dumb device to listen for beeps and boops

June 6, 2024 3:19 AM

My office room is on the other side of my apartment from the kitchen and front door, and I often fail to hear my intercom system, doorbell, or kitchen appliances. Is there a relatively "dumb" device (i.e., not an Alexa) that can generate a remote alert when a kitchen appliance beeps or the doorbell rings?

Does not have to be a phone alert, a flashing light or audible alert would be fine too. Thus far, all I've come up with is an audio-only baby monitor or some kind of walkie-talkie system, but I would strongly prefer a device that is not always transmitting and selectively alerts for just appliance/doorbell tones, if such a thing exists.

posted by nanny's striped stocking to Technology (10 answers total)

We use this as a doorbell for these purposes but it won't solve the appliance problem; it's a cheap solution for the doorbell at least.
posted by ch1x0r at 5:05 AM on June 6

Best answer: You may be able to use a decibel meter? I've been googling and it sounds like some analogue ones produce an audible beep when the noise goes over a certain level. Ideally I think there will be a digital one that could ping your phone, but don't have time to google further!
posted by london explorer girl at 5:08 AM on June 6 [1 favorite]

Mod note: One comment removed. Note that OP has already mentioned a baby monitor or walkie talkie, so please offer other suggestions to help them, thanks
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 6:10 AM on June 6

This flasher doorbell seems promising.
posted by briank at 6:46 AM on June 6

Wireless door bell extenders are available if your current door bell is electro mechanical. You just place one end on the bell and plug the other end into the wall.
posted by Mitheral at 9:24 AM on June 6 [1 favorite]

I don't think such a thing exists. I think you could maybe program something like that with ardudino, but it would have a lot of false positives. You can attach ones to each appliance, but that would be a lot of work.

Like Mithereal says, they make wireless doorbells, which can reach around 100ft to replace traditional wired doorbells - they are pretty cheap and run on batteries for the outside part, but that doesn't work for your other stuff.

It's probably why appliances are starting to come with bluetooth built in, and why Ring doorbells are an industry.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:56 AM on June 6

i actually have the same problem - my washer dryer ending alerts are super quiet. I figure one day I'll figure out how they are wired, and add a line-in type plug or an amplifier or something.
posted by The_Vegetables at 9:58 AM on June 6

Best answer: Not a dumb solution, but iPhones have “sound recognition” as an accessibility feature.
posted by oceano at 11:06 AM on June 6 [1 favorite]

This is a fantastic idea for a product and I kinda wish I had one. We sort.of gave up and switched to using timers on our phone/watch or like an Amazon echo, neither of which is ideal
posted by RustyBrooks at 3:55 PM on June 6

I’m not sure how this was done so forgive my luddite explanation. We have a device called a yo-link that has sensors for a gate opening, water leaks, lots of different options. We had a terrible problem with our gate being left open. My daughter did something with the yo-link, an Amazon smart plug and a color changing light bulb. Now, whenever our side gate (that we can’t see) opens, the lamp by the back door turns red. Back to normal when it’s closed. This isn’t a “dumb” solution but it wasn’t too complicated to set up (she said) and it’s worked so well, that I thought I would share. Look into a yo-link even if you don’t do all the colored light bulb stuff. It’s a handy little device.
posted by pearlybob at 3:09 AM on June 7 [1 favorite]