Where/how to place Aqara water leak sensors for a toilet?

I just got a bunch of Aqara water leak sensors. I’m really happy with their performance. But I’m kind of struggling to figure out where/how to place them for a toilet. I don’t want them to become gross due to who-knows-what landing on them. And I don’t want them to get mopped around when the cleaning lady is here. Any ideas?

You do not really have that much choice.
The sensors needs to be placed in a certain way for the sensor rods to get in contact to the water and the sensors needs to be placed where the water is running from the toilet towards the place you want to avoid getting wet/flooded.
The cleaning lady might actually also trigger these when she mops the floor.

Thanks @WallyR. That’s what I was afraid of. I was considering maybe trying to strap them somehow to the valve. If there is a leak, it would likely be from the valve or from the water line connection to the toilet, so the water would run down toward the sensor. And that would keep the sensor off the ground. But I think it is recommended to not have the sensor touching metal, so that might not work. I’m hoping someone else comes up with an amazing idea! :slight_smile:

I’ve seen a few different places online… I Think blogs? Maybe youtube videos… Where they open up the aqara water sensors and solder wires to it to “Extend” the water sensors. In this manner, you can put them wherever you want them, so you should be able to work something out to monitor the valve area, while keeping the device itself out of harm’s way.

I’m actually thinking about doing this as an early warning system for my sump - if the water starts to get too high, it’ll alert me before it overflows and runs onto the floor.

I place my fibaro pucks behind the toilet. In 5 years they have not turned “gross”. It’s hard to get pee on them there and the house keepers don’t move them much (tamper alarm). I make sure they are clean when I change the battery about once a year.

You can also adjust your automation for alarm for a duration before it turns the water off. I have had nuisance trips about 4 times in 5 years with the housekeepers.

Those water sensors are typically resistive, which means they measure the resistance between the two legs.
Shortening them will trigger the alarm and extending them might cause too much resistance from the extended wires, so they might not trigger at all.
In order for them to trigger correctly there need to be a stable body of liquid between the two legs, so running water over the sensor might not be enough, sine just a little split in body of water will cut the connection and stop the triggering.

What are you using to turn off your water?

You haven’t met my son…

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Yes - my son was messy also but he is now a grown man.

Thanks for all the great info!

Homeseer has some that have an extension cable. I know that they can still pee on the wall but it’s less likely.

I don’t have one, but have been considering this:

https://www.domeha.com/z-wave-water-main-shut-off-valve

Main thing holding me back is no z-wave devices currently, not sure I need to add a third network…

That looks very cool. But same here, no Z-Wave devices. Also for me, my shut-off valve is outside and this is for indoor use only.

I have two shutoff valves. One for main water and one for irrigation. Here is a valve that has z-wave mounted indoors valve can be outside.