The Internet-of-Things is here, light bulbs, thermostats, outlets, microwaves, fridges, dishwashers, meat thermometers, grills and much more is “smart” now. As I see it, most smart devices add complexity to life and do not make life easier. I subscribe to the idea that; My possessions should serve me. I should not serve them.
In addition to the hassle factor, there are privacy and security concerns that lead me to avoid IoT devices. That said, the exception I have made is for my “smart” water sensors. The brand I use consists of a central hub and many individual sensors. The app provides an option to receive email alerts. Using my personal Pagerduty account I provided the app with the Pagerduty email to allow both myself and my partner get alerts.
A little over a year after I setup the sensors, my partner and I were woken up a Pagerduty alert at 2 in the morning. That was the moment the hot water hose under our kitchen sink decided to fail. My guess is the water was going for no more than 2 minutes before the alarm triggered, and in that time 2 to 4 gallons of water got on the kitchen floor. If we stayed asleep we would have easily woken up to an disaster.
Smart water sensors are worth every penny and every minute I need to maintain them by updating firmware, testing them and changing their batteries. They have paid for themselves and are one of the few IoT devices on my home network.