Who has their washing machine on a plug with power reporting? If so, what plug do you use in the UK? Just looking at Fibaro ones, Z-wave, rated to 3000W.
My washing machine's rated at 2200W. I have a number of plugs by Innr, rated to 3120W (no power reporting), but the engineer at Innr said to me "Do NOT use normal smart plugs with a washing machine, dryer, or anything else like that, as over time, you'll melt the insides of the plug. Those devices use more power at peak than they say, which is more than what the plug is rated for at 3120W. You need a heavy duty type plug. We don't sell our heavy duty plug in Europe, only the USA."
What do those using UK plugs on big devices use? Somebody must be doing it...
I'm in the US, but I'll share my experience. I've been using a TP-Link Kasa KP125 for monitoring my washer's power for a couple weeks. My washer is a high efficiency front-loader. It never goes over 600 watts, and that's at the END of a high speed spin cycle. My washer motor's speed and direction are electronically controlled, and it doesn't appear to have the high "in rush" currents associated with some types of motors and controls. One of my freezers, for example, has an instantaneous peak wattage of about 1100 watts on startup, and a running power of 130 watts. The peak could be higher...the sampling frequency of the plug may not be fast enough to catch it.
I'm planning to use a Kasa HS110 to permanently monitor my washer. And I'm planning to use a modified HS110 for monitoring other motor-based loads. The HS110 is rated at 1800 watts. I'm planning to open it up and solder a jumper across the relay contacts, which are usually the "weak link" in the electrical chain. This will prevent the plug from ever de-energizing the connected appliance (a good thing for me) and should allow the device to be used for most 110V household loads less than 15 amps (almost all of them here in the US).
I chose this specific plug because it's design makes it easy to do my desired modification. There is/was a UK version of the HS110, but I'm not sure how well it integrates with HE. I'm using a different system for power monitoring.
As an alternative, I think some folks who can't use power monitoring are using vibration sensors to monitor washer and/or dryer cycles. Others have gotten more creative with DIY solutions like this one...
II have been using this method for quite some time now and it works flawlessly for my dryer. I think it is dryer dependent, our dryer is about 10 years old now so maybe newer ones may be more problematic.
I'm using the Fibaro myself. I'm not so sure about what that engineer at Innr said. 3120W works out at 13 Amps based on the supply being 240V (although the UK supply is 230V nominal, I've not seen a reading of less than 236V measured) . I wouldn't expect any domestic appliance to peak above 13 Amps as a BS1363 plug is only rated at 13 amps.
Our washer (AEG) just finished a cycle - I checked the logs and that didn't go above 2121 Watts and has never gone above 2219 Watts looking at powerH in the device states:
What some don't realise is that regardless of whether it is a single or double socket - it is rated at 13 Amps as a whole. Just because it'll take two BS1363 plugs with a 13Amp fuse in each doesn't mean you should do that.
If you can't find a plug look at using a current sensing switch. Works amazingly.
I got the idea from another thread on this forum (that I can't find). Basically you put it around one of the legs of the power going into the back of the plug and connect it to any kind of sensor that accepts external input. I used a ecolink contact switch for this to bring it in a zwave.
The install was much easier than I expected. Took me 10 minutes. Just had to take the panel off the back, unscrew the leg to feed it through the switch and screw it back in. Set it up in HE and the switch will send on/off based on the status of the dryer. It doesn't need external power. It generates just enough power from sensing to trigger the switch.
I did try vibration sensors but you will go through a lot of batteries as the sensor will constanly be active throughout the cycle. The second sensor I tried just flooded the network with reports. So wasn't worth the headache.
My washer uses much less power so I use a power sensing switch for that as it can handle the load. But I may want to change that over eventually as well.
If you had two high consumers in a kitchen - Washing Machine & Dishwasher as an example, and there was a chance that they would be running simultaneously, the solution is just to have two single sockets as each is rated at 13 Amps.
I believe the thread was this one, which I recommend @NiallG might want to scan through for the discussion of the issues with using power monitoring for the washer.
I have some aurora doubles power monitoring is not great imho, i have click smart single and doubles no power mointering.
Both the aurora and clicksmart are my preferred as they are not plugin sockets.
I have various gen of smartthing plug in sockets all work very well and a few aeotec ones which imho give the best power monitoring.
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