Hi, I’m looking for a soil sensor that works with ST and reasonably tracks moisture level. Pluses would be rechargeable and not Wifi. It seems like most of the ones are Tuya devices that may or may not work with ST. Does anyone have experience working with these (some of which could be repeats) or could suggest others:
ZIGBEE Soil Moisture & Temperature Sensor for Outdoor Gardens
Can only comment on the Thirdreality soil moisture sensors. They’re zigbee and appear to work fine with SmartThings. Their range is poor (relative to wired devices) but they’re battery operated (one AA) so that to be somewhat expected. Initially tried the Gen 1 sensors but their range outdoor and line of sight was about 20 foot and they’d drop off line constantly after about 18 hours of usage. Replaced them and the Gen 2 devices maybe double that range and have been running consistently for about two weeks now. You will want to make sure that you have a decent Zigbee routing/relay device close by wherever you have the moisture sensor. I can’t yet speak to the longevity of the battery but these came with the Amazon basics AA battery and after two weeks running still report 100%. Thirdreality supplies an edge driver to support these but the tile only displays temperature. You need to open the tile to see the humidity. Switching the device to the standard SmartThings humidity driver gets temp and humidity on the tile and doesn’t seem to cause any loss in functionality.
I do wonder a bit about the accuracy of the sensor. They answer the wet/not wet question fine but when you get to the should I water today or wait till tomorrow question, the measurements have been inconsistent. I will temper that by saying that it’s only been a short time paying attention to them and measuring the moisture content of soil is going to be heavily influenced by the immediate contact to the sensor and so getting reliable readings might take more prep work of the location than just sticking it into the ground.
I use the Threadreality sensors too (mine are gen 1), been running two since September 2025 without issue. Can’t comment on absolute accuracy as currently I do not use them for anything other than curiosity and general ‘time to water’ prompts.
They use the stock ST humidity sensor driver the Threadreality provided driver is no longer needed.