Hi. I’m looking for recommendation for a Smarthing Hub-compatible leak sensor. Any one the community has had good luck with. I’d like it to be small if possible.
I have some Samsung ones from a few years ago and they have been nothing but trouble (keep getting disconnected)
After my last one used enough batteries to amount to the unit’s cost within one year, I junked it and I got the HomeSeer flex sensor, which uses a wand like wire to sense the water (not obtrusive, but not compact). It also runs off USB (or battery), which I like. It requires a DH and some easy code edits. It reports temp along with sensors status. I don’t recall any disconnect issues and it successfully reported a water event, so I know it works under real operating conditions.
@avsteele, I bought one of these SENSATIVE STRIPS on a good sale a couple of years back and am very happy with it. They are expensive, but very slim and claim to have a 10-year battery life!
Thanks for the suggestion @homeagain. I’m not so excited to turn this into a coding project though I’l take a look.
Is it as easy as it appears on their page?
Did you every try HomeSeer’s actual leak sensor with the Samsung hub?
I would suggest picking up a used Utilitech or Everspring sensor off ebay. Very cheap, work really well ( will even pick up moisture off your fingertips) and have incredible battery life. They also have a wire with the probes (about 10ft) which can be placed to where you want water detected and have the sensor in a different location. Highly recommended. I bought a couple of the ones listed below
I actually used code that was posted via this site, but the general process is similar. The only thing atypical about this DH is that it is written for the Homeseer light sensors, so you need to modify the code in a few places to make sure it is looking for and responding to the right device.
I did not use the Homeseer all -in one leak sensor as it has batteries (that I’m avoiding).
I’ve been happy w/ my SmartThings & Iris branded leak sensors over the last several years. I wanted some more leak sensors recently and bought some Centralite ones when they were on sale at getvera.com
Be careful if you pick up new Centralite sensors. I detailed my issues w/ the newer models (3315-G) here: CentraLite Water Leak Sensor 3315-G Issues V2 Hub
I’d be careful with the older ones too. I had the 3315-C ones when I was still using Wink and instead of the two year nominal battery life, I got 3 months at best- with no events and no temperature reporting.
Troy do you pair it as an everspring? (I have two of those.)
Yes use everspring water leak sensor in the app for either everspring or utilitech water sensors…they are identical, just rebranded
Thanks. That makes it easy.
So where can I find water leak sensors working with smartthings? I looked everywhere and all cheep sensors are discontinued (samsung, iris)
Thanks for that link. I grabbed 5 to replace/augment my ADT zigbees. That dude has to run out at some point, so I figure I’d better get on it.
Considering these have the leads, I’m curious if anyone has any experience with splitting the leads, via pigtail etc…,into two or more to serve a wider area of sensing in the general area of the sensor. Seems like it would work.
Also, what kind of battery life do these have?
Believe it or not, I’ve seen discussions on this in the past and many state well over a year
Nice! That would be enough for me.
You got me thinking with your post…just went back and bought another for a backup because they’re so cheap and work great. Now he has only 8 left. lol
Ha, no doubt, I’ve already gone a few rounds in my head, thinking that 5 might not be enough… but pretty sure it is.
Who knows, the seller might have another several hundred set back and is just employing some psychology with his inventory levels.
Anyway, happy to have those 5. I was debating on getting some Aqaras, but it’s nice to mix it up with some Z-wave.
thanks again!
As a FYI to all, I went with some Everspring ST812 Flood Detectors i found on eBay for about $26 each. They work fine so far with the hub.
Just an FYI, The ebay seller somehow came up with another batch of the Utilitechs after being sold out for a while. Bought several last week, and although he lists them as used, by all appearances they are new and just removed from original packaging and minus the wire clips.