In a house, one risk we are exposed to is a water leak, which could cause material damage if we notice it too late, and for this reason, there are devices such as the Frient FLSZB-110 Zigbee water leak sensor.
Why does Frient FLSZB-110 have this price?
This Zigbee flood sensor FLSZB-110 is priced higher than others on the market as it incorporates an 85 dB siren and is from Danish company Frient, renowned for its quality products.
Advantages and Disadvantages of the Frient FLSZB-110 sensor
Advantages
- Zigbeetechnology: Zigbee technology allows you to integrate different devices in your smart home. Therefore, having a Zigbee water leak detector can be interesting to create automations, such as triggering Zigbee sirens, making Zigbee lights flash and more in case of detecting a water leak.
- Compatibilities: The Frient Zigbee flood detector is compatible with Homey, Jeedom, and Home Assistant with ZHA or Zigbee2MQTT.
- Measures the temperature: It can be a useful measure to have alerts and avoid some risks such as pipe damage if the temperature is low.
- Built-in siren: It is very interesting to have a siren in the Frient water leak detector to alert you at home immediately without the need of a domotic hub and using the phone to know it.
- Available extension: You can additionally buy a Frient deported cable to detect flooding in areas with little space.
Disadvantages
- Price: Compared to other flood detectors on the market, this device has a high price but it is justified by the quality of the device and the additional functions.
- Zigbee hub required: As a Zigbee water leak detector, if you want to receive alerts on your phone, it must be linked to a compatible Zigbee hub.
Tutorial on how to use the Zigbee Frient water leak detector
A user who already has the Jeedom home automation hub and different smart devices in his house with the Zigbee2mqtt platform that you can also install in Home Assistant, has a technical room where he has a water inlet and a water softener. As it is not a frequented place, a water leak can go unnoticed but cause damage without us noticing it at first.
Another example would be if water leaks under a sink that we only open once a week to pick up a cleaning product, the water may have already damaged the cabinet or mould may have started to grow before we realise it.
Wherever it is in your home, a small leak can remain hidden and damage furniture, floors or walls.
A water leak detector therefore constantly monitors a strategic area to alert you when it detects a few millimetres of water on the ground.
General features of Frient FLSZB-110
To start with, if we open the packaging, we find the Frient FLSZB-110 water leakage sensor.
And we have instruction manuals.
This Frient FLSZB-110 water leakage sensor has dimensions of 60x60x37 mm.
It is larger than other flood sensors on the market, but its advantage is that it incorporates an 85 dB siren at 3 m, which can be a decisive detail when choosing your sensor.
Because by default, most flood sensors, when they detect water on their metal parts, send the information to your home automation hub, but you don’t have an audible alert.
If you do not have your phone in your hands, you will not immediately see this information and you will not know that there is a water leak.
You must also be sure that your sensor is still communicating with your home automation hub to receive this alert.
But with the Frient FLSZB-110 flood sensor, in addition to receiving the alert on your phone thanks to a compatible home automation hub, it will also alert you at home with its siren and a red flashing LED in the event of water detection, making it an autonomous device that can make your life easier in some contexts.
Another interesting detail that is not usually found in most flood sensors on the market is that this Frient FLSZB-110 sensor also measures the ambient temperature with a measuring range of 0 to +50 °C, a resolution of 0.1 °C and an accuracy of ±0.5 °C.
This additional information can be key in areas where temperatures drop very low in winter, as when the temperature drops below freezing, the water left in the pipes can freeze, expand and cause the pipes to burst.
And when the ice melts, water can leak out and cause major damage.
With this sensor, we can set an alert when the temperature drops too low, and take action before a problem occurs.
This measured temperature can also be additional information for adjusting our heating at home.
This Frient FLSZB-110 water leak sensor communicates with Zigbee 3.0 technology.
It is compatible with the Homey home automation hub.
With the Jeedom home automation hub with Zigbee2mqtt.
And with the Home Assistant home automation hub with ZHA or Zigbee2mqtt.
It is powered by a CR123A battery which is included and the manufacturer indicates a battery life of up to 5 years with a report every 5 minutes, which is another interesting detail to take into account given the long battery life of this battery.
Of course, when there is a water leak detection, it will be reported immediately without waiting those 5 minutes.
With an IP20 protection rating, an operating temperature of 0 to 50 °C and a relative humidity of up to 95 % without condensation, it is a sensor that you should use indoors.
How to link the Frient Zigbee Flood Sensor
To include the Frient FLSZB-110 flood sensor, from the interface of our home automation hub, we activate the inclusion mode.
At this point, we will remove the sensor protection plates and remove the battery protection from our sensor and automatically its LED indicator should flash red and it should join our Zigbee network.
That’s it, we now have our Frient FLSZB-110 sensor linked to our Zigbee hub, so we will know in real time from anywhere in the world on our phone, when there is a water leak to take action before it’s too late.
How to install the Frient Zigbee flood detector
Once you have chosen the risk zone, you must install your Frient FLSZB-110 water leakage sensor with its 2 metal parts against the ground.
Whenever there is water between these metal parts, it will automatically send an alert to your home automation hub with its siren and LED indicator.
It should be noted that Frient FLSZB-110 additionally offers a deported cable which can be very useful for areas with limited space.
You can install the flood detector on the wall and the 90 cm deported cable under a piece of furniture, which can detect water leaks.
Simply install the Frient flood sensor at the base of the deported cable.
And you can stick this base on the wall thanks to a 3M adhesive available on the base.
An interesting detail is that you can adjust the length of the cable by placing the cable inside the base to get the correct length.
Detailed functions of the Zigbee Frient water leak sensor
Now let’s discover the detailed functions of the Frient flood sensor.
- “Battery Low” is a binary status that will inform us when the battery is almost empty, letting us know that the battery needs to be replaced at this time.
- “Tamper” is a function that warns us when someone intentionally tries to tamper with the device.
- “Water Leak” is the main function of this device and is when it has detected a water leak or no leak at all.
You can test your detector by putting your fingers on the metal parts to simulate water leak detection.
You can also put some water on a surface and the detector on top to test it.
In case of water detection, the status is automatically updated.
Of course, if you have the deported cable installed with the detector, you will also have water leak detections, this time from the metal parts of the deported cable.
Frient recommends testing this sensor every 3 months and every time the battery is replaced by pressing the physical button once.
- “Temperature” is, as the name implies, the temperature value measured by the detector.
- “Battery” is the battery level from 0 to 100 %, which allows us to keep track over time.
- “Voltage” is the reported voltage of the battery in millivolts.
- And “Link Quality” is the quality of the link, which is interesting to know if our sensor has a good communication range with our home automation hub to send the information correctly, and if it is insufficient, you can additionally buy Zigbee devices connected to the power supply such as light bulbs, plugs, modules or any other device that you can install at medium distance to repeat the signal automatically and improve communications.
Of course, the magic of a smart home is to be able to make different smart devices interact together according to defined events.
For example, if you have a smart valve installed on top of your traditional water valve, you can decide that if there is a detection of water leakage, the water valve is automatically shut off.
Therefore, you can avoid further damage.
All in all, this water leak detector can have its importance in some contexts to prevent material damage and Frient is a company that designs quality products with interesting additional details such as a siren and a temperature sensor for its detector.
Generally purchased together
Buy now your Frient flood sensor
Graduated with a Higher Technician’s Certificate in Home Automation, a Professional Bachelor’s degree in E-commerce and Digital Marketing, and a Master’s degree in SEO, I have been working since 2013 in a home automation e-commerce company called Domadoo, where I have the opportunity to test a large number of the popular Smart Home products on the market.