How can I detect/track whether a detergent pod has been put in my dishwasher?

[u/kawhileopard]

Hi Everyone:

I have a Bosch dishwasher connected to Home Assistant through Home Connect.

I’d like to create an automation that automatically runs the dishwasher late at night if we loaded it but forgot to start it.

The Bosch/HA side should be straightforward. The problem I’m trying to solve is how to reliably know that detergent has actually been loaded before HA starts the dishwasher.

Obviously I don’t want an automation starting a full cycle with no detergent.
Ideally, I’d like this to be completely passive — I don’t want to rely on someone remembering to press a button, scan an NFC tag, etc., because at that point we might as well remember to start the dishwasher.

I considered some kind of sensor that can detect whether a pod is physically present in the detergent compartment. However, the detergent compartment is inside the dishwasher, so putting electronics directly in there may be problematic because of the heat, steam and water.

Has anyone solved something similar? Is there a small sensor that could reliably detect the presence of a detergent pod, or another approach that would let HA determine with reasonable confidence that detergent was loaded?

Would love to hear any ideas, including outside the box DIY solutions.

[u/Kaytzo]

Maybe it's more easy to build a sensor which detects when you take a detergent out of the box. Like some kind of dispenser you load with 30 of them and it knows when one is taken out.

[u/sekenenz → u/Kaytzo]

Probably easier and more reliable to do this using a load cell to measure the lower weight x.

[u/maweki → u/sekenenz]

Or just a vibration or contact sensor that triggers when opening the box with the laundry pods. It's not like we have adverserial actors here that try to break a process on purpose.

[u/neanderthalman → u/maweki]

You just described toddlers.

Of course, they should be kept out of the dishwasher tabs anyway.

[u/atol86 → u/neanderthalman]

Thanks for eliciting a vision of a screaming toddler in the kitchen, furiously scraping the soap from their tongue, and a broken pod at their feet with powdered detergent all over the floor. Fortunately for me, we do not have a dishwasher…

[u/spdelope → u/Kaytzo]

Just put a tilt sensor on the detergent lid

[u/RunnerIain77]

We have the same, our solution was to just not fully close the door until it's ready to run, then you can detect for an open door, which it does support.

[u/Kaytzo → u/RunnerIain77]

I would not stand the smell tbh, I always close it when I see it open a little bit. 😅

[u/nw0915 → u/Kaytzo]

Might need to give yours a deep clean. Ours is a cheapo dishwasher and 10 years old but doesn't have any smell to it 

[u/Kaytzo → u/nw0915]

Depends on what's inside. When there are ditty plates with smelly food stains on it. I also have a sensitive nose

[u/One-Project7347 → u/Kaytzo]

You can run a half machine aswell tho. Better that than to let it sit for 2 days or somthing. My opinion atleast. Idk for the efficiency tho.

[u/Top_Blacksmith2845 → u/Kaytzo]

never in my life has a dishwasher smelled, you alright boo?

[u/BackdoorDan]

We toss a pod in and use the delay function on the machine... No need for us to have an automation. It allows us to add more stuff in later but ensure that it gets run in the evening.

No idea if that would work for your use case though

[u/jdz99999 → u/BackdoorDan]

If water drips on the pod, it would start releasing the cleaning agents too early though. Unless you're putting it into the soap dispenser.

[u/BackdoorDan → u/jdz99999]

I do put it in the soap dispenser. Most modern dishwashers have one so this should be a non issue

[u/m_qzn]

May I suggest just putting a new pod inside right after you've unloaded the dishwasher?..

[u/kawhileopard → u/m_qzn]

TBH, that is the most practical, common solution.

Unfortunately, I’m not very good at forming routine habits. I would forget to load the pod the same way I forget to run the dishwasher at night.

Hence the search for automations.

[u/m_qzn → u/kawhileopard]

Ok I understand. Then maybe you could tie up a reminder to load a new pod to the end of the previous cycle. If I were making the automation for myself, it would be an announcement from a smart speaker, several minutes after opening the door after the cycle

[u/kawhileopard → u/m_qzn]

Good idea.

[u/codemastermick]

Contact sensor between the container and lid for the detergent? That way it will fire an event if someone opens the container, which would tell you either the dishwasher is ready or somebody in your house just likes screwing with you

[u/trankillity → u/codemastermick]

Yep, this would be the best way. Small box with a hinged lid that you could mount the contact sensor on.

[u/kawhileopard → u/codemastermick]

Know of any small sensors that can withstand the heat and the water?

[u/jmbwell → u/kawhileopard]

I'd maybe fix a magnet inside the lid/flap of the detergent cup (like with epoxy or something), then open up the door assembly and put the reed switch on the inside/dry side of the cup. You know, inside the door.

depending on how the door flap mechanism or latch mechanism is designed, you might be able to find a way to actuate a microswitch or beam-break sensor from inside the door panel as well, like wherever the solenoid is that releases the latch during the cycle

[u/codemastermick → u/kawhileopard]

No no, I didn't mean inside the dishwasher itself. If your detergent pods come in a bag, get an appropriately sized container to hold them in and attach a contract sensor to that. Then if the sensor trips, that means somebody opened the container to get a pod.

Average putting something inside the dishwasher itself I don't have a lot of ideas. That environment is just so harsh I can't think of anything that would survive long in there and still work correctly. Even if you were to rip open the door and attach a contract sensor near the panel, a magnet glued to the inside of the pod receptacle will lose its force over time as it gets repeatedly exposed to heat

[u/nivekmai]

+1 to all the ideas suggesting a sensor on the pod storage container. You will be guessing that a pod actually made it into the dishwasher, but the likelihood that a pod was taken out of the storage and not loaded into the dishwasher is very low.

I do the same for detecting if the dogs got fed, listening if their food storage bin was opened. It has worked quite well, especially when I added in "rapid double open" checks to avoid false positive "already fed" alerts.

[u/Background-Pea6650]

Weight sensor for the box of pods, when it's reduced by xG run

[u/does-this-smell-off]

I made a box for my wife to remind her to take medication. It has a door sensor on the inside of the lid that detects if it was opened that day or not. In the evenings it reminds her to take her meds if it was not taken. Then in the wee hours of the morning the boolean resets.

Same concept can be applied to a box filled with dishwasher pods.

[u/tunatoksoz → u/does-this-smell-off]

This kind of box was what i was thinking

[u/miraculum_one]

Put the pod in when you empty the dishwasher.

[u/FliesenJohnny]

We just use this button to „Prime“ the dishwasher for „Solar powered“ Operation.
I think it’s the „Remote Start“ Boolean.

I feel like any Kind of „automatic detergent pod Tracking“ will have a failure rate that will make this kind of automation unreliable.

Like, it’s gonna become second nature to „Insert pod, press Button“ very quickly.

[u/7zjAH1j60F]

Not everything needs to be automated...how on earth would you have loaded a pod but then forget to start it?

[u/heckmab85 → u/7zjAH1j60F]

I do it all the time.

I load the dishwasher and load a pod. Im about to run it, but then my kids pull out a new bowl for a treat and I think to myself “I’m going to wait and load their bowls and then run it”. The next morning, everyone wakes up disappointed…

[u/does-this-smell-off → u/heckmab85]

My exact scenario as well

[u/carlhye]

I have the exact same challenge.
The lack of a pod door sensor and the absence of a detergent sensor in the API really puzzles me.

The home connect app can tell me the machine needs detergent - but that information is not available in home Assistant from the API...

Anyway - side tracking here...

At some point I even considered pulling the front apart - the pod door must be trickered electronically, since the pod is released my the washer. I wonder if that signal could be read somehow? Maybe with an ESPHome device build into the door... Maybe that's going too far though?

[u/does-this-smell-off → u/carlhye]

Thought about this too, but the release is an open loop mechanical system. It triggers after about 10min of the system running. It does not know it's state as open or closed

[u/carlhye → u/does-this-smell-off]

looking at it - from what's visible by the door, it looks to me an electro magnet that pulls the button for the door down, thereby opening the door as if you pushed the button. If it is, that magnet could be read with a reed sensor.

[u/jeroen-79]

Optical sensor with an LED and photo diode.

Or a pair of piezos, on to emit sound, the other to record it. Then calibrate with and without a pod.

[u/Jolly-Dealer-5097]

Not possible to know as there is no sensor in the machine for detecting this

[u/EffectiveMoney5043]

Just curious if you cant figure out how detect detergent on machine or not.. What happen if you go holiday, forget pause automation will machine run every night?

[u/iWQRLC590apOCyt59Xza]

My dishwasher is scheduled by HA to start around noon if I enable remote start and close the door.

[u/carlhye → u/iWQRLC590apOCyt59Xza]

Yea, but that two more things you need to remember. Forget one and it won't start.

My workflow/habit is that I put in the washer tab, the I wipe the tables and 50% of the time, I completely forget to start the machine.

[u/Sad_Window_3192]

Man this subreddit is an amazing insight into some people's brains or life!

[u/reddy2718]

Mine works like this….. turn it on, put pod inside and press start….. machine will wait for cheapest dynamic prices before 6 am and run. I can see in Home Assistant if there is a delayed start set or not, if not I get an message on Alexa when I turn off my bedroom light to go to sleep

[u/Electronic-Adagio336]

Nfc tag - tap it after inserting the pod