdness

this guy is added to the 2009 list of people who should commit suicide immediately

also, you’ve just lost my name

Posted at 11:39 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by the game

cool hack; good job. looks like it took a lot of work esp. with wiring it all up.

however, I’m with everybody else on “why the eff did you use twitter instead of email/sms”.

why are so many hacks intentionally impractical? Is it the type of person drawn to this sort of thing? (I’m asking seriously, and with absolutely no offense intended.)

I like things that are cool ‘just because’ as much as the next guy, but I would never in a million years connect my laundry to the network so I can *twitter* its status. I would do it to send my phone an sms when done though.

Posted at 11:51 pm on Jan 2nd, 2009 by fractalrock

The washer hack is cool.

But, I was the most entertained by all the comments.

Posted at 1:21 am on Jan 3rd, 2009 by El Nochero

Hey, what is a little odor? Combined with a little deod it can truly keep other humans away but the dogs will love you.

Posted at 11:28 am on Jan 3rd, 2009 by nearlynormalized

cool all thats left is to make something to remind me to look at twitter (without interrupting whatever im currently doing)

Posted at 1:54 pm on Jan 3rd, 2009 by matt

>>Letting the world now when your laundry is done is bad assed.

but what kind of person really wants to read about when someone’s laundry is done? hopefully someone homicidal :D

Posted at 1:58 pm on Jan 3rd, 2009 by matt

I say use MORE water waste MORE energy you freakin greeinies are going waaaayyyy overboard…conservation at any cost f**k that if it still works use who gives a rip if a few squirrels kick off!

Posted at 2:02 pm on Jan 3rd, 2009 by Hacksaw

You can purchase a PLC for about $40 these days run the whole machine cycle including the buzzer at the end.

Posted at 2:40 pm on Jan 3rd, 2009 by kord

This should set a standard feature with new models of washing machines coming in… :D That would be cool!

Posted at 4:30 am on Jan 4th, 2009 by Gennice

@xtasy

whoah! have to call you there. sms stands for short message service which is the name of the protocol, not the message. Text is short for text message.

Posted at 7:05 am on Jan 5th, 2009 by mig

OK, the weird part of this is that the washing machine in the video is the same 30-year-old washing machine we have in our condo. (We even have the manual!)

Posted at 9:30 am on Jan 5th, 2009 by rednikki

Considering he’s probably had that machine for some time, couldn’t he just figure out how long a load takes to wash and then set a timer wherever he while it works? Baisc egg timers go for $5 or less. He could even write “laundry” on it in case he forgot what the timer was for.

Posted at 11:47 pm on Jan 5th, 2009 by cdjstyle

it seems no part of you life is now safe from twitter

Posted at 3:33 am on Jan 16th, 2009 by james mason

I really liked your blog with the Falcons mention! Super Bowl maybe this year?!?

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Posted at 1:43 am on Sep 13th, 2009 by twitter marketing