Wednesday, March 27, 2024

The Phyn Smart Water Assistant detects usage and alerts you to leaks

These days more of our home appliances and gadgets are getting smarter. Every day there is a new smart home gadget claiming to make your life easier and better. This includes smart light, smart locks, smart pet toys, ever the device like toothbrushes are also in the list.

If you are looking for that icing on the cake to complete your smart home, you must check out Belkin’s latest offering the Phyn Smart Water Assistant. It is an in-home water monitoring system that analyzes your home’s water consumption and alerts you to possible leaks anywhere in the home.

The Phyn Smart Water Assistant is actually the cheaper version of Belkin’s Phyn Plus system that was launched last year. It’s designed to be a DIY project, which the company says can help homeowners conserve water, avoid trouble, and save money in the process.

Phyn Smart Water Assistant
Phyn Smart Water Assistant

The new version does not require a plumber for installation. The system attaches to the hot and cold water lines under your sink with minimal effort. And once attached, the Phyn measures microscopic changes in water pressure in high definition, defined by the company as 240 samples per second.

The Phyn Smart Water Assistant can monitor water pressure in your pipes and also alert homeowners within seconds of a leak – anywhere in the home – being detected. Besides, it let you know if ice crystals start forming in your water line, so you can take action before the lines burst. In addition to all these, the new Smart Water Assistant provides an overview of each faucet in the home and gives homeowners a better idea of where the most water is used.

Track and view your water use daily and monthly to get ahead of your water costs, and see how your home compares to others.
Track and view your water use daily and monthly to get ahead of your water costs, and see how your home compares to others.

Moreover, the system can also identify potential problems within a plumbing system, such as faulty seals, tiny drip leaks, and pinhole leaks through a Plumbing Check feature. It will also alert you if your bathwater has been running longer than normal, for example, in order to prevent an overflow situation.

Belkin says that the system will be smart enough over time; it will be able to adapt and learn the unique “voice” of each fixture in your home. The Phyn Smart Water Assistant will also be compatible with Google Assistant, Alexa, and IFTTT.

The only disadvantages are that it cannot automatically shut off the water if a problem is detected. Instead, it will send a notification on the phone informing you of the issue, and you will then need to manually address it yourself.

According to the company, repairing problems like these can save homeowners up to 10% on their water bills. More importantly, it will help save water, which is the Earth’s second most precious resource after the air we breathe.

It is priced at $299, which is considerably cheaper than the $850 Phyn Plus system and does everything the previous system can do without requiring professional installation by a plumber. The smart meter will be launching in late September.