Device to detect water flow as well as shutoff?

#1

I’d like to get a device to let me know if water flow is happening at my house during certain home modes (ie; away mode, or night mode). I have 5 water sensors around my house, but today I came home to wet carpet in the basement because of a pinhole leak in some poly tubing in the joists above… and of course, it was in one of the spots where I don’t have a water sensor so I wasn’t notified.

Water sensors are great, but I think I’d rather just know is water was flowing at my house at times when it shouldn’t be? I don’t want to have to buy 50 water sensors!

Having the ability to shut off the master valve would be nice, but not as important because I can easily call one of many neighbors to assist in turning off the water main should I be out of town. Our water main is in a very accessible location.

Any recommendations? Google searching revealed “Water Hero” but that’s still vapor until Fall 2016.

(Convinced ST will never be unbroken…) #2

I think you’ll find a number of water flow sensors available at a wide variety of prices and sensitivity. They don’t necessarily need to be smart as you can hook them up to a variety of existing sensors to be connected to SmartThings. In fact, you may find better flow sensors in the dumb category.

The issue you might face is not sourcing one that is sensitive enough for slow leaks. There is just not enough pressure change or actual flow in these cases to trigger the sensor. They’re great for burst pipes or broken valves, but not so much for leaks.

#3

Thanks for your response. Can you point me in the direction of how I could hook up a dumb flow sensor to SmartThings? Also, the only smart flow sensor I could find was a Fortrezz one (that doesn’t have a shut off valve – that would be a separate Fortrezz device).