Never Forget the Laundry Again: Washer/Dryer 'Done' Alerts

There’s a particular kind of domestic defeat that every renter knows: you put a wash on, get distracted, and come back two hours later to find a drum full of damp, vaguely sour clothes. You rewash them. You feel slightly ashamed. Then it happens again.

The fix is embarrassingly simple. You don’t need a €700 connected washing machine or any kind of permanent installation. A single energy-monitoring smart plug — the kind you can pick up for under $20 — can watch your perfectly ordinary machine, detect the moment the cycle ends, and ping your phone before the laundry has time to go sad. It’s one of the most satisfying small automations in a renter’s arsenal, and when you move out, you just unplug it and take it with you.

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How we pick

Recommendations here are based on published specifications, wattage ratings, local-control details, and the consensus of independent community reviewers. No paid placement. I haven’t personally tested every plug with every machine — but the underlying principle (power-drop detection) is hardware-agnostic and well-documented by the Home Assistant community.

How the trick actually works

Every washing machine and tumble dryer has a recognisable power signature. During a cycle — heating water, spinning, tumbling — the machine draws anywhere from a few hundred watts up to 2 000 W or more. When the cycle ends, that draw collapses to near zero (just a standby trickle, maybe 1–3 W).

An energy-monitoring plug watches that number in real time. The automation logic is:

1. Power rises above a threshold (say, 5 W) — the machine has started.
2. Power stays elevated for several minutes — it’s genuinely running, not just filling or pausing.
3. Power drops back below the threshold and stays there for a few minutes — the cycle is finished.
4. Send the notification: “Washing’s done — go rescue it.”

That deliberate delay (typically 3–5 minutes below threshold) is important: washers pause mid-cycle, spin briefly, or coast down between drum reversals. Without the delay you’d get false alarms every ten minutes. With it, the notification fires reliably when the job is actually done.

No smart appliance. No rewiring. No landlord conversation. The plug sits between the machine and the wall socket — totally reversible, totally invisible to your lease agreement.

Want to estimate how much electricity your washer actually costs per cycle? Plug your machine’s rated wattage and cycle length into the Energy Savings Calculator — useful for both the automation logic and your monthly bills.

Which plug to use

Not all smart plugs report energy data — many cheaper ones just switch on and off. For this automation you specifically need energy monitoring (real-time wattage reporting). Here are the plugs worth considering, all confirmed to work with Home Assistant:

Always verify the current model’s rated load for your region before buying — line-ups change.

A word on dryers and wattage — please read this

Tumble dryers, especially vented or condenser models with a heating element, are high-draw appliances. A typical electric dryer pulls 1 800–5 000 W depending on the heat setting and drum size. Heat-pump dryers are more efficient but still substantial.

The rule: the plug’s maximum rated wattage must comfortably exceed your machine’s peak draw, ideally with 20–25 % headroom. At 13 A / 2 990 W, the Tapo P110M covers most European and North American washers and heat-pump dryers. For a full-size electric dryer on a US 240 V circuit, the machine is typically hard-wired — a standard smart plug won’t apply at all. Check your appliance’s label or manual for its rated wattage before buying anything.

If you’re unsure which plug fits your setup, the Smart Home Configurator can help you match appliances to plugs based on wattage and protocol. For a broader look at plug options, the best smart plugs for renters covers the full landscape including non-metered picks.

Step-by-step setup

Using the manufacturer’s app (no Home Assistant)

Even without Home Assistant, the Tapo app (for P110/P110M) has a built-in automation engine that can approximate this:

1. Plug the smart plug into the wall socket; plug the washer into the smart plug.
2. Open the app and go to Energy — run a normal cycle and watch the live wattage. Note the “running” peak and the “idle” floor.
3. In the Tapo app, go to Automations → Add. Set a trigger: “When energy usage drops below [your idle threshold, e.g. 5 W]” and an action: send a push notification.
4. Add a delay condition or use a “has been below X for Y minutes” rule if available, to avoid false alarms from mid-cycle pauses.

The Shelly app and Aqara app offer similar automation builders. The exact path varies by app version — look for “Energy trigger” or “Power trigger” in the automation section.

Using Home Assistant (recommended)

Home Assistant gives you the cleanest, most flexible version of this automation with no cloud dependency. If you haven’t set it up yet, the Home Assistant setup guide walks through installation from scratch.

The basic flow:

1. Add your plug to HA (Tapo via the TP-Link Tapo integration, Shelly via Shelly integration, Aqara via Zigbee2MQTT or the Aqara hub integration).
2. Find the plug’s power sensor entity (e.g. sensor.washer_plug_power).
3. Create an automation — see the Home Assistant section below for the YAML.

Home Assistant automation

Here’s the core logic. It waits for power to have been above 10 W (machine running) and then drop below 5 W for 3 minutes — at which point it sends a mobile app notification.

alias: Laundry Done Alert
description: Notify when washer finishes (power drops after running)
trigger:
  - platform: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.washer_plug_power
    below: 5
    for:
      minutes: 3
condition:
  - condition: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.washer_plug_power
    attribute: last_changed_value
    above: 10
action:
  - service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone
    data:
      title: "Laundry's done 🧺"
      message: "Go rescue it before it goes sour."
mode: single

Adjust the entity ID, the power thresholds, and the notification target to match your setup. Not sure about the YAML syntax or which entities to reference? The YAML Generator builds automations like this interactively — paste in your entity name and it outputs ready-to-use config.

Want to go further? The first 5 automations worth setting up as a renter includes the laundry alert alongside other no-drill wins, and how I made my rental smart shows how these small pieces fit together into a coherent setup.

Optional upgrades

Once the basic alert is working, a few extras make it noticeably better:

• Repeat the nudge every 15 minutes if you haven’t acted. A door or motion sensor on the laundry area can cancel the repeat when you walk over.
• Flash a smart bulb in the living room so you notice without looking at your phone — especially useful if you keep your phone on silent.
• Track energy per cycle in the HA Energy dashboard. After a few weeks you’ll know exactly what each load costs, which makes the renter smart-home starter kit case for these devices much easier to justify.

Frequently asked questions

Does this work with any washing machine or dryer, even an old one? Yes — that’s the whole point. The plug doesn’t communicate with the machine at all; it just watches the power draw from the outside. Brand, age, and model are irrelevant. As long as the machine plugs into a standard wall socket and the plug’s wattage rating covers the machine’s draw, it works.

Is it safe to use a smart plug with a tumble dryer? For most modern heat-pump dryers and smaller condenser dryers, yes — provided you check the dryer’s rated wattage and confirm the plug’s maximum load exceeds it with headroom. The Tapo P110M is rated to 2 990 W / 13 A, which covers the majority of European dryers. Full-size North American electric dryers (typically 240 V, 5 000 W+) are usually hard-wired and bypass this entirely — a plug-in smart plug won’t apply. When in doubt, check the appliance label and err on the side of not using a plug.

Why do I get false “done” alerts mid-cycle? The wash drum pauses, reverses direction, or briefly coasts between programme stages — all of which cause a short power dip. The solution is the for: minutes: 3 delay in the automation: power must stay below the threshold for a sustained period before the alert fires. If you still get false alarms, extend the delay to 5 minutes or raise the “below” threshold slightly.

Do I need Home Assistant, or can I use the plug’s own app? The plug’s own app works for a basic alert. HA gives you more control (custom thresholds, repeat nudges, multi-device actions, no cloud dependency) and is worth it if you’re building toward a broader smart-home setup. If you’re on the fence, start with the app — you can migrate the automation to HA later without changing any hardware.

Bottom line

One energy-monitoring smart plug, a 10-minute setup, and you’ve turned a decade-old washing machine into one that taps you on the shoulder the moment it’s done. No new appliance, no holes in the wall, no conversation with the landlord. It’s the kind of small automation that earns its place in the drawer immediately — and moves with you to every flat you’ll ever rent.

If this is your first smart-home piece, the renter smart-home starter kit shows how it fits alongside a few other no-drill wins. And if you want the full picture on choosing a plug, best smart plugs for renters has the comparison you need.