This tiny sensor is one of the few smart home gadgets I recommend to everyone

Published Sep 12, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT Tim has been covering technology for almost 20 years, in that time spanning a broad range of topics from security to product reviews. He is especially focused on the Apple ecosystem, productivity, and consumer advice. Over the years Tim has written thousands of articles, reviews, and round-ups in addition to producing video content and original photography. A graduate of journalism, he found his footing as a freelancer with a laptop and loves how he is able to work from practically anywhere. Now a Senior Editor for iPhone, Mac, and Smart Home at How-To Geek, Tim still loves to write. He can also be found crafting round-ups and productivity posts for the Zapier blog. Earlier in his career Tim spent nearly a decade as a writer and eventually Apple section editor for MakeUseOf. Tim currently lives in Brisbane, Australia. Outside of work he loves to hike and work out, play video games, and spend quality time with his wonderful partner and two cats Inka and Roger. As someone who is very fond of my smart home setup, I’ll be the first to admit that a lot of it is surplus to requirements. Rarely would I recommend everyone install color-changing bulbs or relinquish control of the HVAC to just a smartphone app or a Home Assistant integration. But there is one smart home sensor that I absolutely won’t shut up about. Detect water leaks, fast Water, water, everywhere Those who have experienced a water leak will know the drill. If you’re lucky, it happens while you're at home, in the middle of the day, on the ground floor. Act quickly, and the damage can be relatively minor, but the longer you wait, the worse it becomes. Now imagine that you’re not at home, or the leak happens in the middle of the night. Hours can pass while water is gushing from a burst pipe or flexi-hose that has reached the end of its natural lifespan. If this happens upstairs, it can cause water to pool in cavities and bring down ceilings in lower parts of the house. That’s before we’ve even considered that everything is also now wet. You’ll need to turn off the electricity supply while the insides of walls, light switches, and sockets dry out. Electrical items like televisions will need replacing outright. Even if you have the best home insurance in the world, the hassle of drying, claiming, and replacing takes its toll. The best solution is to minimize the impact that such an event can have on you or your family in the first place, and the easiest solution is a water leak sensor. This doesn’t end with a single sensor—you need a whole bunch of them, placed in the sort of places where leaks are likely to happen. Under sinks, near pipe joins, or anywhere that’s at risk of a burst pipe in the winter. What you opt for depends on your budget, current smart home setup, and how much protection you want. Which water leak sensor should you buy? The perfect sensor does exist Credit: Bertel King / How-To Geek Let’s be clear: you don’t need a "proper” smart home to get some benefit from a water leak sensor. I bought a handful of IKEA’s old Zigbee sensors, which have since been replaced with the Matter over Thread Klippbok. These are cheaper, and they work just the same as they always have, with two contacts that detect water by closing a circuit and a speaker on the top. When water is detected, the alarm will squeal and notify you and any smart home system it is connected to. This means that you don’t technically need to plug IKEA’s sensor into an existing smart home system in order to benefit from it. The fact that it uses the open Matter standard, however, gives you plenty of options if you do decide to do so. It will work with IKEA’s own Dirigera hub, Google Home, Apple Home, and Samsung SmartThings, to name but a few. For example, with a water leak sensor connected to an Apple Home smart home, you’ll get critical alerts on your iPhone or HomePod when the sensor detects a leak. These sound an alarm you can’t miss, even in the middle of the night, so you can deal with the problem. These sensors also work with the undisputed king of smart home platforms, Home Assistant. This open-source solution requires that you run a server on a piece of hardware like a Raspberry Pi or in a virtual machine on a mini PC, but gives you endless flexibility and potential in deciding how your smart home works. With Home Assistant, the sky is the limit. Flash the lights, get mobile phone notifications, have your smart speaker announce there’s a problem, trigger a siren—or even go a step further and potentially deal with the problem for you. IKEA Klippbok water leak sensor Connectivity Matter over Thread Wi-Fi No This water leakage sensor keeps track of water leaks by beeping when it comes into contact with water – helping you make life at home smoother, more comfortable and safer. When connected to a hub, the sensor sends a notification to your smartphone with information about the water leak. The small size makes it easy to position under the sink, appliances or other places where a water leakage can occur. Get a smart shut-off valve for a complete solution Remote shutoff has many benefits Credit: Jinvoo Water leak sensors are only one half of the conundrum when it comes to avoiding water damage. Not only do you need to have enough of them around the home to pick up any leaks, but you also need to know what to do when the alarm sounds. This means turning off the water supply using the shutoff valve. Worse still, if your water leak sensor sounds the alarm while you’re away from home, you’re left wondering how bad the damage will be when you finally get through the door. The solution to this problem is to invest in a smart shutoff valve. These connect to a system like Home Assistant and allow you to trigger automations that automatically isolate the water supply when a leak is detected. They’re robots for your pipes, and they’re the best way to get the maximum benefit from a leak detection sensor. Did you know that Home Assistant is more user-friendly than ever? The developers have put real effort into making the platform more accessible than ever before, so it’s worth another look if you have previously written it off.