THIRDREALITY Zigbee Water Leak Sensor with Dripping Detection,120dB Alarm,App Notifications Enabled When Work with Home Assistant and Compatible Zigbee HUB Like SmartThings,Aeotec or Third Reality Hub

Works perfectly with my Hubitat hub. I have over 10 of these connected with no false alerts. Battery life is still over 90% after 8 months. Instead of ordering the one with the drip detection, I decided to get 2mm nuts and screwed them to the 3 sensing screws underneath. This added just enough length for the screws to sit around 1mm from the floor which should be more than enough to sense any leaks. You can also buy some 22 gauge wire to extend the contact leads for drip detection (be sure to connect 1 of the wires to the tip of the detector as this is the one mandatory contact point to close the loop)

Easy to set up and use. Beeps locally and alerts smart things too. So I get a txt message if there is water. I purchased several more of them to replace non-smart water alerts that I have. This is a much better system and approach. Highly recommend. I even bought more of them.

The Thirdreality sensor case has a distinct form factor, but in a house with a number of other small sensors of various types, that could be a good thing. Good build quality, and reliable operation so far.Stuff I've liked:It had the best range for pairing and operating of the ones that I've tried. It had a loud, on-board alarm. The version with the drip leak function can optionally detect very small amounts of water, depending upon physical configuration. It has paired easily and worked well with my Hubitat system. It uses common AAA batteries.Possible issues:Where an audible alarm is not wanted, another brand/model sensor would be needed.The case is much thicker than others in its class, and may not fit beneath a refrigerator or other device.The first unit I received used slot-head screws. A very small screwdriver was included in the box, a really thoughtful touch. But, a jeweler's kit, like many folks use to tighten eyeglass screws, would be much easier. The sensors in a subsequent order had screws that could be worked with either a Phillips or straight-bladed driver.Where a low-profile case, or a sensor with a remote head, is not needed, this is my choice so far for an inexpensive Zigbee unit.Background:Most homes have many potential sources of leaks - water heater, dish washer, clothes washer, refrigerator, bathroom plumbing, etc. - that could cause expensive damage. I decided to buy and try five different, inexpensive, Zigbee leak detectors that might work directly with my Hubitat home automation hub. They were by iAlarm, Neo, Thirdreality, and Treatlife, and a generic "Water Leak Detector Zigbee" was added to the mix. At the time of my purchase (August, 2023), each was slightly less than $20.All worked properly with my system using the Hubitat "Generic Zigbee Moisture Sensor" driver. All but the Thirdreality also worked with the custom "Tuya NEO Coolcam Zigbee Water Leak Sensor" driver, which adds an explicit state indication of online or offline. But, both drivers support current wet/dry status and battery % reporting. A tip would be to install the custom driver first, if desired, then let Hubitat choose it during device pairing. Also, each of these should be paired within a couple of feet of the hub, then moved to the desired location.Some thoughts about the group:Overall build quality of the group seemed quite good, with the exception of the generic "Water Leak Detector Zigbee", which was only mediocre.The Thirdreality and Treatlife devices have onboard alarms, and could be used as stand-alone detectors, although there appear to be several detectors available that are only stand-alone, and less expensive than the Zigbee devices. The Thirdreality alarm is much louder than the Treatlife's.The Thirdreality unit had a longer range than the others, both in pairing and in operation. It and the Treatlife both use common AAA batteries, but I haven't used these sensors long enough to be able to compare battery life.The Neo device was the only one with a "remote" sensor - limited to the length of the attaching cord, but still may be needed functionality. However, the cord actually plugs into the wall mount, not the unit itself, so the mount must be used when remote sensing.

These things are amazing for the price. I bought three of them, they all paired with my Conbee II/Home Assistant/Zigbee2mqtt setup without any problems. As others have noted, the screws are the bridge point that triggers the sensor. So if they are fully screwed in tightly, that's a few millimeters of water before it would trigger. But at the suggestion of other reviewers, I left my screws partially unscrewed. It's now only about 0.75mm - 1mm that water would need to pool before triggering the sensor. The casing still stays on totally fine this way; it has a pretty decent friction fit.The alarm triggers immediately when the contacts are bridged. There are three contacts; two at the bottom of the teardrop shape and one at the top. One of the bottom contacts has to bridge with the top contact to trigger the sensor. It will not trigger if the bottom two contact points are bridged.The alarm is loud enough (though honestly we won't hear it from our store room where our water well pump is). It's loud enough to hear if you're within about 35 feet of it. Otherwise, I'm counting on my Home Assistant's push and voice notifications to let us know about the problem. Since the sensor status in HA changes in less than a second from the time the sensor is triggered, the lack of volume should be an easy thing to compensate for. At $20 CAD each, with next-day Prime delivery, this is starting to compete with Ali Express prices. I suspect we'll buy a few more of these.

In its standard form, the contact sensors are recessed into the bottom of the unit. That means there needs to be a lot of water before it will detect any, which means the damage is already done.I bought a thin sheet of aluminum (has high conductivity) that is 1/8" thick. I cut 1 1/2" strips that are the width of the the channels on the bottom and drilled a small hole at the end of each to allow me to use the screws to hold them on.Bending them slightly at the end created 3 little "feet" that will detect water much faster.Only gripe is that the front sensor needs to be one of the two required to trigger the alarm. The back 2 sensors together won't trigger without the front one also getting wet.It paired with Hubitat easily and shows battery status.