I’ve been looking into Flo’s website for a while (www.meetflo.com) and their product looks impressive. While I do know that what they are promising (some sort of AI) is possible would be good to hear from someone who had actual experience with it.
I don’t believe it integrates with SmartThings but I thought it was worth asking if anyone here is using it.
If not, can you recommend something similar?
I spent hours looking for something that can measure water pressure and flow in an attempt to hook it together myself until I found this device. I have to assume there is a competitor there somewhere.
While I like the idea of having a “smart valve” that can shut the water off based on a sensor placed somewhere, it won’t help me with a pipe leaking inside a bathroom wall for example. And if this bathroom is on my second floor… oh boy.
There are a couple cheaper versions that clip on to the pipe, but they really haven’t come to fruition yet (these do more of flow analysis through sound vs. the above which physically measures the flow.)
Flo doesn’t integrate with SmartThings yet, but it still has a lot of useful features.
It will shut your water off automatically if you’re using a lot more water than normal and it runs a test nightly that checks for leaks and sends you an email if it detects a problem and then another email when the problem is resolved.
I was skeptical, but I turned my faucet on so it was occasionally dripping and manually ran the test and it came back saying there was a small leak.
You can set it to away mode if your not going to be home for a while so I did that and then turned on my faucet all the way and it detected it as a major leak after a few minutes. It automatically turned the water off, sent me an email, and called me.
One time while it was set to Home mode I was doing dishes and laundry and it detected high than normal flow per minute so it sent me a notification about it and said if I didn’t take action within 5 minutes it would shut the water off. I didn’t take action, but the flow went back down within the 5 minutes so it sent me another notification saying things were back to normal.
It keeps a 2 week history of your water usage and sends you a weekly email about it.
There’s a paid feature called Home Protect which breaks down your water usage per appliance. I did the free one month trial and it spent 2 weeks learning, but then it was able to reliably detect toilet flushes and showers.
I believe they have an integration with Alexa that allows you to ask it information about your water usage, but I haven’t tried it.
Update: Flo now supports IFTTT so using that you can get it to work with SmartThings.
Thanks everyone (sry for the delay). @krlaframboise this is great news. Before paying $500 bucks on it I had to hear a good review from an actual user. Also I believe IFTTT is enough for all the stuff I have in mind. I will give it a try, thanks again.
On Sale at Amazon for $350 today, just got mine setup, I don’t use IFTTT often so took awhile to figure out the integrations. But now I have a virtual switch that will control my valve allowing for automatic turn off.
Yes, you start by creating a virtual switch in Smartthings. Then in Smartthings you configure your leak alerts to trigger turning the virtual device off. In IFTTTT you then create 2 rules. One will turn the water on if virtual switch is on, and the other to turn off if virtual is off. Now because it is a dummy switch you could in theory have times where it gets out of sync if you control it with the Flo app, or some other anomaly occurs, but 99% of the time this should get the job done. This plus the built in leak detection methods in Flo should have me protected and severely lower the chances I ever get stuck with another water leak claim.
I will give it a try.
I guess we should also email Flo and ask them to provide a direct SmartThings integration (or API so someone can do it). The more people ask the greater the chances.
Thanks.
Totally agree. I have the U by Moen and the Flo by Moen, two stand alone products without any integration. Not a big deal until Flo shuts off the water while my wife is in the shower… a long shower… at a minimum I would expect them to offer some way of providing a way of creating rules. Motion in the shower u by Moen running don’t shut off the water… but Moen has chosen to sell a water sensor that works with Flo. Seems short sighted getting into a commodity space like water sensors.
I get that… it is something but… still, not a native integration to any of these systems (or many others out there like Creston, Control4, Savant and so on).
Sometimes I find myself trying to understand the mentality behind these companies, why don’t play well with each other? And then I give up because I can’t find a single reason.
Some may say the lack of integration is due to security concerns but cmon, Bank of America has APIs to allow third party application to peek into your bank accounts so… why can’t my water valve have an api?
Anyway, I soon as I got the email regarding their new sensors I send them another email asking for status on integration but no answers so far.
There aren’t many companies that haven’t embraced an API strategy at this point and securing an API is old news and very reliable.
I want to keep my third parties to a minimum, so I don’t use IFTTT.
I believe many of these older companies think their “special” differentiator will win market share versus embracing standards and openness. The U and Flow are great products but Moen is holding them back.
I had a serious leak and bought one of these. I CANNOT Recommend it - you will still have damage AND you will get lots of false alerts. They charge $5 a month for ‘monitoring’ service and will not answer my email questions - they ignored my emails for a while. I want access tor the device to work with Hubitat and my leak sensors and they did not respond until I started posting my experiences and contacting the president of Moen. They want to limit their product to only work with their expensivesensors they are now releasing. If Internet goes out, so does protection. BEWARE!
Here are some Pros and Cons based on my use:
PRO: Detects water pressure, which is invaluable information.
CON: Cannot do anything about it. Since mine was far too high I had to install a pressure reduction valve to protect my home.
PRO: Every night it closes the valve and tests the line for leaks.
CON: If anyone uses the bathroom or turns on water turning the test, it detects it as a leak.
PRO: It watches for excessive water usage and will notify you.
CON: It takes 15 minutes to notify you and then 5 more minutes before it shuts off the water. That is a LOT of water damage if it is a real leak.
CON: They initially had no leak sensors, but mentioned they work with “smart things” using IFTTT
CON: As of 1/2020 they no longer mention “smartthings” sensors and are pushing their own brand that is 2x-3x the price.
CON: Cannot tell legit water use from good. I suggested a sensor on the house drain to detect if the water is going down the drain signaling legit usage, but nothing has been developed.
PRO: Has a nice app to monitor use and notify you of problems.
CON: Several of the features require a $5 month app fee to see the amount of water used by appliances.
CON: We have had the unit shut off the water during showers of several family member in a row. It is not fun to be soaped up and the water shuts off. We did not hear the notification that the water was going to be shut off because we were in the shower.
CON: I offered to develop a drain sensor to help eliminate shutoffs due to legitimate use. At first they were open to the idea, then when I asked for an API or ability to access the device, they stopped answering my emails. I have sent several and they no longer answer my emails, even though I pay for the “concierge” service.
CON: Bug with sensor- I had a “high water use” alert and countdown to valve close and cancelled the alert. After cancelling the water pressure sensor began climbing, reaching 200+ PSI, when normal is about 50-75psi. I closed the valve and opened it, but there was no change. I have a pressure regulator set at 50psi and checked that unit. It showed 50psi on an analog gauge. I turned the water on and everything went back to normal. I looked back at my logs and the same thing has occurred several times. They claimed it was because of “thermal changes” due to the water heater. I installed a 2nd pressure monitor on the home side of the Moen Flo and the next time the Flo showed a high pressure alert after a long shower, I checked and both gauges showed a normal water pressure. There must be a problem with the sensor.
CON: Moen finally offer me a refund. I accepted and requested a refund. I was then told to return it to the store I bought it.
If you can accept damage from 20 minutes of water flow before an auto shutoff, then buy it. Otherwise, you will have a false sense of security from this product.
I cannot recommend this product when the manufacturer stops responding to civil, respectful comments related to improving their product. They need to open up the product API so that it can be controlled locally with sensors without the need for the Internet. The home automation community is vibrant and will significantly improve the utility of their product.
They have nothing offering local control and no API. They will not allow access of any type. The water pressure sensor on mine keeps giving a false spiking water pressure after a water flow alert(long shower). Every time this happens, but not after a normal shower. Moen claims it is a thermal spike, but a 2nd analog pressure meter shows it is normal. I am going to return mine and go to something cheaper that I have control over with the need of the Internet.
We have had it installed for several months and it remains in learning mode. Their support is a joke and they keep referring us to the same article that explains the initial learning mode. We are ready to remove it and put a real system in. It’s cheap, but in our opinion NOT effective. Keep looking, I would definitely pass on this product.
On the other hand, I had a really good experience with support.
A couple of months ago my device stopped working after a storm. I tested the power supply and it was good so the issue was with the device. I called them, told them about my findings and they sent me a new one. Just like that. Problem solved in less than 10 minutes.
On a side note yesterday morning it warned me about a small leak.
I checked everything in the house and one of my toilets did have a teeny tiny leak that I would never know about (and this early) without this device.
Bottom line for me is: it won’t do what most of what us would like it to do.
It won’t respond and shut off the water as fast as we would like it to but… considering there are no many options out there… at this point getting some protection is better than having no protection at all.
This is a nice way to put it however I’m starting to think it may take over 20 minutes in same cases, depending on what the device think is normal at your home.
I noticed after it learned our showers go over 20 minutes (and stopped warning me about it), it now lets me use the water hose for over 20 minutes without a warning as well.
So you will have water damage even when using the device.
It may minimize the damage by a lot but won’t prevent it.
My only comfort is knowing that if it will shut off the water in less than one hour instead of leaving it running from several hours or even a whole weekend if I’m not home so is is better than nothing.
