Fortunately, water leaks don’t happen every four mornings, but they can quickly turn into a disaster, damaging a lot of electrical equipment, damaging our floors and even our neighbours’ ceilings, and sometimes even causing our water bills to skyrocket. Insidious, they often occur in our absence or are difficult to spot. After testing the Aqara motion detector, let’s continue our exploration of the brand’s ecosystem with another device that can be just as practical: the Aqara water leak detector.
A smart water leak detector
Unboxing and presentation
The Aqara water leak detector is presented, like the rest of the range, in a small elegant white box. On the front panel, the visual reveals a small, round device decorated with a drop of water that leaves little doubt about its design, as confirmed by the inscription above.
On the side panels, we find the traditional small pictograms informing us of its main functions: detecting water leaks, sounding local or remote alarms, or even interacting with a magnetic valve to automatically stop the water supply. Wireless, it benefits, like the other sensors of the brand, from a two-year autonomy.
On opening, we discover a worthy representative of Aqara, its compact design and elegant sparkling white leaving little doubt as to its filiation. Measuring 5 cm in diameter and only 1.5 cm thick, the Aqara water leak detector is powered by a CR2032 battery and also works as a ZigBee via a gateway. We will therefore have to combine it with our Aqara Europe gateway.
Its upper surface is smooth and uniform, showing only a discreet little pictogram in the shape of a drop of water, with no bumps or buttons.
It is almost the same underneath, where only a small hatch allowing access to the battery and two screws for sealing the device are present. Certified IP67, it is completely sealed and can be submerged up to 1 meter, which seems quite logical given its function.
Simplicity and efficiency always on the agenda
A water sensor compatible with Mi Home
As in our previous tests, we are going to use the Mi Home application to install this Aqara water leak detector until a home application arrives soon. To do this, we used the Aqara Europe gateway. Those who follow our tutorials carefully have probably already understood that we will also find it in our Xiaomi / Aqara home automation on Home Assistant .
Once connected to your 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz Wi-Fi network, simply press the “+” in the top right-hand corner, select “Sensor” from the left-hand menu and then choose “Aqara water leak sensor”.
If you are using Mi Home in English on a European server, it is the last one in the list. A 30-second detection phase then begins, but it will take even less time than that for your Aqara EU gateway to associate it.
Then, you can obviously rename the device and place it in a room of your “Mi Home”. It’s always quick and easy.
As always, the installation of this Aqara flood or leakage sensor went off without a hitch. Far from the regular failures of Wi-Fi, the ZigBee once again proves its simplicity as well as its responsiveness.
Automations on Mi Home
As with the other Aqara smart home devices, we will be able to create automation very easily: when a water leak is detected or when the leak is over. We must admit that the second one is less useful, so we will present the first one, but the second one can allow you to turn off the alarm.
In our example, we decided to use the alarm functionality of the Aqara Europe gateway. As soon as a water leak is detected, the sensor will send a signal to our gateway and activate the alarm. We have a wide range of ring tones to choose from, but we chose one that is stressful enough to ensure a quick response, even at night.
Finally, we find a log of the device’s events: handy to check if a small leak hasn’t occurred while you were away!
How it works
In concrete terms, if the water level reaches 0.5 mm, the leak sensor will trigger a sound and light alarm on the Aqara gateway that will send a notification to your smartphone within a second, wherever you are, allowing you to react quickly and, for example, cut off the water supply. Aqara indicates that its device allows you to interact with a connected valve, maybe it will arrive soon?
In the meantime, if you are using a Home Assistant home automation box and you also have a connected valve, you should be able to create automation without any trouble. We will study the question soon…
Smart Home Automation 