Twittering Washing Machine

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkMXpKmRXvU&fmt=18]

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?

34 thoughts on “Twittering Washing Machine

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

  3. 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?

  4. @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

  5. @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!

  6. 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.

  7. 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…

  8. 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.

  9. 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.

  10. >>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

  11. 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!

  12. 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.

  13. This hack is cool, but I can’t reasonably be expected to recreate this. It would be nice if someone posted some easy-to-follow step by step instructions for wiring up not only my washer but also my dryer. Both are located in the garage of the duplex I live in, and I have to go outside, walk around to the front of the house, open the two-car garage door just to go in and check if it’s done. Usually I end up waiting longer than necessary. A tweet (forwarded via SMS to my cell) would be perfect.

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