LG Automations

We relaced our aging washer and dryer pair (easily 8-12 years old), and while we aren't big fans of the "Smart Home" features, our options were limited because of the specific features we wanted, so the "LG ThinkQ Up" line of appliances it was.

Both were simple to setup, and are doing their primary job well: washing and drying our clothes. (My wife setup the WiFi features on both - she sad it was pretty simple following the LG directions.)

But we have a few issues with what the salesperson promised was in there that aren't really available. In now way could we blame the salesperson for this mistake in the features, their showroom had dozens of washers and dryers and each with their own features and capabilities. And it's possible the missing features we're now looking for are available in other brands or in a more premium model line. Like I said our old pair were quite old and predated much of the Smart Home craze, so we didn't know what we didn't know...

The problem to solve

We want to change the default dryness level from “Normal” to “More Dry” (or whatever the highest level is). Each time we put in a new load it defaults back to “Normal” dryness and we have to remember to do this.

Essentially, we want to set this up so the “More Dry” drying cycle is the default for our laundry when we use the "Normal" wash cycle.

On-line support chat

After reading through the on-line support and quickly checking the LG manuals, I used the LG and asked them if it is possible.

I spoke with "Jerome" for twenty minutes - he was fairly quick to answer my questions but in the end he said that it wasn't possible to edit or alter the cycles. And when I asked about the communications between the washer and dryer, he simply replied "no".

Update As I was writing this, I was referencing the LG app and noticed the dryer Settings page includes a "Smart Pairing" feature and it's paired with my Washer.

As I said above, my wife set them up so I wasn't aware of the "Smart Pairing" feature. I'm going to leave this and my "Smart communications" request here so others - including "Jerome" from LG support - might see this and take a second look into the features their appliances support.

Feature 1 - Smart communications (OBE)

I marked this feature request as "OBE" (Overcome By Events) - after writing this up I came across the "Smart Pairing" feature in the app. Apparently the Washer and Dryer do communicate with each other, so the washer can tell the dryer about the next load it'll be handling. I'll leave this section for other users in case they didn't know it existed.

One feature that actually caught my ear when we were looking at all the lines of washer and dryers was the capability to have the two appliances talk with each other to let the washer inform the dryer what type of clothes was coming in the next load.

For instance, if I did a load of shirts and socks, and we used the "Normal" cycle then it could tell the dryer to use the "Normal" cycle itself.

Feature 2 - User defined cycles

Even with our last washer/dryer pair, and overall we like the "more dry" setting for our laundry. Whenever we run the new LG dryer we have to remember to set the dryness setting to "more dry."

Every. Time.

And the cycles within the app and on the dryers don't let us adjust the drying level the "Normal" cycle uses. It's not possible to override the Normal cycle, so we have to remember to use the "More Dry" setting each time. And we can't even use the "Download" cycle option either - those are only settable by LG.