Fibaro has been making smart home devices and HomeKit-compatible products for a few years now, and the company has several sensors that work with HomeKit, including flood sensors.
The flood sensor, along with the button we reviewed last year, are two of the Fibaro brand ‘HomeKit’ accessories available for purchase from Apple.
Fibero’s flood sensor is designed to detect water, which sounds very basic, but it’s something that has the potential to save you a lot of money because if you’ve ever had a flood or water leak, you know what kind of water damage your home has caused. can
Design
When I saw the Fibero flood sensor online it looked like a rather large device, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that it is actually small, unobtrusive and able to go anywhere.
The flood sensor, made from a white plastic material, fits in the palm of my hand. It is round in shape with three corrosion resistant gold feet below which are designed to detect liquids. The legs are retractable at the ends which ensures that the feet of the sensor are in contact with the ground even if the surface is slightly uneven.
The device has “Flood Sensor” written on one side and a Fibaro logo on top. Inside the Fibero Flood Sensor, there is a CR123A battery, which can be accessed by twisting the top of the cover counterclockwise. This is also where the serial number is located.
You can place the flood sensor wherever it fits. It’s about an inch thick at its widest point, so you can squeeze it into some tight spots. I have it located under a shelf in my living room, a place where rainwater enters when the gutters outside my apartment fill up during heavy rains.
The legs of the flood sensor are small enough that it can detect very small amounts of water, which is useful for catching a leak before it gets too bad. if there is Although a lot of water, it floats away.
setup
Setting up the flood sensor was relatively easy. To activate it I had to remove the plastic cover from the battery, which involved opening the case (a simple clockwise turn to open and then counter-clockwise to close it) and pulling out the tab.
From there, I added it to ‘HomeKit’ using the Fibaro app and scanned the ‘HomeKit’ code in the manual. The device itself doesn’t seem to have a HomeKit code, so you might want to hold onto the manual as there’s no way to re-add the product to HomeKit without the HomeKit code.
Fibaro connects to HomeKit via Bluetooth, so to receive notifications about leaks while away, you’ll want to have a home hub available (iPad, Apple TV, or HomePod). I’ve never had problems with Bluetooth because I have plenty of hubs in my apartment, but in a large house, Bluetooth connection issues can cause delays if there aren’t any nearby hubs.
Functionality
The flood sensor is very sensitive and in my tests, it started beeping and flashing red as soon as it detected water, so it was pretty quick. It beeps loudly until it’s removed from the water and sends a notification to each of my devices, so the alerts are hard to miss. No notification when water detection is turned off.
It’s sensitive enough that only one foot of moisture needs to be detected before an alarm sounds, which is great because you can catch a leak as soon as it starts. Notifications are good to have because of the peace of mind that you won’t miss the alarm sound because you’re out of the house.
Fibaro notifications are sent only to your iOS device with no backup method, such as email available. This is likely to be a problem if you are without a reliable connection when sending notifications. When a leak occurs, it’s a big deal that can cause a lot of damage, so a leak sensor needs to use every available method for notification.
It is worth noting that water must touch the gold foot of the flood sensor to trigger the alarm. It only activates when the water hits those three specific spots, so if there’s a drip and it misses the leg, it won’t activate. It seems to require actual contact with water because the alarms go off when it’s taken out of the water even though it’s still wet, so just being damp doesn’t trigger it.
The flood sensor has a tamper feature, so it will sound an alarm if tampered with by a child or cat. Whenever I picked it up to move it for testing purposes, the tamper alarm went off and scared me, so I hope it’s not something a pet wants to mess with.
In addition to detecting water, the Flood Sensor has a built-in temperature sensor (but no humidity sensor) so it will also tell you the ambient temperature of the room it’s located in and notify you if the temperature suddenly changes. Like when a pipe freezes. You’ll want to set this up in the Home app via an automation.
Apps and HomeKit
I am not a fan of the Fibaro app. It seems old, I’ve crashed it a few times and every time I open it, it reminds me that location services are not enabled. I know location services is not enabled, I have disabled it
The Fibaro app displays tiles for all your available HomeKit products, including the flood sensor, but there’s not much you can do with it in the app.
You can see its current status (aka whether it’s detecting a leak) and temperature via the built-in temperature monitoring feature. There is also a tamper adjustment setting that can be adjusted to prevent accidental detection of water during vibration.
You can use the app to create scenes and automations, but I’d recommend using the home app over the Fibaro app because it’s cleaner and easier to use.
The Home app offers all of the same settings for the flood sensor, allowing you to see the temperature and whether water is detected. This allows you to adjust the notifications if desired Any time water is detected the flood sensor will send you a notification via HomeKit. There is no option to adjust or disable notifications in the Fibaro app.
Sensors like the Fibaro flood sensor cannot be incorporated into scenes, but they can be used as triggers in automation. For example, you can flash all your lights or turn on a certain color when water is detected or, if you have a ‘HomeKit’ smart plug, have it cut power to something like a washing machine or dishwasher.
bottom line
If you have an area of your home that is prone to leaks or flooding, such as under a troublesome sink, a leaky water heater, or near a fish tank, a flood sensor is a useful tool. Can notify you immediately of a problem. It can be resolved as soon as possible.
There are sensors like this that are much cheaper, but the more affordable models don’t connect to your iPhone for remote alerts (you have to be there to hear it), and the smart models are around $40. It’s still less expensive than the Fibaro, so if you don’t need HomeKit, shop around.
Fibaro offers the ability to connect flood sensors to other HomeKit products for trigger purposes, so you can do things like turn all lights blue when water is detected, or even cut power to an appliance like a washing machine. I’m not sure how practical this is for most appliances and uses, but it’s certainly an available option.
I don’t know if a flood sensor needs a HomeKit connection to be functional, but regardless of HomeKit compatibility, the Fibero Flood Sensor was able to provide reliable alerts to all my devices, and it never failed to detect water exposure. It’s not a perfect solution because features like moisture detection and more reliable (email) notifications are missing, but it’s the only HomeKit–flood sensor on the market for those who prefer a HomeKit setup.
How to buy
The Fibero HomeKit-enabled flood sensor can be purchased from the Apple Online Store for $69.95 and will arrive in Apple retail stores later in the year.
