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Comment by nihzm | Hacker News Reader

I hope this is sarcasm, but if it isn't washing machine cycles have a fixed duration so a timer on your phone is more than enough, no cloud necessary.

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I wish washing machines had a fixed cycle duration. When I start the cycle my washing machines tells me the same duration, always, but in actuality it takes different amounts of time every time. Madness. I've been told this is a feature.

Do you always load your machine up to the same level? A low load will trigger a shorter cycle time to save energy and water.

My washing machine is kind enough to both indicate time to end in minutes, but also allows me to delay start so that the cycle is finished in [x] hours. It's not even that modern.

My modern dishwasher is also very kind, and displays the time to end in minutes throughout the wash. Counting down from an hour. But I don't know what kind of upbringing it had, for some reason, the sneaky bastard always adds another 25 minutes, when there is supposedly only 10 minutes left.

I guess dishwasher years are like dog years. At least it definitely behaves like a teenager at 2 years old, finishing when it wants to finish. Estimates be damned.

> Madness. I've been told this is a feature.

It actually is. Fixed length cycles haven't been a thing for many years now - modern washing machines adjust the washing cycle length by the weight of the laundry and its behavior during spin-drying, both its vibration behavior aka weight distribution (that can have multiple adjustment cycles to achieve reasonably even distribution) and how much water it loses - when no more water comes out during spinning, it will cut the cycle short to save energy.

Yes, newer machines shorten the cycle for lower loads and less dirty clothes.

> When I start the cycle my washing machines tells me the same duration, always, but in actuality it takes different amounts of time every time.

If it says (e.g.) 43 minutes, but sometimes it takes 40 and sometimes 49 or 53, set your timer for 60 minutes and get on with life. Your laundry sitting for 17 or 7 minutes isn't the end of the world. If your timer goes off and it's still not done, set it for another 20 and do something else.

Of all the things to fill your head with worry and annoyance with, laundry is near the bottom of the list for me.

Except when you live in a building with communal washing machines and where you need to book time for laundry, as it is common in many European cities.

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