(Where's the best place for device introduction/discussion? This doesn't seem like it.)
This sensor paired like bread & butter, even has Hubitat listed on the side of the box. Nice ! Seven feet of water sensitive cable that responds to water anywhere along it, and tracks under-sink temp too!
Route it along the floor and up through the bottom of cabinets along that "line-of-leak-risk" in your kitchen (sink, dishwasher, frig, etc). It's not cheap, ...but when you consider it's sensing water along every bit of the cable that equates to a lot of rapid sensing that you'd otherwise have to set multiple sensors to sense (or wait on a "growing puddle" to sense with a single spot sensor).
If this sounds like an advertisement; let's just say that I'm excited that it paired, grabbed the right driver, and so far works without a hitch. Thanks HE Folk for your working relationship with Sinopé.
That's expensive. That said, I wonder if that cable would work with my Neo Coolcam/Tuya sensors. They use the mini jack like that. If they sell the cable separately (like as a replacement) I might buy one to check it out.
The winding, outer coil design of the cable is the only thing that's unique. A DIY hack looks feasible, but tedious. I've been soldering & daisy-chaining drip pads to the leak sensor under the kitchen sink and dishwasher but Sinope's long pick-up cable is a better idea.
No, it wasn't cheap but I thought about: what it's protecting, how much linear area it's covering, the cost & hassle of an insurance claim, all the projects I'm juggling, the increasing hassle of poorly designed devices chewing up batteries ...and I said...."Nah, it's not that expensive".
The initial concern was baked into my joy when it came-up-like-a-dream, a model citizen in Zigbee-land on Hubitat. That first 10 minutes of taking the steps I was going, "if this turns out to be another half baked poor performer I'm gonna be p_ssed at this price" as it's not as easy to send back to Canada paperwork-wise.
As far as "rolling-your-own"; I agree that this seems simple enough (and I've experimented with such in the past with far cheaper analogue moisture sensors). I'd just worry that there is a level of electrical engineering in this that, when messed with, might put on unexpected load and cause undue battery drain ...which is our nemesis.
And yes, they do sell the cable on it's own...namely as a single allowed extension to the sensor+cable kit. Almost added that ...but figured that was going way-too-far out on a limb if the device turned out being crap.
I hope they can get their prices down with volume production going forward. I can see them selling a boatload of this stuff at a more reasonable price while still pricing out slightly above competitor's products.
EDIT: And being "in the Hubitat Family" so to speak, I hope they are listening to this thread.
I've been using these and they're fantastic (also labled neo coolcam). I even use one for our salt reservoir for the water softener. If the lead gets wet it sends a notice to refill salt. It's the only one I use the lead on (I have a whole drawer full of leads now lol). I randomly test one a month and they've never failed.
It is expensive, no way around that. But I agree with OP that given the time, effort/aggravation and potentially catastrophic costs involved in mitigating worst-case-scenario water damage (even with insurance), its value is much greater than most other devices and so the upfront cost is way easier to justify.
I throw a sensor under each sink, washing machine, both hot water tanks and the main meter. The only one i need to attach the lead to is the salt reservoir for the water softener,
If you look on AliExpress you will find several sellers that have those cables. Some have a 3 ring plug and others a 2 ring plug. I have bought the Sinope Water Heater controller but not sure I'm ready to fork out for the cable, I guess i'll need to open that case up and see what plug it needs and try ordering one from AliExpress
Where I intend to lay this cable out, from kitchen sink on down, isn't fully accessible yet. Have to pull out other appliances for the full run.
But IRONICALLY, in placing the first bit of wire roughly where it's going to lay under the sink...
Low and behold....I must have bumped one of those f-ing braided hoses going to the sink faucet. (You know the ones, where there's like three fittings up there behind the sink that you can barely get to tightening properly and you fear crimping the copper faucet lines they go to.)
So sure enough, drip-drip-drip....hours later ALARM.
The device has a wimpy beep but that's not what it was purchased for anyway.
No, this leak wasn't of epic scale...but...it's the kind that causes cabinet bottoms to start "gettin that look".
So, decrement the cost of this device by $20, it's starting to earn its' keep.
