Govee WiFi Water Leak Detector 3 Packs, Leak Alert with Remotely Email/APP Push and Sound Alarm, Smart Water Sensor with 100dB Adjustable Alarm, Suit for Home and Basement

I received the item and a box of five more sensors about an hour ago. I am professional at home construction, including the plumbing trade. Here's what I found.After setting up the first sensor to the internet, I proceeded to place that one under my kitchen sink. I looked under the sink with a flashlight and didn't notice anything on the bottom of the sink cabinet, so I slid the sensor to the back of the cabinet. On doing so, I felt a dampness on the palm of my hand as I placed the sensor. There was a film of water on the bottom of the cabinet. I waited to see if the sensor would go off, as it did when I tested it by wetting a finger and putting it across two of the terminals on the bottom of the sensor. Well, that film of water did not trip the sensor. Wondering why, I placed the sensor on a flat piece of plastic on my work bench and I could see there is a 1/16 inch or so of space between the sensor probes and the flat plastic sheet I put it on. That's the problem right there. A film of water on the bottom of a cabinet will not set the sensor off. The probes will not contact the water surface.Here's what I did. I removed the little rubber plugs from each of the four feet of the sensor. Use a sharp object. I placed the sensor on a piece of sand paper on a very flat surface. Rubbing down on the sand paper I sanded the plastic feet down to the same level of the metal probes under the sensor. Now the probes will touch the surface the sensor is resting on. I tried the sensor under the sink again and it immediately tripped the water alarm. A slow drip will not make a puddle of water in a cabinet. It will most likely coat the bottom of the cabinet as it's being absorbed into the wood or leaking out at the seems of the cabinet.Something about kitchen cabinets: The bottom of kitchen and bath cabinets is usually made of cheap particle board or some material equally water absorbent. A small drip will not form a puddle of water as you might think. The bottom of the cabinet will absorb a small water leak, like a very slow drip, for MONTHS. Probably until the bottom of the cabinet is ruined. You will be able to tell by the bottom of the cabinet sagging down. But here's what I do with my sink cabinets. I put a heavy bead of caulk around the edge of the inside of the cabinet where the bottom of the cabinet meets the sides. Then I apply two or three coats of varnish to the bottom of the cabinet (we're talking INSIDE the cabinet here). What this does is make the bottom of the cabinet somewhat water proof, enough that the cabinet material will not absorb a small leak. And a larger leak will run out the FRONT of the cabinet, rather than down the seams between the bottom and sides of the cabinet. And you will notice it before damage is done.Now, the Govee setup. I did find the setup a little confusing I'll admit. Especially when setting up to the internet. The app wanted me to connect my phone to the wifi of the gateway unit that comes with the sensor. I'm thinking, do I want to do that? And lose my home wifi on the phone? I ended up backing out of the setup. But going back into the app again, I found it was working. I pushed the buttons as directed and setup the 6 sensors I had without issue. As you do each one, and are looking for it in the app screen, pull down the screen to refresh it and you'll see the device you connected.I gave four stars because: The directions could be a little more precise with the wifi setup of the gateway. The sensor probes should be lowered to pick up any amount of water.Note: The first sensor I installed saved me a big headache had the dripping fitting decided to break sometime down the road. This one find paid for the sensors I put in today. An overall excellent product. Just sand down the feet.UPDATE: 6/29/21 - I had a sensor alarm in my bathroom vanity sink cabinet. I removed the stuff stored under the sink and didn’t see anything around the sensor. I moved the sensor and carefully felt the area with my fingers. With no visible water, the area felt slightly damp to the touch. I took a closer look at all the plumbing with a flashlight, and sure enough, one sink supply connection was the slightest bit wet. Maybe one drop per hour.My description above on how I modified the sensor probes to touch the surface (floor, etc.) had allowed the unit to alarm well before any water started to puddle and soak into the wood and ruin the cabinet.I highly recommend these water sensors and that you modify them as I suggested above.

Anyone that’s gone through water damage will tell you this is definitely worth the time and investment. Time will tell if these devices will work down the road but what I like about this product is that there are alarms on each sensor as well as an app that will trigger email notifications and app notifications. If your Wi-Fi and power is down for some reason, you still have the alarm in each individual sensor as a fallback. As others have pointed out, the initial set up can be a bit of a pain, particularly if you were on 5G so I decided to outline the steps for my process as a Verizon FiOS customer using gigabit service and 5 GHz WiFi.Fios SetupFirst go to the FiOS app on your iPhone or android. Depending on your app set up, click on Internet (Manage your home network)/Advanced Settings/Self Organizing Network (SON) and disable it. Once you come back out to the Prior menu screen you should see both your 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks. In order to set up the Govee, I temporarily disabled my 5 GHz networks to avoid any issues with the device pairing. After I was done setting up the hub and pairing all sensors, I reenabled the 5 gig service.Step-by-step setupGovee Hub Setup:Plug-in Govee hub device so buttons are on the left. Download Govee Home app. Open it and click the plus button to add a new device. Type 5040 or 5041 depending on your model. Create a Govee account with the email you want to be notified when there’s an alarm. With the hub plugged in so the buttons are on the left side, press and hold the top button for three seconds until the blue light starts blinking in a slow steady manner. Click confirm on the Govee app and type in your Wi-Fi password. That should create the Govee gateway in your list of Wi-Fi options, which you will need to select. So go to settings/ Wi-Fi and click the Govee gateway option in your list of Wi-Fi SSIDs. Once your phone connects to the Govee Gateway, go back to the Govee app and continue through any prompts. Make sure your phone is close to the Govee hub and that you’re within range of your router.When the hub is done connecting, you should automatically see the sensors that came in your kit, listed in your Govee app on your phone. From here, you can select the sensor in the app, click the gear icon in the top right corner and rename each individual device with the location where you are putting it. E.g., 5040-T67G (XXXX) can be renamed to dishwasher or washing machine, etc.Pairing Additional Govee Sensors:If you purchased additional sensors, you will need to pair those with the Govee hub individually. At least that’s how I did it so I could keep track of each sensor and rename it appropriately.To pair a new sensor, remove the battery cover from the sensor so that the device is active. With the hub plugged in so the buttons are on the left, press and hold the lower button for three seconds. It should begin to blink red and blue. At this point press and hold the sensor button for three seconds and let go. You should hear a subsequent beep from the sensor within a few seconds of letting go of the button. From here, your device should be added to the app within 30 to 60 seconds and you should be able to see the new sensor number listed the app. You may need to change screens (click on profile then click back to the home button) within the app to see the update. Follow the same steps to rename each sensor as needed.I purchased additional sensors so I needed to identify them individually and decided to use a label maker on each one so that I don’t get them mixed up.Because I had so many sensors, and could not figure out how to identify the individual sensors in the app, I was forced to trigger the alarm (by getting each sensor wet momentarily). This allowed me to see which sensor in the app was triggered and from there I was able to rename it. It also allowed me to test the function of each sensor.Hope this helps those of you in my situation!

We bought this sensor kit with some extra sensors two weeks ago to help monitor the house while we were on vacation. Setup was easy after an hour of unnecessarily confusion. Included batteries worked fine, it's a new installation so I cannot comment on battery life.The manufacture's directions are unclear ... THANK YOU to the Amazon reviewers who wrote terrific explanations to help the rest of us.How well does the Govee app protect privacy? This is not an accusation, it's just an unknown. So I didn't want it installed on the phone I use everyday. Here's an option that also makes it easy to connect to the required 2.4 GHz wifi:I installed the app on an old iPhone that's connected to our router's 2.4GHz "guest WiFi". Using the old phone, and after struggling with the unclear directions, the Gateway connected to guest WiFi and all six detectors paired to their gateway.I also assigned the detectors to location names (e.g. "Water Heater"), so any alerts would immediately direct me to the problem.Then I tested one detector; SUCCESS!!!The audible alarm sounded immediately. Then, within a minute this email arrived: "Your "H5054_48C5" has detected water leakage. Check the area soon to avoid water damage."Glad that the alert system works, I know there's a problem somewhere, but that cryptic serial number doesn't help to find it. Suggest that Govee add "location" to their alert messages.So I like this product. If Govee adds clarity to the installation directions and alert messages they would fully earn a five-star rating! ****