I’m looking into getting a water monitoring component for my home. And of all the ones that I’ve seen Flo seems to be the most complete (monitoring plus shut-off option).
However, I don’t live in the US or Canada. The support told me that I won’t be able to download the app if I’m not there and in fact Google tells me that it’s not available for my region.
So my question is: if I only want to use Flo through Home Assistant, do I need the app at all? Could I configure things directly in HA without the need for the or is the app required?
you see it uses cloud polling (poorest choice avaiable)
That means you need to authenticate. The owner of the software (you only own the hardware!) can force you to use the app or could also allow you to use their website.
In the end this is the kind of product everybody should warn you from as every day the servers could be shut down or former free service can turn into a payed subscription over night…
You pay today (for hardware) and don’t know if it still will work tomorrow
The only issue that I have now is that this was the only such product that I could find. One that measures flow and at the same time has ability to close the water mains in the event of problems or need.
I’ll need to find an alternative, ideally one with better privacy approach.
You probably have a water meter/clock already installed from the company you pay for providing water? Often the offer some form of output pulse that can be read cheaply with a proper sensor (reflective/induction/etc.).
This describes to read a pulse from a power meter but mostly can be adapted to read a water clock too (depending on what your meter offers)
Not sure if the described setup is really smart as it closes the magnetive valve with power. In case you have a water damage that causes your breaker to trip it can’t close the valve (or even keep it closed). It’s not quite “fail safe” in that matter…
But the other way, have the valve energized all the time to have it open also isn’t that quite of a favorite solution as it ads a 24-7 power draw.
We settled with a motorized ball with manual override that’s driven with DC voltage and backed up by a UPS
If I were you, I would not consider flo (Moen) either. I would prefer the combination of z-wave or zigbee water shut-off valve, and a separate water flow sensor.
Less “complete” in a sense them they being not in the same package / same box, but you will gain flexibility, and they are 100% local control.
And to answer your question:
And the answer is no. Your setup would still need to talk to Flo over the internet, (and depends on how good Moen keeps their services running), to control a piece of hardware inside your own house.
FWIW, I spent a good amount of time researching this and the Flo is prone to a lot of issues - which isn’t surprising since those internal components are under a lot of stress 24/7 and this is where the problems are apparently. Between that and having to have it professionally installed (upwards of $1,000 USD) and professionally maintained on a break (another $1,000 USD) just drove me away from it. I wanted it more to turn water on and off as needed, rather than monitor usage, so I ended up with five Zooz Titans instead and haven’t looked back.
I use one in the uk.
From memory I downloaded an apk file onto a mm android device to set it up.
Once set up it’s worked fine with home assistant since.
Hi Bruce, did you replace the fittings that came with the Flo since the US fittings are NPT and the UK/EU use BSP threaded fittings or did you connect the female NPT fitting that comes with the Flo to a male BSP fitting and are not having any leaks?
I just imported a Flo and also a Flume from the US. After I did that, a friend told me that, after his house flooded, his UK insurance company forced him to get a valve by Grohe: GROHE Sense Guard Smart water controller | GROHE
That might be a good option for avoiding all the US-only issues.
I did manage to install the Flume app and will test the device tomorrow.
I am having second thoughts about Flo because my Nest thermostat has failed and I am taking cold showers. Do I really want flaky software and hardware between me and basic utilities? Hmm.
I considered a Ghohe sense guard but it gets terrible reviews. I have 3 Flumes in the US but I thought that they weren’t compatible with the EU meters - will have to check again. I have installed a Moen Flo in Europe and it has been working well. They even have a service that calls you (I have a US cell phone number) if the valvle is about to shut off water due to a potential leak. I am so happy with it that I have bought a second one for another property here. The only consideration is that the difference between NPT (US) and BSP (UK/EU) threads. It’s not a perfect fit for the 3/4" (25mm) model that I have installed but there are no leaks. The second one is for 1" (32mm) pipe and I have found BSP to NPT adapter fittings in the US (Amazon) - they seem to be readily available in UK amazon as well. I will refit the first installation with the adapters as well.
