Folks, all the posts I see around this are few years old and I think some of the sensors, like the Smartthings one, are no longer around.
So, what are best, or most reliable leak sensors out there nowadays?
I’m contemplating on replacing all my leaksmarts and some of the other old sensors with one reliable brand. Unfortunately, leak sensors are one type of device I just can’t get to work reliably. I think have a pretty good zigbee mesh at this point, but some sensors still drop, whereas others, stay connected and while reporting the temperature fine (as an example) fail to notify on state change when wet. I’m getting tired of tinkering with them and would just replace them all with something new and reliable. These are literally some of the most important sensors in the home and I need reliability.
This isn't the case; they are sold by Aeotec now, as is all former SmartThings hardware: https://aeotec.com/products/aeotec-water-leak-sensor
So, if you like that one otherwise, go for it. 
I'm not sure which topic you were reading before, but it could have been an older one from a few years ago, the last time a community poll was made. Here's one with recent nominations, though no "official" results yet (and really not as much activity as the other topics for other categories of products, perhaps because this is a bit more boring and not something you use every day like a motion sensor):
My recommendation would be the CentraLite leak sensor, which you can buy from Ezlo (who owns them now), Amazon, or a variety of other resellers: Water Sensor and Water Leak Detector | Water Leak Sensor. You can sometimes find them on sale for cheap. I'd really recommend any of the CentraLite products if you like Zibgbe--most are reasonably priced and work well. They're the OEM behind the Iris v2 community favorites that were discontinued years ago but still pop up in poularity contets like the above because people like them so much...not sure why these don't get the same love. 
Thank you - great info! I just have missed that thread, as all that was popping up was from 3-4 years ago. I will read it.
As far as centralink, sensor, I have one of those, as well as bunch of older Samsung ones that I believe are pretty much the same. And yes those are pretty rock solid and have great battery life I wish I had more of them. My only concern is that these are also getting dated.
I have not had any issues with these.
Since they are inexpensive, every possible leak source is monitored by two of these. They are tested every few months by putting them in a saucer of water. The rule, in addition to closing the main supply valve also alerts with this.
Had a hose on the water softener break while we were sleeping. The sensors detected the leak and turned the water off. If I had the siren then, the water could have been cleaned quickly.
Thank you Tom, i may give these a try - def a great price. I've also just bought 4 Tuya sensors with remote lead to monitor water levels on my sump and macerator pumps and so far they've been solid too... the same not be said above the other brands unfortunately. Are you also using a custom Tuya driver for them?
I have two of these. They don't have the great battery life that many of my other sensors have (I've got quite a mix), but they are good enough. Maybe yours are on the old firmware? I used to have one on the old firmware, but was able to get it to update with a Wink hub. Leaksmart said they could not do it with their hub and mailing it back to them was the only option (this was years ago though). I find these quite reliable sensors, and I like the temperature reading, light and sound features that not every leak sensor gives you. Mine show firmware 113B-07D1-00000034 in my HE hub.
For low cost and reliable leak sensors, I like the Third Reality leak sensors. They are very sensitive but have sound, no temperture reading or light, and they aren't waterproof. If they get submerged, they may not work again. However, they're not expensive to replace.
If you have a lot of Leaksmart sensors, I would try to upgrade their firmware if it's not already up-to-date. And if they are running the latest firmware, then I would look more closely at why they're dropping. Maybe you have a bad repeater on the network? 
Yep, i;m also using that firmware on all of mine, I updated them all through Wink back in a day. I think as i've stabilized my zigbee mesh they're definitely dropping less. And here is where it gets interesting, i've actually just discovered a much larger issue with a lot of my sensors that arent leaksmarts, namely third reality ones and older smarttings sensors, as more than half doesnt seem to report on state change when testing, whereas the sensor is online and i can refresh it. And leaksmarts doesnt seem to be affected by this.
Something has gone wrong on your Zigbee mesh. It's time to go back to basics and find the problem.
However, I think there might be something wrong with leaksmart sensors on HE (or at least my main hub that's running beta software). Both of mine are reporting temperature and battery, but not reporting wet. I tested my other sensors joined to HE and they are working correctly.
The symptoms you describe suggest otherwise. Please describe your mesh:
- how many total zigbee devices?
- how many of these are zigbee repeaters?
- make and model numbers of the repeaters?
I just joined my Leaksmart sensor via Z2M on Home Assistant and they're working fine. It was a pain to get them to join properly, but now that they are joined, they're working as expected.
Tried several times on HE on both my main hub running the latest beta and on my hub running the release platform. On my main hub running the beta platform, they join and report battery and temp, but will not report Wet. Tried joining them several times and the result is always the same. On my hub running the release platform, they will not join at all.
@azmp Are you sure your Leaksmart sensors are still reporting Wet when you test them? Might want to try that and be sure. I'm just going to leave mine on HA and bring them back into HE. I'm already doing that with Xiaomi leak sensors and it's working fine.
Yes. The ‘Tuya Neo Coolcam Zigbee Water Leak Sensor’ driver from @kkossev
When you pair it for the first time, be close to the hub. My limited knowledge of Zigbee says this is done so it doesn’t pair through a repeater.
I've had a great experience with the Zooz ZSE42 leak sensor. They can often be bought for < $20, they are very small, and have been totally reliable for me.
I second ZSE42. The Smartthings/Aeotec I used for years started to get very sensitive to ambient humidity with age and go off every time someone takes a shower, so I am replacing them with ZSE42, and I am very happy with them for now.
I am running a bunch of Leak Smart sensors with no issues (from the Wink days). I also have some Ecolink, Dome, Aotec and Third Reality. The Third reality ones are cheap. They were on sale for $14 on Amazon last week. You can get them with a drip sensor attachment as well. So far no issues. The old Leak Smarts can be a pain but they were expensive and they still work.
I’m at a loss to explain why both my Leaksnart water sensors that were reporting WET in HE previously, now will not, even after re-joining them multiple times.
On HA via Z2M, they work fine so I know it’s not the sensors that are at fault.
@mike.maxwell Any idea what’s gone south? I tried both Generic Moisture Sensor and the dedicated Leaksmart drivers, and don’t get a better result from either (battery and temp are reporting).
Are they joining OK?, and staying online?
I think you're running into the same issue discussed in this thread: Leaksmart sensors help!
Bottom line, HE's built in driver doesn't report wet events for some of these sensors (likely firmware dependent). Mine use the same firmware as yours and only report wet events when using a custom driver (linked in that thread--it needs a fix for temp formatting as described in this post: Leaksmart sensors help! - #8 by Tony ).
Yes, there's no error in their join. I get the beeps from the device that indicate it has joined and I don't have any errors in joining.
One had dead batteries, so I've not data on whether or not that dropped. I replaced the batteries and found that it updated the battery percentage, and the temp was reporting, just not reporting WET. Grabbed the other was that was still connected and found it wouldn't report WET either. Held it tightly in my hands and noted the temp would increase. Changed its batteries and it also reported 100%, but still no WET report. That's when I tried rejoining both of them and found that they both would join OK, but wouldn't report WET.
I'm sort of wondering if these are not joining correctly, but without an error. I had a hell of a time getting them to join correctly to HA via Z2M, but I was getting an error there so it wasn't a mystery. However, once they joined via Z2M without error, they do function 100% correct.
Not a connectivity issue in my experience; driver changes are necessary to fix event reporting for the sensors with updated firmware. First reported here several years ago: LeakSmart Sensors - #12 by Tony
If that was the case, nothing would report.
Did you try the custom driver noted above?, if that works I can take a look at the custom driver and see about updating ours.
