THIRDREALITY Smart Soil Moisture Sensor Gen2, Zigbee hub Needed, Enhanced Signal Stability, Capacitive Moisture Monitoring, Garden Planting, Compatible with Hubitat, SmartThings, Home Assistant, Homey

I have both Gen1 and Gen2 of these sensors. The Gen1 are terrible when it comes to connectivity, they don't stay connected unless they are next to the hub. Gen2 are a MAJOR UPGRADE their connection range is significantly better and much more stable. I have 6 Gen2 and none of them have disconnected since I set them up. The 10 Gen1 sensors I have need daily resets on any that are not within 10 feet of the the hub. That being said, the numbers reported by the Gen1 seem more accurate. On a 90° day the Gen1's all reported something around 90° while the Gen2's all reported around 110°. They do have an offset but not that big. The soil moisture numbers all seem about accurate. Since I'm using them to trigger my watering system I just use a threshold number that it needs to be below. They serve my purposes but know they are not perfect, but for the price they are good enough.

I have been using the smartthings app for about 5 years now and third reality devices are one of the better device making companies that works well with smartthings ! I took the sensor out of the box, got smartthings ready to scan for nearby devices, took the plastic tab out from the battery on the device and it connected to smartthings within 5 seconds. Compatibility with smartthings is stellar ! I then took the device and tested Moisture content on a plant that I watered yesterday and it registered 57% moisture - which seems about right - the soil is pretty wet. I then moved it to my blueberry mound which is pretty dry and the device indicates it is dry ! Since it’s day one - I don’t know about battery life, but I am planning on buying more of these devices as third reality’s accuracy and reputation is very good This device also has a thermometer as well and it’s right on target for the outside temp As a test - we used a manual sensor next to this one and this one was dead on - soaking it was 99% before it was 18%

So took forever to get it connected to home assistant via the HA zigbee module. It did finally get a software upgrade which may make it easier for people in the future, however, it keeps falling off the network. I have 5 Gen1 sensors they are all working flawlessly. One of the Gen 1 sensors is sitting within 2 inches of the Gen 2 sensor. The Gen1 works and the Gen 2 keeps disappearing from the network... Until they fix these issues I'd buy the Gen 1 version instead of the Gen 2. That said most of the Third Reality stuff I have works much better than Aqara (vibration sensor) and the generic bluetooth 2 prong moisture sensors I've used in the past.

First blush high praise. Sturdy, looks like waterproof according to usage is good. Paired to Zigbee2MQTT in Home Assistant without problems although I did ask Gemini. Gemini helped me update the firmware which enabled calibration. I checked the calibration on all 3, thinking I'd have to adjust but dry was 0% and the wet was 99.99, 99.99, and 100%. Due to slow polling, it will take a couple of minutes for that to finish.

When first installing, it was easy to attach to my zigbee2mqtt network. At first, it dropped from the network about every 10 days. Now, after just 6 weeks (2 weeks past the return period) it constantly (every few days) keeps dropping from the network. I have 16 Gen1 sensors that are further from their routers, and are all working flawlessly. This Gen2 keeps disappearing from the network (1 controller + 2 routers). I need to go out into my yard, pull up, open, then resync. It is a real time-wasting pain to use. I originally thought that with the "newer better antenna", it would have perfect connectivity. That is just a false myth. Looks like I will just have to bite-the-bullet, and replace this with a Gen1.

The device is nicely constructed and a lot bigger than you think I still need to test it in my garden, but adopting it home assistant I had quite a few issues at first. When I opened it up and pulled the tab for the battery the light blink blue and my zigbee antenna started to adopt the device, after about 5 minutes it error out saying it couldn't connect to the device. So I tried holding the reset button down for 5 seconds and the light wouldn't turn red or blue like according to the instructions, thought I may have had a bad device which can happen but it lit up once so I investigated further to make sure it wasn't bad. What I discovered is the device comes with an Amazon basic AA battery, so I took the battery out reinserted it and the blue light turned on and then turned off wouldn't do the blinking pattern or anything and then I noticed if I push the battery down into the device it would turn on and start blinking. So the tab at the top that sits on the negative side of the battery I bent it down just a little bit to force the battery down more in case it wasn't make a good enough contact and when I put the battery back in the light turned on for a second and then turned off and didn't blink. So I went to grab a Energizer AA battery and put it in and it immediately came on with a blinking blue light. After looking into it further it looks like the little nub on the top of the positive side of the Amazon battery is not long enough to make contact with the connector inside the base of the device unless you push the battery down inside but as soon as you let go it turns off but with the Energizer battery it worked just fine. A design change I think that needs to be made is the connector inside the device for the positive side probably needs to be more raised up like a dome versus just a flat plate so it will make better contact with other batteries.

Seems to be working great but have never used a sensor like this and dont have anything to compare it to. It did lose its connection once to the network, but I reconnected it and it’s been fine since I have this set with a sprinkler to turn on automatically when it reaches a low moisture level and it’s working great.

Worked well, seems very accurate and I was able to integrate with home assistant without trouble. I was doing yard work and broke it by stepped on it , need to buy another one. It worked perfectly well before I broke it. Highly recommend if someone looking for a sprinkler automation.

Brilliant sensor. Paired instantly with Home Assistant via ZHA, battery life looks great with the single AA, and the readings are consistent and reliable. Build quality feels solid and the weatherproof casing gives confidence leaving it outdoors permanently. The capacitive probe is a real step up from cheaper resistive sensors — no corrosion concerns and the readings don't drift over time. One thing worth noting if you're using these for lawn seeding or germination monitoring: the probe measures soil moisture at depth, below where your seed is sitting. During the critical early germination window, the surface can be bone dry and your seed dying while the sensor is still reading 50%+ because the soil 50-100mm down is perfectly moist. I learned this the hard way — lost most of my first seeding attempt on an exposed site because the sensors said the moisture was fine while the surface was drying out in the wind. For established lawns, borders, and pots these are perfect. For new seed germination, treat the readings as a guide to what's happening below the surface and still check the top 10mm by hand or eye until the grass is rooted in. Five stars because the sensor does exactly what it's designed to do — just understand what it's actually measuring.

Rien à voir avec les sensor a 10€ les 3, il y a une grande précision (voir photo), le seul problème c'est que c'est un peu cher, mais ça vaut le cout !

Im Gegenzug zu den ersten Sensoren von Thirdreality sind diese deutlich stabiler. Das Zigbee-Signal wurde noch kein einziges mal unterbrochen. Bei den ersten Sensoren war dies fast Stündlich der Fall (bis hin zum kompletten Verbindungsverlust). Auch die Daten zur Bodenfeuchtigkeit sind plausibel und reagieren sehr gut und schnell auf Veränderungen (Bei mir im Außenbereich im Einsatz). Danke für das Update! Ich werde mir noch weitere zulegen.

Deze kon ik niet pairen met zigbee2mqtt

works great with Home Assistant. I've had this in a plant pot for a week now and it's working great. I have it linked to Home Assistant with an Automation that texts me when my plant needs watering. Works as expected. In fact I bought 4 more.