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> Running a clothes dryer unattended is not safe. Those appliances are among the more common causes of house fires. A smart-ified clothes dryer is more attend

> Running a clothes dryer unattended is not safe. Those appliances are among the more common causes of house fires. A smart-ified clothes dryer is more attended to than a conventional one. >And as a practical matter, busy parents with small children can't defer running the washer and dryer. It needs to finish in time to fold and put away the clothes, and you often need to run multiple loads I'm one of them. I can't always defer, true enough. But I can often enough.

deadbunny 9y ago
> smart-ified I don't care how smart your dryer is, if it catches on fire it's not going to do shit.
- ajarmst 9y ago
  Well, if you equip it with a halon suppression system in a sealed and heavily sensored room, it might. Of course, now your dryer is your single most expensive possession by an order of magnitude. Which always seems to start being the problem when people propose "smart" solutions. "Well, first we need a class IV AI and on-demand local fusion energy, then everything gets easy..."
  - Dylan16807 9y ago
    I mean, you could just put in a few more heat sensors.
    - ajarmst 9y ago
      But the dryer knowing that it, and most of your possessions, are about to cease to exist isn't really useful information. It doesn't remove the obligation that it be supervised. Dryer fires start quickly, often due to lint build-up, and can start when the dryer is operating in its normal temperature regime. Thus the sensors would often only be helpful in identifying that a fire has started, not in preventing it. Thus, unless the dryer has some way of intervening in the fire (like my admittedly sarcastic halon system), its "smart"ness isn't valuable for this failure mode.
      - Dylan16807 9y ago
        > Dryer fires start quickly, often due to lint build-up, and can start when the dryer is operating in its normal temperature regime. Lint does not catch fire at 140F.
        jacquesm 9y ago
        Welcome to the science of fire. If you pump energy into a system faster than you are removing it then you are heating it up, if you pump energy out faster than you are adding it then you are cooling something down. This is how hay bales that are a little moist will catch fire, the digestive process (which is slow but exothermal) of the bacteria in the center of the slightly rotting bale of hay are so well insulated from the outside world by the rest of the hay that the temperature will at some point exceed the ignition temperature of the hay and then you have spontaneous combustion. Something very similar can happy to driers if the exit ducts become more clogged than a certain percentage. And let's not even talk about gas fired dryers (does anybody still use those other than dry cleaning services?).
        Dylan16807 9y ago
        > Welcome to the science of fire. If you pump energy into a system faster than you are removing it then you are heating it up, if you pump energy out faster than you are adding it then you are cooling something down. That's why I said "more temperature sensors". It's possible to design a relatively-standard dryer where no part ever gets above boiling, even when the output is completely blocked, giving you a huge margin of error. Heat in a dryer is all externally applied. It can't build up on its own.
        ams6110 9y ago
        I have had gas dryers whenever I've had a house with gas service. They dry faster and cost a lot less to operate.
        dragonwriter 9y ago
        > Lint does not catch fire at 140F. No but sparks that can ignite lint are common risks around operating dryers (both wiring faults and static discharges are issues.)
- skybrian 9y ago
  I'm wondering how this works. Do you really watch over your dryer just to make sure it doesn't catch on fire? If that were really a problem, wouldn't a fire alarm do a better job than an easily distracted human?
  - bryondowd 9y ago
    Good point. Although I suppose you might still want to be home rather than running it while you're at work or otherwise away, to have a chance of grabbing the extinguisher and/or calling the fire department before your whole home is lost. I'm not sure how common it is to have smoke detectors automatically notify the fire department, and I expect there's issues there similar to burglar alarms, with false alarms being far more common than real ones, which affects response time.
    - goodcanadian 9y ago
      I'm not sure how common it is to have smoke detectors automatically notify the fire department . . . It is extremely common to have smoke detectors integrated with the burglar alarm. I do not know how common monitored alarms are in private homes, however: I personally can only think of one person I know that has that.
  - michaelt 9y ago
    Do you really watch over your dryer just to make sure it doesn't catch on fire? In my house, how it works is if an appliance in another room catches fire, I'm alerted by the smoke alarm and I can choose a correct response - such as a fire blanket, turning off the electricity, and/or calling the fire brigade. The purpose of me being in the building or nearby is to ensure a correct and timely response. If the fire brigade are called by a real person and asked to attend, they'll know it's not a false alarm. But when I've seen the fire brigade called by automated systems? False alarms every time. And the police don't even bother to come out to a burglar alarm or car alarm going off - it's got to be confirmed as a genuine alarm by a neighbour or alarm monitoring service.
    - 9y ago
- bryondowd 9y ago
  The main cause of dryer fires is lint buildup resulting from poor maintenance, cleaning, or installation, from what I understand. Built up lint is an ideal material for starting a fire. I suppose if you added some sort of sensors, you could make a smart dryer that demands to be cleaned before running if it detects a significant buildup. Might be able to largely mitigate the risk, barring active user circumvention. I'm just spitballing, though.
  - Naritai 9y ago
    Yeah, I would guess 'lint buildup would impact airflow through the lint screen, which would be easily monitored.
- DannyBee 9y ago
  "I don't care how smart your dryer is, if it catches on fire it's not going to do shit." Basically all of these are caused blocked ducts, which is trivial to make smart by including a flow/pressure meter. It's basically 100% detectable. If you are worried about failure of sensor, this is a field where they use sensors in ridiculously contaminated and abrasive environments (material handling, etc). "Lint" is neither. (compared to what else we use flexible tube to handle as a material) So you can simply prevent the fire in the first place. Much more so than pretty much any other appliance.
  - ams6110 9y ago
    You don't need smart to do that. A simple mechanical pressure switch can handle it. Also dryers have several high limit switches that will cut out if the temperature gets to high. None of this requires a silicon brain or internet connection.

deadbunny 9y ago

> smart-ified I don't care how smart your dryer is, if it catches on fire it's not going to do shit.

ajarmst 9y ago
Well, if you equip it with a halon suppression system in a sealed and heavily sensored room, it might. Of course, now your dryer is your single most expensive possession by an order of magnitude. Which always seems to start being the problem when people propose "smart" solutions. "Well, first we need a class IV AI and on-demand local fusion energy, then everything gets easy..."
- Dylan16807 9y ago
  I mean, you could just put in a few more heat sensors.
  - ajarmst 9y ago
    But the dryer knowing that it, and most of your possessions, are about to cease to exist isn't really useful information. It doesn't remove the obligation that it be supervised. Dryer fires start quickly, often due to lint build-up, and can start when the dryer is operating in its normal temperature regime. Thus the sensors would often only be helpful in identifying that a fire has started, not in preventing it. Thus, unless the dryer has some way of intervening in the fire (like my admittedly sarcastic halon system), its "smart"ness isn't valuable for this failure mode.
    - Dylan16807 9y ago
      > Dryer fires start quickly, often due to lint build-up, and can start when the dryer is operating in its normal temperature regime. Lint does not catch fire at 140F.
      - jacquesm 9y ago
        Welcome to the science of fire. If you pump energy into a system faster than you are removing it then you are heating it up, if you pump energy out faster than you are adding it then you are cooling something down. This is how hay bales that are a little moist will catch fire, the digestive process (which is slow but exothermal) of the bacteria in the center of the slightly rotting bale of hay are so well insulated from the outside world by the rest of the hay that the temperature will at some point exceed the ignition temperature of the hay and then you have spontaneous combustion. Something very similar can happy to driers if the exit ducts become more clogged than a certain percentage. And let's not even talk about gas fired dryers (does anybody still use those other than dry cleaning services?).
        Dylan16807 9y ago
        > Welcome to the science of fire. If you pump energy into a system faster than you are removing it then you are heating it up, if you pump energy out faster than you are adding it then you are cooling something down. That's why I said "more temperature sensors". It's possible to design a relatively-standard dryer where no part ever gets above boiling, even when the output is completely blocked, giving you a huge margin of error. Heat in a dryer is all externally applied. It can't build up on its own.
        ams6110 9y ago
        I have had gas dryers whenever I've had a house with gas service. They dry faster and cost a lot less to operate.
      - dragonwriter 9y ago
        > Lint does not catch fire at 140F. No but sparks that can ignite lint are common risks around operating dryers (both wiring faults and static discharges are issues.)
skybrian 9y ago
I'm wondering how this works. Do you really watch over your dryer just to make sure it doesn't catch on fire? If that were really a problem, wouldn't a fire alarm do a better job than an easily distracted human?
- bryondowd 9y ago
  Good point. Although I suppose you might still want to be home rather than running it while you're at work or otherwise away, to have a chance of grabbing the extinguisher and/or calling the fire department before your whole home is lost. I'm not sure how common it is to have smoke detectors automatically notify the fire department, and I expect there's issues there similar to burglar alarms, with false alarms being far more common than real ones, which affects response time.
  - goodcanadian 9y ago
    I'm not sure how common it is to have smoke detectors automatically notify the fire department . . . It is extremely common to have smoke detectors integrated with the burglar alarm. I do not know how common monitored alarms are in private homes, however: I personally can only think of one person I know that has that.
- michaelt 9y ago
  Do you really watch over your dryer just to make sure it doesn't catch on fire? In my house, how it works is if an appliance in another room catches fire, I'm alerted by the smoke alarm and I can choose a correct response - such as a fire blanket, turning off the electricity, and/or calling the fire brigade. The purpose of me being in the building or nearby is to ensure a correct and timely response. If the fire brigade are called by a real person and asked to attend, they'll know it's not a false alarm. But when I've seen the fire brigade called by automated systems? False alarms every time. And the police don't even bother to come out to a burglar alarm or car alarm going off - it's got to be confirmed as a genuine alarm by a neighbour or alarm monitoring service.
  - 9y ago
bryondowd 9y ago
The main cause of dryer fires is lint buildup resulting from poor maintenance, cleaning, or installation, from what I understand. Built up lint is an ideal material for starting a fire. I suppose if you added some sort of sensors, you could make a smart dryer that demands to be cleaned before running if it detects a significant buildup. Might be able to largely mitigate the risk, barring active user circumvention. I'm just spitballing, though.
- Naritai 9y ago
  Yeah, I would guess 'lint buildup would impact airflow through the lint screen, which would be easily monitored.
DannyBee 9y ago
"I don't care how smart your dryer is, if it catches on fire it's not going to do shit." Basically all of these are caused blocked ducts, which is trivial to make smart by including a flow/pressure meter. It's basically 100% detectable. If you are worried about failure of sensor, this is a field where they use sensors in ridiculously contaminated and abrasive environments (material handling, etc). "Lint" is neither. (compared to what else we use flexible tube to handle as a material) So you can simply prevent the fire in the first place. Much more so than pretty much any other appliance.
- ams6110 9y ago
  You don't need smart to do that. A simple mechanical pressure switch can handle it. Also dryers have several high limit switches that will cut out if the temperature gets to high. None of this requires a silicon brain or internet connection.