‎Water Sensors and animals keeping warm. | SimpliSafe Support Home
 
DrDISK_2105's profile

Wednesday, February 5th, 2025 8:02 PM

Water Sensors and animals keeping warm.

I would like to convey a recent concern regarding my water detector with the original SS.
I recently encountered an intermittent issue with my water detector, located under my sink. It was not responding to the base station. After a while, the water sensor would begin to respond without me being involved. I checked the battery, was good. What did I discover? My 90 lb. golden retriever would go under the sink, the furnace is next to the sink, and it is warm! He would disturb the water sensor by pressing it against the under sink water pipes. Here is some basic radio. The water pipes are grounded and block radio signals. The signal was not received by the base station because his moving the detector close to the water pipe didn't allow the signal to be received. Upon his awakening, the sensor was situated at a sufficient distance from the water pipe to enable the signal to reach the base station. 

Community Admin

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1.1K Messages

17 days ago

@DrDISK_2105 If the Water Sensor was moved to a location where a source of interference (like the water pipes) was directly between the device and the Base Station, that can cause communication issues. 

 

We would recommend moving the Water Sensor to the location that is typically is when your dog wakes up. That way, it should hopefully not continue to get moved in error, and can maintain its connection with the Base Station.

750 Messages

16 days ago

The only way for SimpliSafe to mitigate this that I can think of would be to release a new version of the water sensor that used an external sensing cable to detect the water. With this style of sensor you could mount the main unit on the wall or somewhere off the floor where it can't be moved while the sensing cable wrapped around the pipe, rested on the floor, etc. Obviously this isn't going to happen anytime soon, if at all.

What's your plan in the meantime to prevent this from happening again?

3 Messages

I purchased a set of 3M Velcro command strips. I mounted one on the back of the sensor and the mate mounted vertically against the wall, ensuring the 2 silver probes are flat against the floor to sense any water. Before this change, the sensor was just laying flat on the floor. Has been working like a charm

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