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Tuya/Zigbee Smart Water Leak Sensor US$8.51 (~A$12.08), 2pcs US$15.33 (~A$21.77) Delivered @ Personal Cares Store AliExpress

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On sale is another smart home sensor that's designed to detect water and this one supports both Tuya and Zigbee. This can be configured to send you an alert to your phone, play a sound on a speaker and a number of other tasks with a smart home setup.

Useful places for using these would be behind the washing machine, under a sink, next to the hot water cylinder and other areas where you don't want water to be leaking.

It's powered by 3 AAA batteries and there's a 1m cable for the water probe allowing you to mount the sensor quite a distance away from the water. It supports Tuya, Smart Life, Zigbee and Home Assistant.

Maximum of 5 per account and 10% discount if you order 2. AU$ based on current Mastercard rate, GST inclusive and doesn't stack with cashback.

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closed Comments

  • I have never use these before.

    Are these sensor good quality and what a good decent hub to get to work with these?

    I have Phillip Hue eco system already. Guess these will not work with the Phillip?

    • You can get the same thing for a similar price but Wi-Fi rather than zigbee. So no hub needed.

      They use an app such as Smart Life, but you can probably set up automation to trigger Phillips things.

      https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004862220141.html

      I have not bought from this seller, but have this sensor and it works fine.

      • Yep that's the standalone Tuya one.

      • Thank you.

        Is it better to go with a hub or standalone is good enough?

        • Standalone (Wi-Fi) is longer range but slightly more power hungry. So you might change you batteries slightly more often.

          I'd go Wi-Fi unless you already have a hub.

  • +1

    Can you set these up to do the opposite? That is, tell you when it doesn't detect water? I am wondering if this could be used to alert me if my automated watering system stops working.

    • +2

      So a dry sensor? Nah I don't think so. I'm not sure if something. I'm sure someone around the HA community would have a solution for that with another kind of sensor or even a smart water system.

      • More a "if it hasn't detected water in X amount of time" sensor. Basically just send me an alert if it hasn't detected water in the last 24 hours. But yeah would probably need some fiddling.

        I am using a solar powered pump to water some plants because I have no access to water on my balcony so it draws water from a 80L plastic tub. There have been a few times it has failed for various reasons though (clogged tubes, ran out of water, solar panel ended up obstructed). Just looking for a way to get some peace of mind that it is still working when I am not home for a week or more.

        • +1

          Can't you use a soil moisture meter instead? Something like this:

          https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005016182613.html

          • @bio: I have considered something like that and I probably should test one out eventually, but my system (almost always) works as it is. I am reticent to change it too much. Also by the time my plants are dry it is already a bit late to be watering them. They are potted up such that they can be watered twice a day, regardless of how much they have dried, without issue.

            Perhaps I will get one of these though just to see what it could do for me. Thanks for the tip!

        • I don't know for this particular one, but I have a very similar ($19) Wi-Fi model that can be set to alert for no water, so could monitor tub water levels.
          https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/294843205022

          Or cheaper on Aliexpress, but I have not ordered from here.
          https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004862220141.html

          It's just an app option (Smart Life), where you can set an automation alert to 'flooding' or 'normal'.

          I have mine set to monitor a houseboat bilge (on a mooring) for leaks (on 'flooding' mode though).

          I have not actually tested the alerts for no water, but I had thought of putting one in the water tank so I got an alert when near low.

          However for your setup, I feel like you might be better to install one in one of the plants next to the outlet tube. And just have it pop up a notification each time it detects the plants being watered. That way you know if there is no alert, no water flowed. You could likely set up a more complex automation task that only alerts you if no water has flowed in 24 hours, but I have not tried that.

          I wonder if one in the soil would work as a sensor to trigger watering when the soil is dry.

    • +1

      What you're looking for is called a "float sensor". But you could easily use one of these sensors and just invert the response.

      • If the name float sensor means what I think it does that would be good to detect if there was still water in the 80L tub but I would rather something that could detect an issue at the other end (in/at the base of a plant) to account for other reasons it may not be working. I can easily work out the issue once I know it's not working. I assume a float sensor wouldn't detect small amounts of water like the OP post is meant to do.

        I assume my idea of "no water detection in the last 24 hours" would be too niche to be able to get a prebuilt sensor system like the one posted to perform? I'm terrible with anything that needs me to program/set it up…

        • Perhaps look at the Mi Flora sensors. These are BT sensors that can detect moisture levels. They don't have a huge range (6-10m), but you could just walk around with the app open every few days to check. Or if you wanted to get deep into the complexities, you could create a Home Assistant instance and use ESP32 devices as Bluetooth relays. Then you could set up all sorts of automations based on the data from the Mi Flora sensors. This is what I'm in the process of doing now :)

  • It doesn't mention water resistance anywhere, does anyone know what amount of moisture these can handle? I assume only the probe Is supposed to touch water but will the main section survive being in a moist environment?

    • That's why there is a 1m cable separating the probe and the main section with all the smart bits inside. Other sensors incorporate it into one, hence the IP ratings.

      • In my experience, places that need these sensors often get quite humid, with no moisture resistance these tend to die after a few months.

        I found the answer and some other useful testing information in the link below, FYI the main section has no water or dust resistant:

        https://smarthomescene.com/reviews/tuya-water-leak-sensor-zw…

        • Yeah I pretty much said the main bit doesn't have it since it's not the other kind where it's all incorporated in one. I have one of these behind a washing machine for a year and the Aqara ones under the sink for about 3 years.

        • These are for under things like vanities, dishwashers, washing machines etc. Anywhere you don't want water. And to be alerted when you have a leak

  • Do you have the dimensions of the sensor? I was hoping to put some of these inside my AC wall units in the drain pan to detect when the drain pipe had become blocked. Had an incident recently with my AC dripping water all over my TV/Xbox…

    • 70x25x20mm for the main unit

      • Thanks, but not at all what I asked. Need to know sensor (probe) dimensions to see if they'll fit.

  • New to smart stuff. If I get the zigbee tuya version do I need to flash anything to keep it local? Setting up HA now.lol

    • use HA to connect to the sensor via Zigbee and it will be local

      • Thanks. I have ordered a skyconnect usb stick - on its way. Have I got this right? I need to avoid Wifi if I dont wanna flash these products? Also what does tuya do?

        • You can have Zigbee and wifi networks running concurrently with no worries. Tuya is a cloud platform for lots of different sensors - have a Google.

          One of the issues with Tuya is that if your internet connection dies, so does your ability to control your smart devices.

          I’d you’re doing Home Assistant, there is LocalTuya to resolve this, but I’ve not set it up yet..

        • Correct. There are still ways to get local Wifi things, but you need to either buy a already-flashed version or flash it yourself.
          Tuya is just a brand which makes these kind of sensors.

  • Have one of these in the laundry, it's great. They're also great to build other types of sensors off rather than say adding wires to a door sensor.

    • Can you elaborate on that second sentence?

      • It basically just detects if electricity can flow between the contacts. It getting wet means enough electricity can flow to trigger it.

        So you can connect those contacts up to other things, like a relay or switch. It'a slo easy to make things like a pressure sensor etc.

        What Moondog is saying is that these units are easy to use for DIY projects like this, because you can just chop the wire and connect it to anything. Alternate options include using a door opening sensor and connecting up to the reed switch, but that requires more effort.

  • Does this work well to, for example of my use case, tell when the shower is running? (Have it sit on the ground and be splashed with water). Or is that "too much water" and the intention for the sensor is to rarely detect moisture.

    • It needs water across both contacts. So in the right place it could detect if the shower is running, but just plashes of water may not trigger it.

      • Yeh cool. I was more worried that it'd be super sensitive and would think the showers on all the time if it continues to detect water on the floor

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