Another smart home company is about to go out of business. Connected Life, maker of the excellent SmartDry laundry sensor, will cease operations on September 30th. If there’s any silver lining, it’s that Connected Life gave customers an early notice of its demise—a rare sight from a dying smart home company.

Connected Life only ever made one product; the SmartDry laundry sensor. It’s a simple device that uses your smartphone or voice assistant to tell you when laundry is dry.

We reviewed the SmartDry sensor in 2019 and were very impressed by its performance. While the software experience was a bit janky, SmartDry worked as advertised. It saved us from checking on (or forgetting about) our laundry, and notably, we found ourselves ending cycles early because of the small device. Connected Life claimed that SmartDry could save you $60 a year in energy costs, and we’re inclined to believe the company.

So, it’s a shame that Connected Life and the SmartDry sensor are on their way out. And while we appreciate that the company gave a heads-up, we’re frustrated that it hasn’t open-sourced the SmartDry platform. The SmartDry shouldn’t need to connect with any servers—there’s no reason why it can’t work locally.

Some guides promise to make SmartDry compatible with the Home Assistant platform, effectively forcing the device to run locally. But the process requires a bit of work, especially if you aren’t familiar with Home Assistant.

SmartDry sensors will stop working when Connected Life servers shut down on September 30th. For what it’s worth, you can use a Shelly 1PM relay switch to detect when your dryer has completed a cycle. But there aren’t any real alternatives to the SmartDry sensor.

Source: Connected Life