Water Detector with Text Message and Email Notifications

When we bought our house 6 years ago, even the inspector couldn't find the sump pit. Turns out, it was in the finished bedroom's closet under the carpet, oddly in the middle of the basement. It's filled up a few times over the years, thankfully when we're at home, so my shop vac and I were able to clear it before there was a problem. A plumber quoted $12k to install a pump because of the odd location, tear down of finished areas, and rebuilding. That wasn't happening. However, with us traveling more, I wanted peace of mind when there was an issue so I could have a neighbor take action.Thankfully we haven't had a real alert in the pit, but the testing worked beautifully. It can send texts up to 1 number, you can customize the message to a degree, it'll also send emails, and you can adjust the frequency of the alerts (1 min, 5 min, 10 min). It's basic, but it does exactly what it needs to do. It was also very simple to set up - you need an account, but there is no subscription fees like other devices, which is a huge win.

This is the second one I bought. Ideal for monitoring freezer or refriferator temperatures while away from home for extended times. They are easy to set up and work as described. I like being able to monitor temperature real time.

Sensor was easy to setup and configure. Tested multiple times and worked as expected for both email and text message. Can't speak to longevity as only had it a few months but so far so good. The sensor is directly one floor under my router so the signal is good in this location.

What an economical and effective product! My set-up and test worked perfectly (text and e-mail alerts). The only two things that would improve this design are 1) the incorporation of a loud, audible alarm 2) 5G wireless transmitter as opposed to being reliant on household Wifi. During a major rain/thunderstorm, the biggest concern is the power being knocked out and the sump pump/pit potentially overflowing due to lack of household power - in this scenario, this product would not provide an alert because it requires Wifi to send alerts, and Wifi will not work without household power. Still nice to have this product for situations of pump failure or other scenarios to detect high water in your sump pit. Good but not a perfect product in my view.

I installed the My Spool water detector in my basement after we had a problem with the floor drain backing up. I had previously installed a wifi range extender in the basement, so I was confident there would be a strong enough wifi signal for the device to connect to. It is probably best to go through the setup process at the location where you intend to install the detector, rather than setting it up elsewhere and resetting the network connection in its final location.The physical installation is quite straightforward. There is a small black box with the electronics and two wires extending out from it. One has the detector at the end, the other is for power and plugs into the USB port on the supplied charger. The directions are a bit complicated and could benefit from some reformatting of the pamphlet’s text, but if you follow all of the steps (exactly, in order, not skipping anything) it’s really pretty easy. When it’s plugged in the device creates its own local wifi network, so you log into that with a smartphone, log the device into your house wifi network, then create an account on MySpool’s server and link the device to that account. From that point on it uses your house wifi network to send any alerts to the MySpool server and thus to your email or text messaging. At the end of the process you dunk the detector in a glass of water to test it and voila!—it sends you an email and a text message. You can have up to five email addresses on the alerts, so you can have a someone check the detector if you’re away. There is a light on the top of the little black box that is green when it is on and running properly and red when it has been triggered, so I can see whenever I go to the basement that it’s running. I’m hoping it’s never actually needed, but since the floor drain can back up unnoticed, it’s nice to have the reassurance that I’ll find out about it before any real damage is done. And I now have a submersible pump on a shelf right next to the drain—so I’m ready!

After seeing different products from other vendors, including the need to subscribe for notifications, difficulty in setting up and getting alerts, etc., I was hesitant whether this one would meet my needs. The description about the product was very accurate and the product was exactly what I wanted. It was simple to install and setup. No subscription needed. As to how I am using it, I needed something that would tell me when the level of the water pool in my pool was below my desired depth. The video on the web site was super useful in showing how to switch from high water to low water mode. I found a spot around my pool where it would not accidentally get bumped. Under the railing of the steps into the pool turned out to be ideal. I enclosed the unit on three sides with a part of a plastic container. I mounted the top of the container to the coping around the pool which is always above water, with velcro. I ran the wire to a waterproof container thru a tiny hole near the top. That container sits on the pool deck under the railing. The wi-fi connectivity worked fine. The battery unit eliminated the need for any wires going across the deck. Too soon to know how long the batteries actually last, but I intend to really use this unit when I'm away so I can tell my house sitter when to add water to the pool, so battery life shouldn't be an issue. In the future if the control unit becomes waterproof that would make my setup even better.