Water sensor pump switch: need some help please (dry the wetspot)

SmartApps & Automations
1

Hi all,

Here’s a problem I’m stuck with which I’d really appreciate help with: I have a ST water sensor in my sump (with a custom made sensor dangling on a long pair of wires), and using the “Dry the Wetspot” app, have this turn on an outlet to trigger my sump pump to pump out water when triggered. I’ve modified the app to run the pump for 15sec after the water sensor stops being “wet”, which allow the water level to be pumped down to a sensible level. So far so good.

The problem: when the sensor triggers the pump, the immediate disturbance the pump makes in the water surface (e.g. lots of ripples) is enough for the sensor to think it’s now “dry” momentarily, so the dry the wetspot app then starts it’s 15sec countdown before turning the pump off. If the sensor becomes wet again during this countdown (which of course it does because a few ripples do not equal the sump being emptied!), the routine doesn’t run again. Result- the pump triggers for 15 sec, clears almost no water, and then won’t re-trigger because the sensor has become wet again during the 15sec countdown. Nasty implication, my basement floods!

I had considered just setting the countdown for much longer (like a couple of minutes, but because the pump takes a variable amount of time to prime (anywhere between a few secs and a few minutes), it’ll either run dry for most of that time, or not complete the water level reduction at all, in which case the sensor becomes wet again during the countdown and is ignored so the pump never comes on again.

This is kind of hard to explain, but I hope the above makes sense to you clever guys and you can suggest some solutions. Essentially what I need is an app which always takes notice of the sensor status, whether or not it’s running a timed extension of a triggered event.

Any help appreciate, and many thanks!

1 Like
2

suggest run the pump only by a hardwired or plugin-inline floatswitch. They cost maybe $50.

or alternately, by a hardwired floatswitch in parallel with a ST networked switch for short-term operator-override only.

And monitor the level/leak sensor with ST.

I would add a local noisemaker/bell for local notification that does not depend on internet, if you are subject to high water.

IMO there is no good reason to operate the pump over the internet.

1 Like
3

This is no place for HA. Buy the dedicated device and use HA to monitor when it runs.

This is like replacing a car with two bikes and a motorcycle engine. Sure it will work with enough duct tape, but you won’t like the results.

4

Thanks for the replies guys. I should expand a little- my sump borehole is 5m deep, and 10in in diameter (sorry to mix metric and imperial), and the system I am talking about here is a backup pump; there’s already a hard-wired pump with the hardware described by Eric. For the backup pump though, there is physically no room for a float switch (unless it’s dangled on a long piece of string!) or even a pump with a built-in float switch, and also no way to physically manipulate anything into place other than dropping a pump down the hole with the control system elsewhere.

Hence, the ST solution, which at least in theory gives me a remote alarm, and the ability to switch on said backup pump in one solution. Honestly I’d be pretty happy with this as a solution if I could figure out a change in the code so that the sensor wasn’t ‘ignored’ during the countdown timer…

5

Ok makes much more sense. Not in a place I can help with the code atm.