Question

After having a flood in our basement due to a sump pump failure, we bought a dome water sensor. I finally got that working appropriately. The other morning, I woke up and noticed at 1am there was an alert stating that the sensor was wet. Unfortunately, I have my iPhone scheduled to go in Do Not Disturb mode while I sleep and I never got the notification until I woke up. Thankfully, it was a false alarm. Had it been a real alarm, I would’ve had another flooded basement. As such, my thought is to play an alarm over the Echo devices I have in my house. Is this how you would solve it? If so, is there an easy way to accomplish this task? Or do you have a better idea? Thank you all in advance!  

Answer 1

I’m sure there are others that will chime in because I’m pretty sure what you want is possible with “echo speaks”. However if you have smart lighting you can trigger that to turn on as well.  

Comments

@sherlynsherm thank you for the quick reply! I will check into “echo speaks”! And that’s a good idea with the lighting. We do have smart switches in every room so that could work.  

---

I have 3 dome water sensors in our basement. When triggered it will send a text message to me (added smartthings to my contacts that bypass silent mode). It will also turn on our bedroom, bathroom, dinning room, lights. It will also turn any color changing lights to blue. Really the only lights it doesn't turn on is our kid's rooms.  

---

@vile535 I never thought about sending the text and adding it to my contacts! Well played! And thank you for the suggestion!  

---

@dentilabial30 our basement flooded because of a torrential downpour of 18" of rain in an hours time a couple years ago. 12" of water in our basement, flooded my home office and destroyed several thousand dollars worth of camera gear. Never. Again. I do test the sensors and make sure everything works as it should about once a month. So far so good.  

---

I put in a valve closer to turn off the main water supply when a leak is detected. Works great.  

Answer 2

I have mine set to turn off the water as soon as water is detected.  

Comments

I get an alert, but if I'm sleeping, I'll wake up and find out the water is off. Now you're making me question if I should do something to wake me up but not sure how necessary it would be

---

Except turning off the water wont help a sump pump failure.  

---

@hague thank you for your suggestion. I’m going to use that for monitoring other devices in the house. The sump pump, however, handles water caused by Mother Nature. I haven’t found a way to turn her off yet !  

---

@sherlynsherm that's a good point  

---

Sorry I didn't realize sump pumps were involved here

---

@hague I do hope they add that to SmartThings soon though! I’d pay monthly for that service!  

---

@dentilabial30 one suggestion I would have for sump pumps - do you have your sensor outside the pump on the floor? Dome makes a sensor with a piece you could drop/hang in the sump pump to alert you when it reaches a certain level, before it overflows.  

---

@hague yes that the dome sensor I bought. I have it hanging about 3-4 inches above the water level where the sump pump turns on. That still gives me some time to react if the new one craps out.  

Answer 3

We have ours tied into SHM and our siren will go off and the lights in our bedroom will go on. It happened once we had a backup in our laundry room where the water softener dumps. Caught it all right away.  

Comments

@hague Fontaine exactly this. turn on all the lights you can in your bedroom.  

Answer 4

You can also allow the alarm to override do not disturb on your phone

Comments

@bein1411 but this is an all or nothing option, correct? Any notification from ST will get through or none is my understanding.  

---

@hague I dont think this is possible with iOS.  

---

@sherlynsherm I'm on android and I believe it's the same

---

@bein1411 does this work on the iPhone? I’ve searched all over and can’t figure out how to do it.  

---

@bein1411 This is all or nothing in the classic app. If there is a power outage, you are notified no matter what time it is. I do not wish to be awakened for that. I called Samsung to complain and they said nobody had asked for a switch to turn off power outage notifications. So I now use a siren for SmartThings alerts.  

Answer 5

Also, I added a backup pump by basement watchdog. It has a spot to wire in a dry contact sensor. So now I get notified when the backup pump engages. I get worried that when a surface-mounted leak sensor gets wet by the pump I have lost valuable time to solve the issue.  

Comments

@sherlynsherm I am adding a backup pump soon but I never thought of wiring a sensor in there. Great idea!  

Answer 6

I would ALSO buy a few Zircon water alarms that are standalone alarms. I have them under all my sinks.  

Answer 7

Keep it as local as possible. Get a siren that works local.  

Comments

@heavenward that’s a good call! Thank you!  

Answer 8

Have you tried bigtalker2? Could at least get the echo to say something when it detects water ?  

Comments

@maccaboy I have not! I’ll check into it. Thank you!  

Answer 9

When the alarm legitimately goes off what will you do to rectify the accumulating water? Can that be automated?  

Comments

@isar45 Sorrentino eventually a backup pump will be installed to automatically kick on. In the meantime, I have a manual pump I can put into the pit the pump water out through a hose. It’s not ideal, but it works for now until the backup pump is installed.  

Answer 10

This will work for you. I even have my Sonos speakers telling me alerts. It’s from RBoys.   
http://www.facebook.com/RBoySTApps

Answer 11

If you have. Sonos speaker, it can alert you on that without doing anything else special. Not sure about an Echo.  

Answer 12

I have 12 LeakSmart sensors all over the house. bathrooms (near toilet AND in vanity), laundry room, crawlspace, AC condenser pan overflow. They all are connected to SmartThings and Alexa. I also have 4 LeakSmart electric ball valves (brass). main water in, pressure release (bleeds off all pressure in system in 3 seconds of alarm), and hot and cold lines, in the crawlspace, going to an outdoor shower at the spa. If a drop of water is detected by ANY sensor, the main closes, the pressure release valve opens, alarm siren sounds, a text is sent to mobile devices. If the text is not answered in two minutes a voice call is placed and email sent. Tested every 3 months with an eye dropper over a sensor. Also had an actual when the maid put a wet (dripping) wash cloth on the towel rack over a sensor. This system senses, corrects the water flow, then notifies us. all within 5 seconds. maximum leakage, less than a tea cup. Works when we are on the road or at home. About $1200 for peace of mind. (Ray)

Comments

@fredela61 I have been playing around with the idea for a while. Live in a new home and struggling with the costs lol. Do you think it’s worth it? Why leak smart sensors over SmartThings sensors? Can you use any sensor to trigger leaksmart valve?  

---

J. W. Hagan . I have only used LeakSmart (for 5-6 years now) so I confine my comments to personal experience. Is it worth it? To me, in a word, YES! The greatest fear we had when traveling was coming home to see water running out under the front door. The total cost of my installation is somewhat less than the deductible if I had a catastrophic event. Hope this helps. BTW. figure in a professional plumber to cut in the valves if you have iron/copper plumbing. (Ray)

Answer 13

Can't you choose an "exception" to the sleep mode. If a certain number calls or texts it will go through? You can on Android I don't do Apple

Comments

@theotokos yes, you can allow calls and texts through. Unfortunately, I have not found a way to do notifications (which is currently the way I get notified). It looks like converting to these text/call options might work well!