There are some smart home sensors that you only truly appreciate when the worst happens. I had a water leak sensor in my home and assumed that it was keeping me protected. I found out the hard way how wrong I was.
Why one water leak sensor felt like enough
I’ve had leaks from the sink before
I’ve had water leaks in my home before, and they’ve always happened under the kitchen sink. There’s a lot of pipework under there, with pipes feeding the faucets, pipes feeding the dishwasher, and pipes coming from the garbage disposal unit, as well as the shutoff valve that turns off the entire water supply. If a leak was going to happen in my home, this would be the first place I would expect it to happen.
That’s why I bought a water leak sensor and placed it in the cupboard below the kitchen sink. I set up an automation that sends critical alerts to our phones if water is detected. I felt happy that if I did have a leak, I’d know about it before it got out of hand.
There are other places in my home where leaks could happen, such as under bathroom sinks or from appliances, but I thought the risk was fairly low, and I didn’t think it was worth placing water leak sensors around my entire home. The kitchen sink was covered, so I was golden. Or so I thought.
- Connectivity
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Matter over Thread
- Wi-Fi
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No
This water leakage sensor keeps track of water leaks by beeping when it comes into contact with water – helping you make life at home smoother, more comfortable and safer. When connected to a hub, the sensor sends a notification to your smartphone with information about the water leak. The small size makes it easy to position under the sink, appliances or other places where a water leakage can occur.
Leaks don’t always happen where you expect
My home has plenty of high-risk zones
It wasn’t my smart home sensor that detected our water leak when it happened. It was a far more sophisticated sensor: my nose. A strange smell of damp wood was coming from one of the bedrooms.
When I looked in the utility closet where the hot water tank lives, I discovered that the towels and bedding above the hot water tank were completely soaking, and the wooden shelves were dripping wet, which was the cause of the smell.
There’s a cold water storage tank that sits at the top of the closet and feeds the hot water tank. As hot water is drawn from the hot water tank, it’s replaced by water from this cold water storage tank.
The storage tank is filled from the main water supply and has a ball valve that should stop the flow of water once the storage tank is full. That valve had failed, and water had continued to flow into the tank until it overflowed, pouring down onto the bedding and towels in the closet beneath.
Thankfully, the consequences weren’t too bad. The towels and bedding were mostly ruined, but they had stopped the majority of the water from pouring down onto the electrical components below. The ball valve was replaced, and hopefully the problem is resolved.
One or two sensors can’t give full coverage
You don’t need to break the bank
The problem was that I assumed that having a water leak sensor set up under the kitchen sink was all I really needed. I’d never considered that the cold water storage tank might overflow; it just wasn’t something that was on my radar.
It proved to me that having one or two leak sensors in my home wasn’t enough to protect against leaks. There are plenty of places that water leaks can happen, and in an ideal world I’d have sensors in all of them.
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It’s not realistic to place water leak sensors everywhere water could possibly leak, as you’d need to place them under every bit of pipework in your home. However, after our water tank mishap, I bought several more sensors and have placed them in all the most likely places, such as under sinks and baths, under the washing machine, below the boiler, and, of course, beneath the cold water storage tank.
There are still plenty of places where leaks could occur that aren’t near these sensors, but I’ve given myself a much better chance of catching most leaks before they get too severe. Even cheap water leak sensors can do the job as long as you test them regularly, so you don’t need to spend a fortune to place several of them around your home, and they may be cheaper than the alternative.
Water leak sensors aren’t the only defense
Let your smart home control your water supply
The next step is to add a motorized valve that I can use to shut off the main water supply remotely. I can then create an automation that will automatically shut off the water if a leak is detected. This means my home will be protected even if there’s no one there to manually shut the water off.
You can get retrofit devices, such as the Aqara Valve Controller T1, that can turn compatible lever-style valves on and off. Unfortunately, my shutoff valve has an old-school round handle, so a retrofit device isn’t suitable. That means I may need to get a plumber to fit a compatible motorized shutoff valve instead.
Don’t assume your home is protected
A water leak sensor can offer peace of mind, but just installing one in your home may not be enough. You need to consider where water leaks are most likely to occur, and where they could cause the most damage. Don’t be an idiot like me and assume that one will be enough.
Stephan is the sports journalist for the Maple Grove Report.
