Our garage flooded last night (not the first time) and so I want to install some water sensors in the garage and basement. There’s dumb ones that look similar to a smoke detector, but all they do is make noise, which I’m willing to bet I won’t hear since I can barely hear the smoke detector in the kitchen when I’m upstairs. thats why I want a smart system so it rings an alarm on my phone as well, though if there was something with like a repeater I could install upstairs that would work too. thanks all
If you want to do a little setup and config yourself, look in to home assistant and ZigBee sensors.
We’ve done this with Home Assistant (on a raspberry pi), and Zwave / ZigBee. Its been working great for years. Also allows for really customizable alerts for different things - and has been super stable.
Not very difficult to setup either - the interface is pretty polished these days!
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dont wanna do any config. this is something I’m willing to ignore privacy for, just would be nice if I didn’t have to
I get where you’re coming from, but given the cost of equipment these days, it’s important to consider whether or not the zero-config big box brand stuff will be around long enough to be worth the cost. While it’s a PITA to spend your efforts setting this all up, doing it yourself using open protocols can be worth it in the long run. And 9 out of 10 times, when you do it yourself, you can just leave it alone and forget about it.
Edit: there is a good write-up between zigbee and matter, and for ease of use it looks like matter would be better for your use cases.
Fair enough, then I would probably go with something like the Shelly flood. All their stuff is ridiculously simple to setup and manage, some of it is even able to run without internet and only local WIFI.
You should probably get a louder smoke decetor if you can barely hear it upstairs.
I’m going to go with the DIY approach;
For the water sensor, I’d look into the possibility of linking the basement alarm to a speaker upstairs. I’ve no idea what kind of alarm you’re looking at or what the electronics are like. Theoreticaly, you can jump off the audio signal just before it reaches the speaker. Send the audio signal through an amp (located close* to the alarm, preferably where it won’t get wet) and connect it to a speaker upstairs.
I would never try to mess with a smoke detector I rely on, but a water sensor…buy two and have fun.
*the amp is to overcome voltage drop in the new cable, I doubt that the sensor electronics will be capable of driving a seperate speaker with at least 30 ft of cable between it.
You could get “smart flood detectors” cheap on amazon that use smart life. They make a sound (not the loudest tbf) and trigger notifications on your phone via the app.
Maybe not the greatest for privacy but might start the trail…
