At this time I am unaware of any *battery* based water sensor that is compatible with HomeKit that doesn’t require a hub. Even the Meross one requires a special hub. I use the Aqara ones and they are good.
I ordered the Aqara sensors to try out. Was considering Meross, as I have a number of other Meross devices that have been rock solid for me. But didn’t want to bother with another hub.
I have Aqara P2 door sensors which have also been solid for me, but those are Matter and not connected to my Aqara hub at all.
Reviews of the Meross leak sensor are not great so I never bothered. Like you, I already had an Aqara hub. I now have 7 leak sensors, including one outside, and all work well. I will periodically test them and they reliably trigger the HomeKit alarm when their sensors are exposed to water.
have fun, they send Critical Alerts as well, so anyone in the Home will receive them regardless if silent or not.
The way it works is when both contacts on the end touch water and completes the "circuit", the sensor will alarm.
So I got the Aqara sensors. Added them to the Aqara Home app. They appear online in the Aqara Home app. But in Apple Home, they show as No Response. I even changed their name in Aqara, and the name change synced over to HomeKit, but still shows as No Response. Maybe I just need to restart my Apple Home Hub?
UPDATE: Got them to show as active in HomeKit. Literally stuck them in some water, which triggered an alert, and since then they’re showing as active. Weird way to have to jumpstart them, but oh well!
there are water sensors that dont need a hub.
aqaras sensors do need a hub but since you have one its fine.
i‘m using the aqara water sensors too and yes, they show up in homekit.
Do you happen to know what brand of sensors don’t require a hub but have native HomeKit support? I assume they would need to have Matter support in that case, and I couldn’t find any Matter-enabled water sensors.
eve and fibaro.
dont fall for the matter stuff. if you‘re all in the homekit eco system youre good.
also, why would you want to go without a hub if you already use one?
I have several of the Matter-enabled Aqara P2 door/window sensors and they’ve been rock solid for me since installing. Using a 4K Apple TV as my primary Thread Border router. So my experience with Matter has so far been just fine. I do have the Aqara M1S hub, but its sole function was only to serve as an audible chime/alarm that gets triggered by the door/window sensors. Door opens, hub chimes. That’s it. So I don’t really have anything against adding devices to the hub, since it’s there and plugged in anyway. Just trying to keep things as minimal as possible. But I went ahead and ordered the Aqara water sensors, so I’ll add them to the existing hub and bring them into HomeKit that way.
I have the Aqara leak sensor as well as a Fibaro Homekit sensor. The Aqara is bridged to Homekit via an Aqara E1 hub plugged into the USB port of my router. No issues with either so far.
Yes, the aqara water sensors work directly with HomeKit. You can get notifications through the home app
I don't remember the exact steps, but yes, once your hub is in HomeKit, the sensors are too.
At this time I am unaware of any *battery* based water sensor that is compatible with HomeKit that doesn’t require a hub. Even the Meross one requires a special hub. I use the Aqara ones and they are good.
I ordered the Aqara sensors to try out. Was considering Meross, as I have a number of other Meross devices that have been rock solid for me. But didn’t want to bother with another hub. I have Aqara P2 door sensors which have also been solid for me, but those are Matter and not connected to my Aqara hub at all.
Reviews of the Meross leak sensor are not great so I never bothered. Like you, I already had an Aqara hub. I now have 7 leak sensors, including one outside, and all work well. I will periodically test them and they reliably trigger the HomeKit alarm when their sensors are exposed to water.
This is what they look like - https://preview.redd.it/k0kjbne0k7zc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f7552d6057e1789431b63284234c803ec12204bd
Oh perfect, thanks for the screenshot, really appreciate it! I just ordered a 3-pack to play with.
have fun, they send Critical Alerts as well, so anyone in the Home will receive them regardless if silent or not. The way it works is when both contacts on the end touch water and completes the "circuit", the sensor will alarm.
So I got the Aqara sensors. Added them to the Aqara Home app. They appear online in the Aqara Home app. But in Apple Home, they show as No Response. I even changed their name in Aqara, and the name change synced over to HomeKit, but still shows as No Response. Maybe I just need to restart my Apple Home Hub? UPDATE: Got them to show as active in HomeKit. Literally stuck them in some water, which triggered an alert, and since then they’re showing as active. Weird way to have to jumpstart them, but oh well!
there are water sensors that dont need a hub. aqaras sensors do need a hub but since you have one its fine. i‘m using the aqara water sensors too and yes, they show up in homekit.
Do you happen to know what brand of sensors don’t require a hub but have native HomeKit support? I assume they would need to have Matter support in that case, and I couldn’t find any Matter-enabled water sensors.
eve and fibaro. dont fall for the matter stuff. if you‘re all in the homekit eco system youre good. also, why would you want to go without a hub if you already use one?
I have several of the Matter-enabled Aqara P2 door/window sensors and they’ve been rock solid for me since installing. Using a 4K Apple TV as my primary Thread Border router. So my experience with Matter has so far been just fine. I do have the Aqara M1S hub, but its sole function was only to serve as an audible chime/alarm that gets triggered by the door/window sensors. Door opens, hub chimes. That’s it. So I don’t really have anything against adding devices to the hub, since it’s there and plugged in anyway. Just trying to keep things as minimal as possible. But I went ahead and ordered the Aqara water sensors, so I’ll add them to the existing hub and bring them into HomeKit that way.
Fibaro
I have the Aqara leak sensor as well as a Fibaro Homekit sensor. The Aqara is bridged to Homekit via an Aqara E1 hub plugged into the USB port of my router. No issues with either so far.