Moisture sensor (KY71) in drinking water - Is it unhealthy?

Hardware
1

Hi All.

I am planning to put a sensor in a coffee maker to see if it has water in it as a condition before it is turned on in the morning.

I have experience with the KY71 moisture sensor and it seems to fit perfect function wise.
This kit: https://www.instructables.com/id/Soil-Moisture-Sensor-Raspberry-Pi/

However, I was thinking that it might not be the best idea having a sensor in the water overnight, maybe it will contaminate the water in some way.

Does anyone have any idea about how unhealthy this might be?

Thanks!

2

I’m not an authority on the subject but I would hesitate to do what you’re considering. The probe is nothing more than a Printer Circuit Board made of phenolic resin. This material is not designed to be food-safe. In other words, this material was never designed (let alone tested) to be in contact with solids/liquids you ingest.

For your application, it will be always be in contact with the water you will be consuming. Will the material, or byproducts of the material’s manufacturing process, leach out into the water? I can’t say for sure. I wouldn’t risk it.

3

Maybe this could work?
https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1493.html

4

Since you don’t exactly need to know how much water it has, you could also use a load cell under the coffee maker. And with proper calibration you could even measure the amount.

5

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Based on my use of the moisture sensor for a project at work I will not recommend anyone to use it with contact to anything that will go into the body :slight_smile:

It corroded and it even stopped working as the metal disappeared because of that.

I have some ideas I will try out. Will get back here if anything works.