Amazon.com: Customer reviews: Fibaro FGBHFS-101 Flood, Water & Temperature Sensor Homekit enabled water leakage detector, white

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2023

Style: Temperature SensorVerified Purchase

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After having these for a year now, some from Amazon and some from other home improvement sites, this product is great in the Apple ecosystem. If you know how to set up and use the Apple HomeKit products from Apple, this product is simply amazing. It floats, it's water tight, and the sensors work as advertised. I have one behind the water hoses for the clothes washer, one by the water heater, and one by the sump pump well.

After the first week of having them installed, we had heavy rain and I found out the sump pump went out. The sensor by the sump pump was the first to issue an emergency alert followed by my water heater. Both on the permitter of the basement where water was beginning to over flow from. Thanks to this sensor, I was able to identify the sump pump float was stuck which caused the failure. These sensors saved thousands of dollars of damage since I do not go into the basement often.

The three copper contacts detect water and there is a temperature and motion sensor too. You can use the app for the product to set up how loud these go and if it's tampered with (moved around). My cats moved them for a couple days and then left them alone. The sensors show up in the Apple Home app at the top showing room temp. From there, you can follow the settings in the home app to take you to the Fibaro app should you need to change any settings. These do not show up as items that have tiles, but they are at the top of the assigned room.

These are very much worth the money and after one year, the battery is still reporting 100%. They come with a very good 123 battery. Remember to remove the paper from the battery when you first get them.

Setup was a breeze. Use the Fibaro app to set them up and the connection to the Apple home app is simple. Scan the code and assign them to a room. Give them a unique name and you are set.

Absolute GEMS. A must have device. I do test mine monthly after the sump pump stopped working shortly after getting these set up last year. Simply use a wet paper towel and set the puck on it. It's that easy and everyone in your home app (added users or family) all get the urgent alert. It's more than awesome and for $50, you cannot go wrong. Put them in all your rooms where you have a sink or are concerned about leaks.

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Amazon Customer

works with HomeKit

Reviewed in the United States on April 5, 2024

Style: Temperature SensorVerified Purchase

I chose this sensor to work with HomeKit which always seems to cost more than all other brands that work off of their own app. Works fine and only "fault" is that HomeKit compatible stuff is hard to find and more expensive.

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RPL

A good water leak detector

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2017

Style: Temperature SensorVerified Purchase

For reference, I have used both of these two water leak detectors: Lyric Wi-Fi Water Leak & Freeze Detector and D-Link DCH-S160 mydlink Wi-Fi Water Sensor . I've also had the opportunity to play with the forth coming Delta Leak detector at CES.

The Fibaro water leak detector is not as good as the three referenced above, but it has some good qualities. The Fibaro has 3 golden points on the bottom of the detector. If these leads come in contact with water, then the alarm in the Fibaro leak detector will go off and you will receive a push notification from Homekit. If water is under this leak detector, but does not touch any of these 3 golden points, then the alarm will not go off. Also, if the leak is falling on the Fibaro, and water rolls off the device, the water might roll off in such a way to not touch those 3 golden leads. The great thing about the Fibaro is that the alarm goes off almost instantly when a leak is actually detected. While the other leak detectors, referenced above, take between 5- 20 seconds to alert the user. The Homekit notification also comes in pretty quick as well, but that is going to depend on if you have a great Bluetooth connection from an Apple TV or an iPad in hub mode. Because the Fibaro uses Bluetooth instead of Wi-Fi, for a very large space, you might need more than one Apple TV or iPad, in hub mode, to relay that Bluetooth signal to your phone, or whatever IOS device you carry with you. In a small apartment, this may not be an issue. For a structure that’s between 3000 - 5000 square feet, or more, you will need multiple Apple TV’s/iPads to tunnel that Bluetooth signal. Also, for Homekit, if the Homekit trigger fails, because of a failure connect to Bluetooth, then there is a about a 10 second delay before Homekit retries the notification. Therefore, if there is a leak, there may be a delay until you are notified with this product.

For testing, I placed a the Fibaro in the sink that had a small buildup of water in it. As soon as I placed the Fibaro in the sink, the alarm went off, and I received an Apple Homekit notification. Using the Elgato Eve app, an automation was setup to turn on a lamp if a leak was detected. This worked great. When the Homekit notification came in, the light also came on. When I took the Fibaro out of the sink, the alarm stopped, even though the bottom of it was completely wet. This means that these golden points must actually be surrounded by water and not just damp. There was another automation setup to turn the lamp off when the leak was stopped. However, that test failed. I’m not sure if the problem is in Homekit or Fibaro, but there was no notification sent when the leak stop, so the light stayed on. In contrast, if the Honeywell, and Dlink, leak detectors are even slightly damp, the alarm will go off and it will keep going off, until the part of the lead is completely dry. Therefore, if water is leaking down an incline, then there is a possibility that the Fibaro leak detector will not go off. Water actually has to pool up under the Fibaro device for a leak to be detected.

Next, the Fibaro has a temperature sensor in the device. The way to set a safe temperature range is through Homekit Automation. You can do that either through the Apple Home app automation tab, or the Elgato Eve rules engine. Through those interfaces, you should be able to say, between 49 – 89 degrees, everything is considered fine, but anything outside of that range is bad, and the user should be alerted. However, I couldn’t get that to work either. Even though the automation was setup, it just didn’t work. The Honeywell leak detector has this feature and it works great. Further, the Honeywell also has a humidity detector in it as well. Therefore, in the Honeywell, I can say that the safe humidity range is 20 – 70 %, and alert me if it goes outside of that range. Instead, the Fibaro has an accelerometer, that detects when the device is moved, and sends an alert through the Fibaro app. For a leak detector device, I would argue that a humidity sensor would have been more useful that an accelerometer for tamper detection.

Also, the Fibaro has only 3 ways of alerting the user any issues: the alarm on the device, push notifications, and Homekit automation. The Honeywell and Dlink will alert you through and alarm, push notification, and email. Further, the Dlink can be integrated with IFTTT, so you can integrate it with other services. Therefore, you can probably find a way for have the Dlink alert you through text messaging if you want it to. For my use, email is the big thing that’s missing from the Fibaro product. Push notification is fine, but overseas, some IOS push notifications do not work. Also, if no one is home to hear the alarm, then it doesn’t matter if it goes off. With email, the possibility that the user will be notified is much higher than with any other notification that the Fibaro currently has. Moreover, the Honeywell allows the user the input the email address of any other person that should be notified by email into the app. Therefore, if you are going out of town and want a few of your neighbors to know if there is a leak in your house, you can easily input their email addresses in the app. There is no such equivalent in in the Fibaro app. Through Apple Homekit, you’d have to invite your neighbors to have access to your Homekit devices, which is not always the thing you want to do. if your neighbors are bought into the Apple ecosystem, then giving them access to your Homekit devices might be fine. If, however, they are android users, which my neighbors are, then this isn’t an option and email is the best route to go. So, the Fibaro not having email option is a big miss for me.

04-03-2019
After a lot of firmware updates, this product has gotten more reliable over time, so I've up my rating on the product.

61 people found this helpful

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Judith Morrill

The Fibaro flood detector started giving false alarms after only three months of use.

Reviewed in the United States on September 1, 2022

Style: Temperature SensorVerified Purchase

The features were good and the installation easy. I chose it over other alternatives because of its compatibility with Apple HomeKit. I used it successfully for almost three months with no problems, then it recently started giving false alarms that it sensed water. Each time it did this, I checked and there was no sign of water, no leakage paths on the body of the sensor outside or inside. Unfortunately, the return window to Amazon has closed, so I have another item to send to the local land fill. I'll be looking for a different brand next time.

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Alex

I think it’s better than the D-Link DCH-S160

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2020

Style: Temperature SensorVerified Purchase

I have the Fibaro leak sensor and D-Link DCH-S160 leak sensor. I’ll soon to be replacing the D-Link with another Fibaro sensor. I got the D-Link to monitor an HVAC drip pan in an attic space specifically for the email alerts (through D-Link) and SMS/Text alerts (through IFTTT). I also got the D-Link for reliability since it plugs directly into an outlet and I won’t have to go into the attic often to check on it or replace batteries. The D-Link now fails these criteria for me because I was notified that the IFTTT integration would be discontinued by end of the year. Also, when I checked on it recently, it was in an offline state with no notice/alert what so ever (seems to have lost the WiFi connection). In 2.5 years with the Fibaro I have not had any connectivity issues with it since it utilizes Bluetooth and not WiFi like the D-Link and therefore is not susceptible to power outages, router reboots, or other WiFi connectivity issues. Also, with so many connected devices I’m looking to reduce my crowded WiFi as much as possible. Therefore, for peace of mind the Fibaro checks all the boxes for me. No connectivity issues experienced with the Fibaro sensor. Alerts and Home app push notifications are instant and Home app automations (i.e. turn lights on when leak is detected) are great. The battery life has also been great. Going on 2.5 years and the battery is still showing 100%.

As of this writing, the only 3 HomeKit leak sensors appear to be Fibaro, Aqara, and Eve. I didn’t want the Eve because an outlet is needed to plug it in and also didn’t like that the Aqara which requires a hub. This Fibaro sensor is a bit over-priced for what it is but the price has come down a bit since it was first released. The reliability and peace of mind are worth it to me.

The only thing I think is missing is a humidity sensor. Also, the Fibaro app isn’t great but it doesn’t bother me since I never open it (I use the Home app exclusively). I keep the Fibaro app only for firmware updates and to adjust the tamper sensitivity settings (low, medium, and high options). Battery health is displayed in the Fibaro app as well as in the Home app.

Locations to consider for this leak sensor: water heater, kitchen sink, laundry, and HVAC drip pan.

8 people found this helpful

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Matthew Davidson

Saved me

Reviewed in the United States on July 29, 2023

Style: Temperature SensorVerified Purchase

Get a leak sensor for your basement. If you have a traditional tank-type water heater, these have a typical 10-year life span and then fail in the worst way imaginable. Every home should have one, even a simple one with an audible alert.

However, if you're not home, or out of audible range, the HomeKit integration will save you.

It is easy to install, the battery life is good and it works flawlessly. The critical home kit alerts sound disturbingly different from other alerts. I was upstairs on the third floor when I received a leak alert. There is no way I would have heard the alert from the basement otherwise.

Anyway, get SOME kind of leak sensor. If you use HomeKit, this is the one to get.

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E Scott Channell

Good product but should be better

Reviewed in the United States on April 3, 2024

Style: Temperature SensorVerified Purchase

Installed to provide back warning on a storm water sump pump as part of a HomeKit household.
Installed external sensor (basically just attached a pair of wires to internal terminals and draped the other end into the sump - works just fine. Simple and Easy.
The CONS:
The units have different circuit boards so documented terminals might not be represented correctly.... not difficult to figure out though.
Internal terminals should be MUCH better - why force the consumer to figure out ? Should have terminal posts as well. The connections should allow for 1] external power; and 2] external sensor
HomeKit warning is insane - you get a single-shot, mild-ish warning and that's it - and you can't change it. For something which is intended to warn of FLOODING you would think that the warning would at least allow you to reconfigure it to something, you know, a bit more dire ? It is this last point which guts the usefulness of the product. I want a dang klaxon waking me up in my sound sleep letting me know that the house is about to flood, not something that I could easily overlook and never get a 2nd notice about.

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Dane Coyer

Great little product.

Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2024

Style: Temperature SensorVerified Purchase

Nice build quality. Looks nice. Very easy to connect to home kit.

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Steven Pawlak

Good for price, works on electrical connection between sensors

Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2023

Style: Temperature SensorVerified Purchase

Very small, good price, easy to hook up due to Bluetooth and not 2.4GHz Wifi.

Others noted that it does not work well on cement or masonry, i would also like to note that it has issues sitting on metal that conducts like an aluminum water heater pan. Seems that the 3 copper contacts on bottom work by conducting electricity, or not, thru the medium they are on. So if this is on wood, that does not conduct, and water touches at least 2 contacts then electricity conducts and you get alarm.

Good thing my pan came with a nice sized sticker that i can place this on. I am using the pan as a catch under my Humidifier as i have had issues in past.

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Lauren

Saved my basement

Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2023

Style: Temperature SensorVerified Purchase

I bought this about a year ago and today it saved my basement. My hot water tank burst and it sent a Critical Leak Detected notification to my phone, allowing me to shut the water off and begin cleanup before any water damage occurred.

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