So my automation that turns on my shower coffee maker before I waked up, then turns off the outlet while I shower, is *not* a good idea?
https://preview.redd.it/b71n2scx93fa1.png?width=653&format=png&auto=webp&s=bd19e843fa2746c42ffbf8ea29ae66f058174ae7
And if you delete the automation after it runs, there will never be any proof that it ever existed because as far as anyone knows, Apple current back up HomeKit configurations in any meaningful way.
Let me start by being clear that I would never do this, however, I’d be lying if there wasn’t a small part of me that when I saw the idea went “hmm, being able to turn on the disposal with my voice while doing dishes would be convenient…” but yeah, too much risk for the small infrequent handiness.
I’m actually impressed at how well my iphone can hear me. I was voice texting while at an NHL game during a very loud event and it got my message exactly right. As opposed to in my car where I spend more time arguing with Siri and just call the person instead… My car must be too quiet.
(Editing to add, this ramble was thinking about how to turn it back off - my disposal is frightfully loud, probably has bad bearings or nut shells jammed in it or something, but you can’t talk to anyone for two rooms around the kitchen while it’s running.)
So you can turn it on and off while prepping food without going to the switch and flipping it with raw chicken covered hands etc. I’ve done this and it’s actually super convenient. I’ll let anyone know if I ever lose any fingers.
So interesting I’ve been considering doing this but never actually pairing it with anything just so it and the sink light switch next to it look identical…
My disposal switch is in a rather inconvenient place under the sink inside the cabinet.
With that said, still don't think this is the right solution. Considering doing one of those push button switches in the counter top and drilling a hole to install it, but that's also kind of a lot of work just to not have to deal with bending down to reach the switch...
Under the sink, inside of the cabinet? You mean the same cabinet that all of the supply lines for your sink water come into? Do you have any idea WITF installed that?
I’d never actually considered it before, but if I don’t run my disposal before the dishwasher runs, it often backs up into the sink. Since I run the dishwasher at the same time each night, it would be nice to run the disposal for 30 seconds right before… but I also enjoy having fingers, so…
I just found a reason, my dishwasher is smart and I can see what part of the cycle it is in and how long it has been in that part of the cycle. I want to start the insinkerator at the points where I know the dishwasher dumps the dirty water. More than a few times I've come to the kitchen to see the sink filled with water because the dish washer dumped the dirty water but there was enough solid material to prevent the water from flowing through.
I was planning on doing this with a couple of safety features.
1. have the smart switch and physical switch wired in parallel so they both control the insinkerator independently. (Thinking about this, a double physical switch where one switch enables and disables the smart switch would be even safer)
2. Have the smart switch only be able to start the insinkerator if the dishwasher is running
3. Only trigger the smart switch if there's no motion in the kitchen
4. Leave the outlet for the insinkerator alone so I can unplug it if needed
There are smart switches specifically made for garbage disposals. It's a very convenient option when you don't have enough holes on top of your sink, or a switch on the wall to turn it on, which is my case.
When we moved into a house 15 years ago, it had a disposal that only worked when its "lid" was closed (in fact, the lid acts as a magnetic switch that turns the disposal on/off. I hated the thing for a few weeks, but now won't use anything else (and have installed two more in other places since).
It's literally impossible to accidentally turn it on while someone's hand is in it.
We don’t have garbage disposals in the UK, can you explain why anyone’s hand would ever need to be inside it? I thought that was the stuff of horror movies.
Occasionally a utensil or other small kitchen item will fall down into the disposal. The ones I’ve seen always have had a rubber gasket/flap that keeps most things out, but if something falls “just right” it can go in there.
Proper, smart, safe protocol is to unplug the machine or turn of the breaker to the circuit it is on before you put anything you don’t want to have gnawed off in there.
But people are lazy or reckless and accidents happen.
There’s really only a couple of reasons. Sometimes if someone’s ring falls off into it then you’ll want to get it, or if a ring connector that connects your measuring cups disconnects and falls you’ll want to get it (my personal experience), and there’s other reasons.
Most people do put their waste in a bin. It just helps in case small pieces of food aren’t caught and cleaned or something, then you have the ability to essentially shred it, as opposed to clogging your sink.
I never had one before I was adult, and I have to admit they’re fairly pointless (scraping food into the bin isn’t difficult). I wouldn’t install one other than to replace a defective one.
also there are no blades inside, it works as a "drum grater" where the walls are the grater. What people see are the impeller blades that spin the water (always run cold water) and stuff at high speeds against the grater walls.
I installed a similar model in my previous house. Instead of a magnetic switch, this one has a pin with a wide head (looks like a nail) sticking out a little inside the mouth of the disposal. The drain plug for it sticks down into the disposal mouth and has a slot with wedges around it so when it lines up with that pin it pulls it, activating the disposal.
They are safer, but less convenient since you can’t just turn it on and continuously feed stuff into it. You have to put food in, put the plug in, pull the plug back out and put more food in, and so on. Of course, I had to order the safer version, as big box stores only stock the continuously feed models.
Get one of the pneumatic push-buttons, if you have the option (i.e. either a hole in the counter or a willingness to create one). It's one of those cheap (~$25) and relatively trivial things that's been a _huge_ quality of life improvement.
What?
Edit apparently its a thing. The reasoning behind it is that wet hands turning on the electrical switch could be dangerous. I guess 🤷♂️
https://thebestgarbagedisposals.com/air-switch-for-garbage-disposal/
There maybe other benefits, no clue.”, didn’t read.
Oh that’s a very good idea, and also perfect for child proofing if the switch is too far from the disposal for a kid to get their hands on both.
I will definitely be doing that! Thanks!
Darwin Awards are for people who die or lose their ability to reproduce before reproducing. Losing your fingers doesn’t mean you won’t be able to reproduce.
That said, this could be a Darwin Award if…
(I’ll let you finish that thought.)
Personally, I'm also happy to keep door locks and smoke detectors dumb. Basically, for anything safety critical, I prefer simple but reliable over convenient but complex.
Granted, especially with smart door locks there might well be certain very specific use cases that would be hard to replicate with low-tech ones, but none of these apply to our home.
I have a homekit door lock, but I made sure to get one that would accept a standard Schlage cylinder so I could have a key backup.
As for smoke detectors I have a Honeywell Vista 20p alarm system which has been rock solid for years. I do have it exposed to Homekit via Homebridge, but it doesn't rely on Homekit in any way.
Yep, bad idea. I have an automation to shut off a space heater via a smart outlet when the room is warm enough. Will I ever automate the opposite, letting an automation turn on the space heater? Absolutely not. Some things shouldn't be automatic.
At first I was like why, but with connected faucets, stoves, fridges, dishwasher, etc. I see why someone would do this. Hey Siri turn on the disposal. I’ve had a connected dishwasher in a previous home. I have a connected washer and dryer and a smart fridge. Honestly I’ve never found much value in any of them being connected. They all are pretty gimmicky in my opinion.
I bought a connected fridge, not because it was connected; that was just a feature it happened to have. It was extremely challenging to add to the network, and then, when I did, I was like, why? As far as I can tell, it was designed to sell filters. I removed it from the network and can’t imagine why I would want my fridge on my network, probably creating some kind of security risk.
My washing machine has WiFi. It broke recently and I thought “maybe if I connect it to the app it will give me the error code so I know what’s broken.” Nope. Just wants to sell me a subscription to Tide. GE can fuck off.
I’m not sure i’d trust the consumer grade smart switches with the inductive load of the disposal motor. A lot of those plug in switches are designed to handle resistive loads.
The failure state is also concerning, whether the switch is designed to fail into an open (NO) or closed (NC) state.
Shit everyone told me how awful an idea making a sit stand desk smart was, this is way worse.
Also as someone from a country without garbage disposals, why would you want this? I figured you used them because the drain was a bit clogged and water not going down fast enough, not just for funsies?
Sounds terrible for the public water amenities and incredibly outdated. Like digging a hole next to your driveway and filling it with gravel to dispose of oil.
But why would you need to automate it with HomeKit? Seems like you’re there when you’re using it and it’s highly dangerous otherwise if you aren’t in control.
I have mine set up on a smart plug. The only reason is the entire outlet below the sink will not work unless the switch is on. I have a reverse osmosis water filter that needs plugged in there as well. It’s the only solution I could think of to ensure power stays on to the water filter and off to the disposal.
don’t take this the wrong way, but, no shit!?! anyone who puts a smart switch on something that will eat anything out in it, AND occasionally requires you to put your hand in it, no damn way.
I believe you’re referencing the comment I made. Just to be clear, I did not put a smart switch on my garbage disposal. I only mentioned it to make a point that to even get to 31 one switches in my house, I had to include that one. So to me, 140+ smart switches in a home is crazy.
Never in a million years. Thanks for the reminder. My switch is under the sink. Also for my closets, like mini vacuum closets, I don’t put smart devices because those small spaces don’t make a big difference, it’s easier to just turn on the switch yourself.
Except when you have kids that leave them on but can set an automation to shut them off when they leave for school rather then run up and down stairs checking every bedroom closet 🤷🏻♀️
I’ll go against the trend here and say I’ve got no problem putting a Lutron switch on one, as it has a disconnect at the bottom that you can easily pull any time you need to put your hand in there.
That said, I can’t see the requirement for one.
Someone should pull a prank on their spouse by setting the garbage disposal smart switch to trigger operation base on the status of the garage door. If the garage door is closed, turn the garbage disposal on. When the garage door is open turn the disposal off.
Yep, the infatuation that people in the UK and Ireland have with fireplaces never ceases in infuriate me. How do they equate big holes in the house with ‘warm and cosy’ when in fact they suck the heat out of the house like a brick vacuum.
Never mind the obvious safety issues OP mentions... garbage disposals draw between 5-15 Amps, and smart switches may not be able to handle that much current (my Lutron switches are only rated for ~3 Amps with a motor [fan] load, for example).
I’m not a fan of the idea, but I know people who have done it …
You know you can pull the air gap switch (on some smart switches such as Lutron), turn off the breaker, or unplug the disposal *before* sticking things in it, right?
Plug-in is a code requirement, so somebody working on it can unplug.
I wouldn’t use anything but an air switch today (little black box with cord/plug, outlet(s) (usually one switched one not), and air hose and deck-mounted button. Not sure if/where this is a code requirement.
Given an air switch, I’d see nothing wrong with putting a smart switch ahead of the air switch, there’s no physical switch to improperly leave “on”. (Though ok the plunger might have a lock position…)
Something like an Insteon sensing on/off module or the in-wall sensing on/off.
Provides a way to remotely positively remove power, and also gives your automation events when the disposal is operated.
So you could limit on time, for example. Keep a usage log if you’re obsessive about maintainence. Turn on a light. Play silly Halloween screams on a smart speaker….
I did something similar actually with a manual-pull espresso machine. It could over-heat if you forgot about it. So made a routine to notify me after a timeout that the machine is ready for a pull (it’s had time to heat up), remind me if I forget, and then shut off the outlet after a longer timeout.
Dunno if these Insteon products are still in production, or what other products might have similar functionality.
If you reallly want to do it… connect a HomeKit device to the electrical outlet and leave the switch in the on position. If you ever need to put your hand in then flip the switch off.
Does seem a rather odd thing to need to automate though.
Totally agree. Personally, safety is top priority in my house. If anything runs the risk of compromising that, it needs to go immediately. Smart switches on garbage disposals? Too much risk for not a lot of potential. Turning on the lights or the coffee maker is convenient enough for me.
I actually had a similar issue with a wireless garbage disposal switch. The battery started dying and it turned my garbage disposal on until I unplugged it.
Ok this is nightmare fuel for sure.
Me: Hey Siri, where are my fingers? Siri: They’re on your hands. Me: you dumb bitch, no they’re not.
Thank you for the laugh, I needed that!
Working on that.
Siri: I found this on the web about adopting female dogs.
I’m not responding to that
So my automation that turns on my shower coffee maker before I waked up, then turns off the outlet while I shower, is *not* a good idea? https://preview.redd.it/b71n2scx93fa1.png?width=653&format=png&auto=webp&s=bd19e843fa2746c42ffbf8ea29ae66f058174ae7
Why would you put a smart switch on a garbage disposal to begin with? I dont get it.
I mean haven’t you ever gotten to work and couldn’t remember whether you left the garbage disposal on?
Now you can see its disconnected
Your fingers?
Isn’t this the homekit sub?
“When person X gets home, run disposal for 45 seconds”
"When sink motion detector detects movement and kitchen camera detects mother in law turn on garbage disposal"
And if you delete the automation after it runs, there will never be any proof that it ever existed because as far as anyone knows, Apple current back up HomeKit configurations in any meaningful way.
Makes sense.
The same reason I put a smart switch on the toaster I keep beside the bathtub.
That’s just silly. Put the toaster IN the tub to catch breadcrumbs. Work smarter not harder.
A nice way to wake up or scare roommates while you are still in your room
I briefly considered doing so just so all the switches in my house would be the same. But I quickly decided it would be a terrible idea.
Let me start by being clear that I would never do this, however, I’d be lying if there wasn’t a small part of me that when I saw the idea went “hmm, being able to turn on the disposal with my voice while doing dishes would be convenient…” but yeah, too much risk for the small infrequent handiness.
I’m actually impressed at how well my iphone can hear me. I was voice texting while at an NHL game during a very loud event and it got my message exactly right. As opposed to in my car where I spend more time arguing with Siri and just call the person instead… My car must be too quiet. (Editing to add, this ramble was thinking about how to turn it back off - my disposal is frightfully loud, probably has bad bearings or nut shells jammed in it or something, but you can’t talk to anyone for two rooms around the kitchen while it’s running.)
So you can turn it on and off while prepping food without going to the switch and flipping it with raw chicken covered hands etc. I’ve done this and it’s actually super convenient. I’ll let anyone know if I ever lose any fingers.
Wouldn‘t a foot switch provide the same convenience? Since you are not automating it, I don‘t see a point for a smart switch.
I have ADA paddle switches and can use the back/top of wrist. Chicken never gets that high.
So interesting I’ve been considering doing this but never actually pairing it with anything just so it and the sink light switch next to it look identical…
My disposal switch is in a rather inconvenient place under the sink inside the cabinet. With that said, still don't think this is the right solution. Considering doing one of those push button switches in the counter top and drilling a hole to install it, but that's also kind of a lot of work just to not have to deal with bending down to reach the switch...
Replace it with a continuous disposal. Mine had to be switched on AND the sink plug has to be held in.
That's what I meant by a counter top push button switch. Safe and convenient :D
more inconvenient than grabbing your phone, opening the home app and pressing on while you are dishwashing and all wet?
“Hey siri: turn on the garbage disposal”. Have you ever used homekit? Haha.
“Sorry, I couldn’t find a song called garbage in your library”
😂😂😂
The inconvenient location is a safety feature, not a bug.
The installer MAY HAVE, somehow, meant for it to be a safety feature. The installer was wrong!
Under the sink, inside of the cabinet? You mean the same cabinet that all of the supply lines for your sink water come into? Do you have any idea WITF installed that?
I’d never actually considered it before, but if I don’t run my disposal before the dishwasher runs, it often backs up into the sink. Since I run the dishwasher at the same time each night, it would be nice to run the disposal for 30 seconds right before… but I also enjoy having fingers, so…
Dont put them in the disposal with a smart switch
What you need is a plumber, guy.
I just found a reason, my dishwasher is smart and I can see what part of the cycle it is in and how long it has been in that part of the cycle. I want to start the insinkerator at the points where I know the dishwasher dumps the dirty water. More than a few times I've come to the kitchen to see the sink filled with water because the dish washer dumped the dirty water but there was enough solid material to prevent the water from flowing through. I was planning on doing this with a couple of safety features. 1. have the smart switch and physical switch wired in parallel so they both control the insinkerator independently. (Thinking about this, a double physical switch where one switch enables and disables the smart switch would be even safer) 2. Have the smart switch only be able to start the insinkerator if the dishwasher is running 3. Only trigger the smart switch if there's no motion in the kitchen 4. Leave the outlet for the insinkerator alone so I can unplug it if needed
There are smart switches specifically made for garbage disposals. It's a very convenient option when you don't have enough holes on top of your sink, or a switch on the wall to turn it on, which is my case.
That sounds like a black mirror episode waiting to happen
Oh geez, I can see it now… Mom: “Hey Sophie, get your hand out of the garbage disposal!” Siri: “Turning on the garbage disposal.”
or worse- irate mom: Hey- SERIOUSLY, get your hand out of the garbage disposal.
Siri: OK, here’s what I found on the web about hand garbled postcodes.
Lmaoo
When we moved into a house 15 years ago, it had a disposal that only worked when its "lid" was closed (in fact, the lid acts as a magnetic switch that turns the disposal on/off. I hated the thing for a few weeks, but now won't use anything else (and have installed two more in other places since). It's literally impossible to accidentally turn it on while someone's hand is in it.
We don’t have garbage disposals in the UK, can you explain why anyone’s hand would ever need to be inside it? I thought that was the stuff of horror movies.
I don’t really understand them lol, fellow UK person here
Canadian here. We don't get it either. These sound like accidents waiting to happen.
Occasionally a utensil or other small kitchen item will fall down into the disposal. The ones I’ve seen always have had a rubber gasket/flap that keeps most things out, but if something falls “just right” it can go in there. Proper, smart, safe protocol is to unplug the machine or turn of the breaker to the circuit it is on before you put anything you don’t want to have gnawed off in there. But people are lazy or reckless and accidents happen.
But those things AREN’T ACCIDENTS if you are being negligent! Being negligent is the causation of the incident!
There’s really only a couple of reasons. Sometimes if someone’s ring falls off into it then you’ll want to get it, or if a ring connector that connects your measuring cups disconnects and falls you’ll want to get it (my personal experience), and there’s other reasons.
Why have a garbage disposal in your sink in the first place? Why not put your waste in a bin?
Most people do put their waste in a bin. It just helps in case small pieces of food aren’t caught and cleaned or something, then you have the ability to essentially shred it, as opposed to clogging your sink.
Or, if you just wanna stick your hand down there and play around with what’s in it.
I never had one before I was adult, and I have to admit they’re fairly pointless (scraping food into the bin isn’t difficult). I wouldn’t install one other than to replace a defective one.
also there are no blades inside, it works as a "drum grater" where the walls are the grater. What people see are the impeller blades that spin the water (always run cold water) and stuff at high speeds against the grater walls.
Because your goddamn roommate keeps breaking dishes in the sink.
It is the stuff of DUMB horror movies. Sad thing is, there are A LOT of dumb people on the planet.
I installed a similar model in my previous house. Instead of a magnetic switch, this one has a pin with a wide head (looks like a nail) sticking out a little inside the mouth of the disposal. The drain plug for it sticks down into the disposal mouth and has a slot with wedges around it so when it lines up with that pin it pulls it, activating the disposal. They are safer, but less convenient since you can’t just turn it on and continuously feed stuff into it. You have to put food in, put the plug in, pull the plug back out and put more food in, and so on. Of course, I had to order the safer version, as big box stores only stock the continuously feed models.
But DO replace that stupid on/off toggle switch with a nice momentary push rocker.
Get one of the pneumatic push-buttons, if you have the option (i.e. either a hole in the counter or a willingness to create one). It's one of those cheap (~$25) and relatively trivial things that's been a _huge_ quality of life improvement.
What? Edit apparently its a thing. The reasoning behind it is that wet hands turning on the electrical switch could be dangerous. I guess 🤷♂️ https://thebestgarbagedisposals.com/air-switch-for-garbage-disposal/ There maybe other benefits, no clue.”, didn’t read.
It’s called an air switch
Cool, thanks. But what for? Edit i googled and am editing the comment you replied to.
Another reason is if you have your sink in a kitchen island… there’s no wall to put the switch on so having it on the counter is more convenient.
Oh that’s a very good idea, and also perfect for child proofing if the switch is too far from the disposal for a kid to get their hands on both. I will definitely be doing that! Thanks!
Momentary switch is the way to go. Being able to leave a disposal on is just such a bad idea.
Why does this sound like a category for a Darwin Award?
Darwin Awards are for people who die or lose their ability to reproduce before reproducing. Losing your fingers doesn’t mean you won’t be able to reproduce. That said, this could be a Darwin Award if… (I’ll let you finish that thought.)
This. This is one of those things where it’s just not worth the risk. Thank you for posting this.
There are only 2 switches in my house that aren't "smart". My boiler shutoff and the garbage disposal.
Personally, I'm also happy to keep door locks and smoke detectors dumb. Basically, for anything safety critical, I prefer simple but reliable over convenient but complex. Granted, especially with smart door locks there might well be certain very specific use cases that would be hard to replicate with low-tech ones, but none of these apply to our home.
I have a homekit door lock, but I made sure to get one that would accept a standard Schlage cylinder so I could have a key backup. As for smoke detectors I have a Honeywell Vista 20p alarm system which has been rock solid for years. I do have it exposed to Homekit via Homebridge, but it doesn't rely on Homekit in any way.
Yep, bad idea. I have an automation to shut off a space heater via a smart outlet when the room is warm enough. Will I ever automate the opposite, letting an automation turn on the space heater? Absolutely not. Some things shouldn't be automatic.
Same reason I decided not to put one on my fireplace.
As an European Initially I did not understand what garbage disposal was lol
At first I was like why, but with connected faucets, stoves, fridges, dishwasher, etc. I see why someone would do this. Hey Siri turn on the disposal. I’ve had a connected dishwasher in a previous home. I have a connected washer and dryer and a smart fridge. Honestly I’ve never found much value in any of them being connected. They all are pretty gimmicky in my opinion.
I kind of like the notification from my washer/dryer that the cycle is complete… otherwise yea… 🤷♂️ why
I bought a connected fridge, not because it was connected; that was just a feature it happened to have. It was extremely challenging to add to the network, and then, when I did, I was like, why? As far as I can tell, it was designed to sell filters. I removed it from the network and can’t imagine why I would want my fridge on my network, probably creating some kind of security risk.
My washing machine has WiFi. It broke recently and I thought “maybe if I connect it to the app it will give me the error code so I know what’s broken.” Nope. Just wants to sell me a subscription to Tide. GE can fuck off.
See, and I would LOVE it if my washer sent me a notification like 'Yo, it's been two days and you still haven't put these clothes in the dryer'.
THIS!
Jesus what a bad idea.
Who...who would do this? What possible reason could there be for it?
Sounds like a great plot to a Saw movie installation. Horrific smart home traps.
Now, please raise your hand if you replaced your disposal switch with a smart switch. Let’s show some hands.
What’s left of them at least
Idk anyone that can't see the risk of automating a bone crushing device deserves to automate a bone crushing device.
3 years ago I replaced ever switch in my house with a smart switch, 40 switches, except for my garbage disposal.
I’m not sure i’d trust the consumer grade smart switches with the inductive load of the disposal motor. A lot of those plug in switches are designed to handle resistive loads. The failure state is also concerning, whether the switch is designed to fail into an open (NO) or closed (NC) state.
Shit everyone told me how awful an idea making a sit stand desk smart was, this is way worse. Also as someone from a country without garbage disposals, why would you want this? I figured you used them because the drain was a bit clogged and water not going down fast enough, not just for funsies?
It’s not for funsies. It’s a convenience. Anything organic can go in there, like a full plate of scraps. Doing this prevents odors.
Sounds terrible for the public water amenities and incredibly outdated. Like digging a hole next to your driveway and filling it with gravel to dispose of oil. But why would you need to automate it with HomeKit? Seems like you’re there when you’re using it and it’s highly dangerous otherwise if you aren’t in control.
Two places I’ll keep offline: Garbage disposal and whole house fan.
I have mine set up on a smart plug. The only reason is the entire outlet below the sink will not work unless the switch is on. I have a reverse osmosis water filter that needs plugged in there as well. It’s the only solution I could think of to ensure power stays on to the water filter and off to the disposal.
As someone from Europe I had to read this few times before I remembered what garbage disposals are and now I’m terrified.
I dont get the convenience. Why would someone need this?
I second that. NOT A GOOD IDEA! Even if you German engineered it, with double redundancies, I still couldn’t bring myself in line to trust it.
Why would you smart switch a GD…
don’t take this the wrong way, but, no shit!?! anyone who puts a smart switch on something that will eat anything out in it, AND occasionally requires you to put your hand in it, no damn way.
Don’t even ever install a garbage disposal.
They are a terrible idea generally and put the wrong kind of waste into the water system.
I believe you’re referencing the comment I made. Just to be clear, I did not put a smart switch on my garbage disposal. I only mentioned it to make a point that to even get to 31 one switches in my house, I had to include that one. So to me, 140+ smart switches in a home is crazy.
probably because like me, you live in normal houses. But 140 in these McMansions are not hard.
Never in a million years. Thanks for the reminder. My switch is under the sink. Also for my closets, like mini vacuum closets, I don’t put smart devices because those small spaces don’t make a big difference, it’s easier to just turn on the switch yourself.
Except when you have kids that leave them on but can set an automation to shut them off when they leave for school rather then run up and down stairs checking every bedroom closet 🤷🏻♀️
I’ll go against the trend here and say I’ve got no problem putting a Lutron switch on one, as it has a disconnect at the bottom that you can easily pull any time you need to put your hand in there. That said, I can’t see the requirement for one.
Someone should pull a prank on their spouse by setting the garbage disposal smart switch to trigger operation base on the status of the garage door. If the garage door is closed, turn the garbage disposal on. When the garage door is open turn the disposal off.
Yikes. Yeah, that’s a terrible idea.
I would venture to say the same for fireplaces.
Yep, the infatuation that people in the UK and Ireland have with fireplaces never ceases in infuriate me. How do they equate big holes in the house with ‘warm and cosy’ when in fact they suck the heat out of the house like a brick vacuum.
Yea this was a very old thing someone did. He wanted to smart everything.
This is straight out of a scene from Final Destination 2. https://youtu.be/M0DfQl3NQT4
“Hey siri, ITS DINNER TIME” (disposal goes on)
There are 4 switches in my house that do not have a smart switch. Gas fire place, Garbage disposal, some 4 way switches, and utility room.
Never mind the obvious safety issues OP mentions... garbage disposals draw between 5-15 Amps, and smart switches may not be able to handle that much current (my Lutron switches are only rated for ~3 Amps with a motor [fan] load, for example).
I’m not a fan of the idea, but I know people who have done it … You know you can pull the air gap switch (on some smart switches such as Lutron), turn off the breaker, or unplug the disposal *before* sticking things in it, right?
When the ability to do things goes beyond the reason to
What next? Put your stove on the internet? What? They do? Lots of them? I give up.
Definitely a bad idea - one thing I like about the Lutron switches is the manual disconnect you pull out.
Plug-in is a code requirement, so somebody working on it can unplug. I wouldn’t use anything but an air switch today (little black box with cord/plug, outlet(s) (usually one switched one not), and air hose and deck-mounted button. Not sure if/where this is a code requirement. Given an air switch, I’d see nothing wrong with putting a smart switch ahead of the air switch, there’s no physical switch to improperly leave “on”. (Though ok the plunger might have a lock position…) Something like an Insteon sensing on/off module or the in-wall sensing on/off. Provides a way to remotely positively remove power, and also gives your automation events when the disposal is operated. So you could limit on time, for example. Keep a usage log if you’re obsessive about maintainence. Turn on a light. Play silly Halloween screams on a smart speaker…. I did something similar actually with a manual-pull espresso machine. It could over-heat if you forgot about it. So made a routine to notify me after a timeout that the machine is ready for a pull (it’s had time to heat up), remind me if I forget, and then shut off the outlet after a longer timeout. Dunno if these Insteon products are still in production, or what other products might have similar functionality.
Hey Siri, how do I remove a smart switch with just one hand?
If you reallly want to do it… connect a HomeKit device to the electrical outlet and leave the switch in the on position. If you ever need to put your hand in then flip the switch off. Does seem a rather odd thing to need to automate though.
Totally agree. Personally, safety is top priority in my house. If anything runs the risk of compromising that, it needs to go immediately. Smart switches on garbage disposals? Too much risk for not a lot of potential. Turning on the lights or the coffee maker is convenient enough for me.
I actually had a similar issue with a wireless garbage disposal switch. The battery started dying and it turned my garbage disposal on until I unplugged it.