Wi-Fi Water Level / Sump Monitor Sensor with Buzzer, email/ Text Alerts - Proteus L5

UPDATE after 4-5 months: The sensors are great and I will be buying two more. I have just recently moved back into my house after months of renovation and $70,000 of damage due to a water leak.After purchasing two detectors (one water leak and one sump level), I had two alarms that caught leaks in the early stages. During setup, I had signed up for the 3rd notification option - phone calls. Proteus charges only 9 cents per phone call and no monthly fee so it's not much of a charge. I wasn't living in my house during reconstruction and shortly after installing the sensors, I received a call in the middle of the night. The recorded voice stated that water was detected. I assumed it was a false alarm, but my newly installed water softener was weeping water that was collecting in the drain pan below where I had placed the leak sensor. The second notification came a few weeks later because water had overflowed from the sink in my basement and a sensor located on the floor detected it - again a phone call late at night.Now that I've moved back into my house, I am buying two more detectors with the multiple sensor option (a little more on that below). I will install one Detector on the second floor and route a sensor to the master bathroom, to the laundry room, and the main bathroom. The first floor detector will have a sensor under the kitchen sink, behind the refrigerator, and in the half bathroom. This will require plugging in the detector somewhere nearby and routing the 25' sensor cables into each of those areas.Each "Detector" can have multiple "sensors" connected. The notification you receive is specific only to a "Detector" that you can name. If you have 3 or 4 basement sensors connected to one detector and one of them senses water, the email/text/phone call notification will only mention the "detector" name, but that isn't generally a problem - just take a look at each sensor. I have one detector with a sump level sensor and one detector with a few water sensors (one on the floor and one in the drain pans of the water heater and water softener). I get notifications of either "high sump level" or "water leak detected".After buying my first detectors on Amazon for $99 with one sensor each, I saw that you can buy them directly from Proteus for the same price. But, Proteus has options to add additional sensors to a detector. I purchased a detector with the option of 5 sensors that each come with a 25' extension cable for about $170. It comes with a cable splitter to plug each sensor into the detector. Hope that's not too confusing. You can buy one detector and connect 5 sensors.Original Review:The picture is of my dining room floor after a water leak. I was looking for a reliable Wi-Fi sump water level alarm and this had great reviews. Less expensive alarms all had a fair amount of negative reviews - mainly with the setup or dropping off-line. I setup this unit in about 15 minutes and it has only a handful of easy steps to set up. I’m listing them here only so you can see that it’s pretty easy: plug it in, use your phone or other device to temporarily connect to the Wi-Fi signal this device generates, supply your email address, Wi-Fi router name and password for this sump alarm to connect to, connect your phone back to your own Wi-Fi to get to the internet, go to a specified Proteus web site to connect and set up your alarm choices. All were easy steps and worked the first time. The on-line setup is simply choosing what email addresses and/or phone numbers (for a text) you’d like to have notified in case of alarm.I tested it several times and it worked great. I was waiting to try this out and before buying the very similar Proteus water leak detector. Based on this device, I went ahead and ordered the other.If you’ve read everything so far and want to keep going, here is my saga: The water line going to my refrigerator ice maker ruptured while I was away for two weeks. The water ruined my kitchen, dining room, and living room floors. The water soaked through the dining room hardwood floor and “rained” into my basement. I had a sump pump that failed for some reason and a battery backup sump pump that eventually died. When a friend found the leak, I had 15 inches of water in my basement (doing the math for the footprint of my basement, that is over 6,000 gallons of water). By the way, the fire department takes these calls and pumps it out for you. My entire finished basement had to be gutted and everything I had down there is trashed (even things in bins on shelves because the water came from above). Cost to fix the house alone will be about $40,000. That happened the second week in September and two months later I’m still unable to live in my house. So, this alarm, with the good reviews, and my setup and testing experience, is well worth $100 to me.Here are some tips that I always thought were overkill:1) if you are going to be away for a while, consider turning off your water2) if you don’t have a copper line to your ice maker, have someone change the water line every few years and either change to flexible (coiled) copper tubing or some type of braided/reinforced line. Mine was just a clear nylon tubing that ruptured after several years.3) Put braided steel reinforced water lines on your washing machine. You can buy them easily in any home improvement store. If you have flexible lines going to your toilets or sink faucets, make sure they are braided/reinforced.4) make sure your homeowners insurance covers damage from water leaks and is “replacement cost” insurance. Also, I heard a story that damage from a broken washing machine hose was not covered because they were told you’re supposed to turn off the water when not using it. I don’t know for sure if that’s true, but worth asking.

This item is simple. It has a small float that registers whether it is in the up position or the down position and alarms based upon your selection. I use it to determine whether my 5K water tank, fed by a well, has dropped below a certain level. I essentially hang the sensor from the tank lid by a copper wire with a small weight to keep it about a foot below the normal water line.The sensor connects to my wifi and when it drops to the down position it immediately sends me a text or email alerting me of the problem. I can also monitor it from afar by their server. I will add that it also has an audible alarm.I power this from an inexpensive car battery that is charged by a solar panel with a controller that has a powered USB port to which I can plug in the part of the sensor that does not sit in the tank. Works perfect. It has already alerted me to a problem with my well long before I ran out of water. It gave me plenty of time to fix issue (minor this time thankfully) long before I'm completely out of water.Here are the items I bought from Amazon:Renogy Controllerhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NPDWZJ7/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1Renogy 50 Watt Solar Panelhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DVPPFDS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1Renogy Wires to Connect Panel to Controllerhttps://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00DGXGKWA/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_image?ie=UTF8&psc=1USB Extension (largely unnecessary but I wanted some separation between unit and controller)https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076Z83QTT/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1I bought the battery from my local Walmart for about 25 bucks.I think I could have gone with a lower wattage panel, but I wanted to better my chances for keeping a charged battery when it is cloudy for a week or two. The panel will still put out power under cloudy conditions but it will be just a fraction of what it would generate on sunny days. Accordingly, I'd rather have 10% of a 50 watt panel than 10% of a 10, 20 or 30 watt panel.When calling Proteus I have alway been able to reach someone on the first call and he (I think the same person) has always been helpful.I am very happy with this sensor. The other options are largely mechanical and expensive, requiring me to physically inspect the gauge. This is not nearly as convenient as just getting a text or an email.