ESP32 BLE proxy unstable connection with washing machine

Hello everyone,

I recently migrated from a Raspberry Pi to a NAS and, as a result, lost the built-in Bluetooth functionality.

To work around this, I set up an ESP32 NodeMCU development board using ESPHome as a Bluetooth proxy. In general, this works quite well, but I’m having issues with one specific device (Beko WDW85141Steam1):

The connection to the ESP32 is very unreliable and only works sporadically. As a result, data is transmitted infrequently and inconsistently, making the setup barely usable at the moment.

Does anyone have an alternative idea or solution to achieve a more stable Bluetooth setup in this kind of environment—without going back to a Raspberry Pi?

I’d especially be interested in:

alternative hardware (e.g., USB Bluetooth adapters, different ESP boards, etc.)

proven stable BLE setups in Home Assistant

experiences with similar devices

For context:
The ESP32 is mounted directly on top of the washing machine (about 10 cm above it), and the router is a few meters away behind a wall. Other Bluetooth sensors are detected without any issues.

Thanks in advance!

Turn on debug logging to very verbose, and post your ESPHome compile log, including a few minutes of running [use forum </> formatting please]

Post your yaml code too.