Post by Brad Nelson on Apr 11, 2022 14:46:46 GMT -8
I bought one of these yesterday and installed it today: The Moen Leak Detector.
As with all devices of this type, installation is a comedy of errors. For the longest time it wouldn't send me an email to verify my account. Finally it did. The instruction book is not what I'd call straightforward. In fact, the procedure to hook up the unit isn't technically described anywhere.
But what you first do is download the app for your phone. Then you set up an account. Then you open the unit. Then you take the battery inhibitor (a slip of paper) out. All this time you should have the phone app open and in front of you. The app will then say something like "Is the blue like blinking steadily?" You push the radio button for "Yes" and then you are put through a fairly standard WIFI setup.
But the above instructions you will find only piecemeal in the included micro-printed instructions. (I needed a magnifying glass to read them.)
So I got it up and running and then tested it by putting the device into a very shallow pool of water. It went off and sounded an alarm (not very loud) from the unit. You wouldn't have heard this from outside the bathroom if the door was closed. So, crucially, what I didn't receive was an alert on my phone. I opened the app and went through the labyrinthine settings and found where I could change it. By default it would give me an email. Whoopee. That's not good...especially considering Moen's inability to initially send me an email for the verification of my account. I get the feeling the place could have flooded in two feet of water before I ever got their email.
I turned on "Send me a text message." I tested again and it did send me an immediate alert via text message.
As with all devices of this type, installation is a comedy of errors. For the longest time it wouldn't send me an email to verify my account. Finally it did. The instruction book is not what I'd call straightforward. In fact, the procedure to hook up the unit isn't technically described anywhere.
But what you first do is download the app for your phone. Then you set up an account. Then you open the unit. Then you take the battery inhibitor (a slip of paper) out. All this time you should have the phone app open and in front of you. The app will then say something like "Is the blue like blinking steadily?" You push the radio button for "Yes" and then you are put through a fairly standard WIFI setup.
But the above instructions you will find only piecemeal in the included micro-printed instructions. (I needed a magnifying glass to read them.)
So I got it up and running and then tested it by putting the device into a very shallow pool of water. It went off and sounded an alarm (not very loud) from the unit. You wouldn't have heard this from outside the bathroom if the door was closed. So, crucially, what I didn't receive was an alert on my phone. I opened the app and went through the labyrinthine settings and found where I could change it. By default it would give me an email. Whoopee. That's not good...especially considering Moen's inability to initially send me an email for the verification of my account. I get the feeling the place could have flooded in two feet of water before I ever got their email.
I turned on "Send me a text message." I tested again and it did send me an immediate alert via text message.
We have a really aging septic system so its capacity isn't what it once was. If the tenants upstairs leave the water running (or the toilet running...which has happened twice), it will begin to leak from underneath the toilet downstairs. This won't solve the septic problem but it should prevent any major flooding should I, say, be out bike riding and someone has left the toilet running.
I looked at a number of units. What I liked about the Moen is that it did not require a separate unit for the WIFI as many did. It's all-in-one with this thing. And you can even attach the unit to a wall and then trail an extender sensor cable to, say, some back corner or whatever. What also gives me some confidence is that the WIFI connection to my existing network was strong.
Another yuge aspect is that you can turn off the physical alarm via the phone app. It seems bonkers that some other leading brands didn't offer this.