Flume integration

Another question or two please. How well does the Flume driver (the one ref'd in this thread) for Hubitat work? What data does it provide etc.

I have a Flume 2. I believe this API will work with either. In fact, @JasonJoel may have had a Flume 1 if I remember correctly.

Here are the attributes that I expose in the driver:

Current States

  • commStatus : good
  • notificationStream : [2021-05-31T22:16:25.000Z]: Flume Smart Leak Alert triggered at Home. Water has been running for 2 hours averaging 0.51 gallons every minute.
  • presence : present
  • usageLastDay : 166.6
  • usageLastHour : 0.0
  • usageLastMinute : 0.0
  • usageLastMonth : 5920.42
  • usageLastWeek : 1270.65
  • water : wet

The notificationStream contains the same thing that notifications in the app have. This gives you an event to react to for automations, along with the text which could be parsed.

Presence refers to the home/away status, which is a Flume setting. The native Flume app uses this to notify your emergency contacts if you are away and a leak happens. You can toggle it on and off in my Hubitat driver. I figured people might want this functionality for automations to set away mode based on location or something.

Water refers to the Flume smart leak technology. Mine is 'wet' for example because I have a slow leak alert (due to hose with leaky nozzle being left on).

It works pretty well in my experience. It requires an internet connection to connect to the Flume cloud. There is no local option, but it does use their official API, so I assume it will continue to be supported.

Thanks for the note, and I'm glad it is working for you. I do this for fun, so if you want to pay it forward then find a way to tip an extra buck for your coffee or for someone else that would appreciate it!

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I have a flume 2. Although my sensor and bridge haven't been talking lately. :frowning: I need to get out there and troubleshoot it.

Hopefully others from this thread will be able to pipe in with experience - unfortunately, I don't much (anything) to share yet...

For now, this is a foundational step for me - it'll take some time to experience how how Flume tracks, alerts, etc and how this API integration reports all of that within Hubitat - since I just got it all running this morning, I don't have that baseline yet.

I also don't have an automated shut-off valve on my main yet (just my water heater) - I'll install an automated main eventually, but it's just not at the top of my to-do list right now.

Down the road, I primarily envision using this integration to automatically shut-off my main based on a leak alert (maybe just when away, at night, stuff like that).

For now, just excited to learn from the data for a while!

Roger that, and will do - thanks again!!

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There are a few possible options discussed in this thread: Main Water shut off Automation

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I just noticed and downloaded the update. Can someone tell me what the update was. I looked but couldn't find anything.

Per the drive code:

Change history:

1.1.2 - @robertcraft - Change usage attributes to Number
1.1.1 - @tomw - Better handling for notifications when old notifications were deleted by the Flume app.
1.1.0 - @tomw - Added PresenceSensor to represent away_mode status.
1.0.2 - @tomw - User feedback: improved notification handling.
1.0.1 - @tomw - Improved next Refresh scheduling for better reliability.
1.0.0 - @tomw - Initial release.

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A user on GitHub proposed a change to use numbers instead of strings for the attributes. He said it was easier to use in Rule Machine with numeric comparisons this way, so I accepted the change.

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So I just found out about Flume. It's intriguing, but I am wondering from those that use it, if they think it's something worth purchasing?

I like having it, but I'm torn on whether it is a novelty or something critical.

I will say that it has impressed me with its ability to catch a few slow leaks (like a leaky faucet or a hose nozzle left on).

It hasn't paid back in cost savings like a thermostat or energy monitor might, but it is still useful insight. And I really like having the peace of mind that Flume would be able to alert me about a water leak when I was away from home, which I'd be blind to otherwise.

So, it's cool if you're already adding things like it to your setup because you enjoy the hobby.

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I love it. That said, would I have purchased it if my local water company didn't subsidize most of it... Probably, but not definitely.

I especially like it when I'm filling/topping off the pool, as there is basically no way I could forget to turn it off since it lights up like a Xmas tree.

I also like being able to look when I'm out of town and know for sure water is OK. That coupled with an automatic water shutoff and leak sensors gives me high confidence.

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I certainly like mine and it definitely has helped setting and meeting water budget goals which is important as we live in the highest water cost area in my state. The community driver works well for integrating with my shutoff valve in case of a leak.

I am a little concerned about the reliability. In my case 2 out of the 1st 3 months of usage has resulted in the meter to just stop capturing and reporting data and both times support has pushed a firmware update to fix the problem. They promised this last one would be a permanent fix so I'm hoping those problems are behind me.

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It helped me identify a leak in my irrigation system. I'm not sure how much money that actually saved me but I'm grateful to have found and fixed it.

I purchased the Flume 1 and after I replaced the batteries for the first time it died shortly after. They offered me a discount on a replacement, but it was super disappointing that it would fail so soon. I've only had the Flume 2 for a couple of months now, so we'll see how long this one lasts. My first Flume was subsidized by my water company, so I didn't feel too bad about paying for a replacement. If I had to pay full price for both, I might not have replaced it.

Though, eventually I would like to get a valve controller to shut off my main source. If Flume detects a leak or any of my leak sensors are wet, shut off water. Water damage is no fun and very expensive to fix, so assuming I can get this all working in concert, the money will definitely be worth it.

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My Flume 2 arrives today - am very excited about the possibilities. I have a bulldog smart valve and will be creating some "rules" to handle leak situations.

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Okay to report back - wow that was easy. No issues with set up, seems to be monitoring the water flow just fine.

Created a few sequences in Node-RED (I use that for my rules) and now if the "device" shows as "wet" I close my water main valve and send a warning email. Also I set the Flume "presence" based on my presence detection routines, such as they are...

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I think I'm being dense, but can you please explain the "water - wet/dry" attribute a bit more?

I haven't paid attention to it thus far, but I see mine's "wet" right now... No leaks detected and water hasn't been running since morning showers earlier.

What triggers it going to "wet"? And should it likewise somehow reset to "dry" on its own, or does that always have to be done by pressing the "Clear Wet Status" button in the device details page?

Thanks in advance - I'll say it again, this integration is really awesome!

I thought the HE device wet/dry reports "wet" when Flume detects a flow rate greater than the configured parameters set at installation (plus maybe some smart monitoring as well). Once triggered it has to be cleared unlike a traditional leak sensor which automatically goes back to "dry".

Have there been any alerts on your Flume app recently?

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That's what it is based on:

// check for Flume Smart Leak alerts            
            if(true == alert.flume_leak)
            {
                sendEvent(name: "water", value: "wet")
            }

One oddity because of how their API works is that when you create a new Virtual Device (or re-Configure your existing one, for example by changing a device setting and saving), there's a "catch-up" process that my driver runs to make sure the Hubitat driver is in sync with the Flume notification system.

So, if you have an old leak notification that you haven't cleared in the Flume app and you Configure your Virtual Device in Hubitat, you'll see "wet". Running the clearWetStatus command will make it "dry" again, and unless you Configure the device in Hubitat again that particular notification won't show back up.

If you get "wet" subsequently, then it means that Flume reported a smart leak notification. I have seen these with drippy faucets and a hose that was left on, for example.

EDIT: @hydro311 for visibility on my reply.

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Thank you @tomw and @erktrek for your insights!

All of my app notifications were cleared out, so nothing there... Though I added Flume to HE a while ago, I haven't actually done anything with it until yesterday and now I suspect I crossed some wires as I mashed buttons and tested stuff pretty willy-nilly... On top of that, there was a brief cloud outage on Flume's end while I was doing all this that broke reporting-communication in both the app and API integration, so maybe that left something stuck when it came back up.

Anyhoo, it all seems to be working fine... I think I'll just manually clear that wet status and see how it goes... I'll do some more disciplined leak & flow alerts testing sometime soon to verify.

Thanks again! :+1:

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