When joining my TESR doesn't update automatically based on the tileentity's values. This also happens when unloading chunks and reloading them again. Is this normal? Should I just check for it to update or should it do this automatically?

Override #getDescriptionPacket and #onDataPacket in your TileEntity and write / read any data you need on the client side. This packet is sent automatically to clients when the chunk loads or your block / TE gets marked for an update.

How would you do this with Simple Network Wrapper? I currently have this at getDescriptionPacket.

PacketHandler.INSTANCE.getPacketFrom(new MessageTileEntityWashingTable(this));

You don't use SimpleNetworkWrapper at all - use the vanilla packet:

@Override
public Packet getDescriptionPacket() {
NBTTagCompound tag = new NBTTagCompound();
tag.setSomeValueType("someKey", someValue);
return new S35PacketUpdateTileEntity(getPos(), 1, tag);
}

@Override
public void onDataPacket(NetworkManager net, S35PacketUpdateTileEntity packet) {
NBTTagCompound tag = packet.getNbtCompound();
this.someValue = tag.getSomeValueType("someKey");
}

Only write and read the values you actually need to sync to the NBT tag that you send.

Thank you, that was indeed the problem. 

It's a bit unclear to me. If you do this for server client syncing what do you use Simple Network Wrapper for ?

It's a bit unclear to me. If you do this for server client syncing what do you use Simple Network Wrapper for ?

 

This is only for one specific type of client/server syncing. The Simple Network Wrapper can be used to send arbitrary data between the server and client at any time, e.g. to tell the server that the player pressed a key so it can take some action.

A big thank you to the both of you.