Does anyone have suggestions for low cost water sensors? Target locations are water heater & laundry.
If cost is low enough I can use this as gift suggestions. My family is always asking me what I want for Christmas and birthdays.
I just took the plunge and purchased a hub and a couple switches! I've really enjoyed reading posts on the Hubitat community. Suggestions have been very helpful, too!
Zwave? No. All the ones I know of are not what I call cheap.
There are a few low cost zigbee ones, though, with the most common being the SmartThings water sensor.
I just checked on Amazon & the Zigbee based prices are much better. Interesting. Good thing the Hubitat hub talks both protocols.
Thank you!
Just remember that both zwave and zigbee are MESH networks. As such you need to think about making sure the mesh is strong/built correctly. Typically that means you will need some NON-battery powered devices to act as repeaters.
A few plugin outlets can work, for example.
If you do only battery powered devices you may find that there are issues with them dropping off the network, or not updating as you expect.
I have a combo of some dome water sensors (z-wave) and Smartthings zigbee.
I'm happy with both.
Dome pros:
SmartThings pros:
The smarthings seem to have a much worse battery life, but I accept that for the temperature reading.
Although it is very inexpensive, I cannot recommend the Xiaomi/Aqara Zigbee water leak sensor.
I have tried every trick in the book, but they continually fall off my Zigbee mesh.
I have tried extensively to establish a strong Zigbee mesh, with exactly the right kind and location of repeaters.
Maybe others have had no issues.
(Others have connected these devices to a Xiaomi gateway.)
I have had no end of issues.
There was some rumor that Aqara was coming out with a true Zigbee 3 compatible line of devices, but there has been no such product to buy yet.
Fibaro are good Zwave water sensors but to expensive.
Xiaomi are the cheapest but not standard ZigBee and difficult to setup.
SmartThings water sensors are about double the Xiaomi price but still cheap and are ZigBee 3.
They are also easy to modify with just an old usb cable for constant power.
All mine are Smartthings.
They are very reliable for me (however, in the UK we don't have much to choose from)
Easy to test too since they have contacts on both the top and bottom.
A wet finger placed on the top will trigger them 
Andy
I too use the Samsung water sensors. I like the upper and lower contact sensors. I have 12 of these near every potential valve/water source (sinks, toilets, laundry, fridge, water heater) and have an automation to turn off the water main using a Dome shut off valve. As a test, if I run the faucet, and trigger a sensor using a wet finger, the water will stop running in less than 10 seconds. As a bonus, I use the Chromecast integration to have an announcement made which water sensor was triggered.
I started with Dome Zwave and they were pricey. When the Samsung Zigbee ones came out I went with them instead.
Good points. I was hoping to start with a strong z-wave mesh, as my first two control points are with z-wave switches. Since I will be using several water sensors, eventually, I will need to get both meshes in place.
Thanks! I've got both solutions on my wish list.
I'd love to do this, unfortunately the location of my main shut-off valve prevents me from being able to automate that part 
Yea, mine is pretty tight. I had to keep the access door open in order to give the Dome clearance to close the valve. Maybe there is somewhere downstream you can add something similar? For me it was a must as I am away from home 10-12 hrs a day and if a leak happened I'd want an immediate shut off
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