Good morning… I am in search of , well just as the title suggests. A waterproof leak/flood/water sensor.
My plan for its use is hanging it from my Sump pit outside by the pool. Once the water reached a certain level it triggers the smart switch to turn on the pump and drain the water.
We have ground here that is easily saturated and needs to be drained a fair bit, so this would make it a HECK of a lot easier than checking it all the time.
Thank you in advance.
There are several manufacturers that make water sensors with external probes such as Dome, Everspring, and Ecolink such as this one:
I modified at ST moisture sensor by soldering a 2 gauge wire to the board that gives it a long probe too.
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I do understand that (and thanks for the reminder, because I was short on info here) but the pool sump pit is 75 ft from the house… I dont have the option to run it back to house… The only option would be to have the leads run from a waterproof box thats buried or sealed elsewhere or something… Doesnt seem like it would be that hard to just waterproof a sensor entirely… silicone the inside of the 2 leads 
. but thats just me haha
Most of those sensors are battery-operated. You just have to put the sensor itself in a vented (not airtight) project box and then run the probe to the point where it gets wet.
(Batteries outgas: never try to make a battery-operated device airtight or watertight if it is not originally engineered for that purpose.)
Many people have done this, you can find lots of project reports in the forums. Just search on “sump.” But it’s really pretty simple these days since, as @ritchierich Mentioned, there are now several manufacturers that offer battery operated sensors that will take an attached probe. 
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Ive now read through almost all of those posts… unfortunately I dont think any of them truly get me where I need to go… Ill have to come up with something.
Sorry, but why does a battery operated sensor with an attached probe not work for you? That’s what they’re designed for.
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because the sensor itself will not be able to be sealed (battery off gassing as you said) and there isnt a really good way to seal it way out in a yard thats wet, in a hole thats wet in a pool thats wet…
I may just buy one of these and find a way to install it down in the pit. wish I would have before the tube was buried haha https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LWMTUI8/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
The point of the project box is to give the sensor itself some weatherproofing, and then you mount it up in a dry area with the wire going to the probe down in the wet area. Same idea as the ones for electrical outlets.
That’s why I thought you might find the threads on the other projects interesting because they show the different ways that people protect the sensor part.
However, you bring up a really good point: I had forgotten that Sensative very recently introduced their “drips“ model, which is a water detector that is weatherproof.
Note that that’s a different model than the one you linked to. What you linked to is an open/close sensor. Here is the drips model:
The only thing about that one is that it’s using absorbent pads to detect moisture rather than just letting the water complete a contact between two metal points, so it might take longer to dry out in between alerts. It might be one of those things where you just have to try it and see.
I didnt even know those existed… i was just going to figure out a float with the contact sensors.
this might be an option… I think the biggest problem going to be getting them in the hole… my original thought was to just hang the sensor on a string about 3 ft from the bottom so when it fills it triggers my switch to turn the pump on… Concrete hasnt been poured around this pit yet, so I plan to leave the pump in the hole with a notch under the skimmer lid that will cover this thing…
Yes, it does take a while to change back to dry, but the bigger issue is that the purpose of that plastic mounting plate with the absorbent pads is to keep the device out of the water. Submerging the device can damage it and I’m assuming if it’s being used in a sump pump pit, at least part of it would be frequently submerged so this probably isn’t a good device to use for that.
The messed up thing about this device is that it reports water as a percentage which makes it seem like you could use it to detect the depth of the water. I submerged it multiple times while testing that feature in the DTH I was writing and the device stopped working. I later found out from the manufacturer that it’s not meant to sit directly in water or snow.
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Good to know, thanks.
So that brings us back to the battery operated sensors with the probe. Typically the probe is very durable and intended to be submerged, no problem.
The probe is attached by wire to the sensor, and the wire is typically two or 3 feet, but you can usually extend it up to about 6 feet.
For most uses that will be enough to be able to locate the The sensor part (which has the radio and the batteries) up in a dry location.
It would not be for this use case… Sump pit is about 7-8 feet deep… then would need at least another 2 feet to put the battery piece in a housing next to the concrete deck… So yeah… im still not much closer to finding my perfect solution it appears
If it’s that deep, you’re going to have to use a probe, a typical IoT radio wouldn’t be able to transmit from that depth. You’ll need to get the radio up to the surface. So just look for one that has a longer probe wire.
I may be also overthinking this… I plan to have the pump in there 100% of the time (if it degrades and I buy a new one every year fine). I have it connected to a GE outdoor smart switch… I can just leave it plugged in, and when it rains or I peak inside, I can ask google to turn it on or just use my phone… I could also just buy one with a float in it, so it goes on automatically, but I can also shut off with the smart switch…
I was just trying to automate its use a bit more.
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