I bought two Aqara Valve Controllers
Cost: around €150.
Number of times used so far: 0.
No everyday benefit.
They just sit on the pipes, waiting for the day they might finally have a job to do.
A useless investment?
Absolutely not.
If they ever shut off the water during a real leak, they could prevent thousands of euros in water damage and pay for themselves with a single activation.
I hope the usage count stays at zero forever. That would be the best possible outcome—and the best possible value for my €150. 
20 Likes
Hi, thanks for sharing your solution. People often don’t understand that it’s easier to predict a problem than to fix it later.
I use a leak sensor under the bottom drawer in my refrigerator. It has warned me several times that the drain pipe is clogged. It used to leak all over the floor and into the refrigerator casing.
10 Likes
I completely agree. I currently have four leak sensors installed: under the kitchen sink, under the dishwasher (probably the two most important locations), under the bathroom sink, and in the utility cabinet where the main water pipes and shut-off valves are located.
Hopefully, they’ll never have any real work to do. 
5 Likes
Even if automatic shut-off valves aren’t possible in your situation, having leak sensors is still a huge advantage. An early warning gives you time to react before a small leak becomes a major problem. 
4 Likes
Yup exactly I also have 2 smoke detectors as with all this powered devices into an smart home you never know.
1 Like
Absolutely. I also have smoke detectors. Sometimes I look around my small apartment and think I’ve probably installed more Aqara devices than I actually need… But leak detection, smoke detection and home monitoring were the very first things I wanted to have in place. Everything else can come later.
4 Likes
And I expanded the use of the water sensor. It controls the level of drinking water in the tank and controls the pump for pumping from the well. This lesson, like many others, is based on real working automation in my house.
3 Likes
That’s a clever solution! It just shows that the possibilities are often limited more by our imagination than by the devices themselves.
3 Likes
Thanks for sharing your use case!
Didn’t thought the valve controller reacts this quick!
2 Likes
I was surprised too. I did speed up a few parts of the video to keep it short, but in real life the whole sequence still took less than 6 seconds.
4 Likes
I see but it still seems to be pretty fast 
Fast enough to keep a disaster away 
2 Likes
Well I just added 2 more water leak sensors to my smart home and now I cover everything.
2 Likes
Great! It’s always better to be a little too cautious when it comes to water leaks. Hopefully none of those sensors will ever have any real work to do.
2 Likes
I agree, fast enough to help prevent major water damage.
1 Like
Yeah now I cover all my pipes that are indeed bathroom and kitchen
2 Likes
Water leak protection is an excellent investment; in my opinion, it safeguards you against accidental flooding and protects your money and property in the long run.
4 Likes
About 6 months ago, I read a water ball valve user manual for the very first time. Yes, it actually came with one. It stated that you should cycle the valve (open and close it) about once a month so it doesn’t seize up. Realistically, nobody ever bothers to do that by hand, but with a gadget like this, you could cycle your valves every single night if you wanted to. Maybe it’s not such a useless piece of junk after all.
3 Likes
I have a very similar setup. But I did replace my Aqara valve controller with an Econet wired controller. I worried that the batteries might die and fail to shutoff the water supply. We have a whole house backup generator so I’m not so concerned about power outages. And yes, that’s an M200 hub right next to the controller.
1 Like
