How sensors perform may vary depending on what your home is made of, its layout, and the strength of your home network. But wherever you place one, it needs to be in range of your Wi-Fi network.

Range: Smart water-leak sensors are great options for keeping ahead of leaks in a bathroom, basement, laundry room, kitchen, or anywhere else in a house.

Disconnect alerts: Smart water-leak sensors primarily alert you when they detect a leak, but we also look for models that alert you when they lose power or their connection to your Wi-Fi router-otherwise you’ll have no idea if they’re actually showing up to work and doing their job.

Smart notifications: All of the smart water-leak sensors we’ve tried can send push notifications, texts, email alerts, or a combination of all three.

Like every other leak sensor, it has a few quirks, but it’s still the best choice for monitoring more than one spot in a home. The system supports Google Assistant for announcing activity on smart speakers, as well as the web service and app IFTTT (If This Then That) for triggering other smart devices (such as a smart bulb) when it finds a leak. The hub can connect with up to 16 add-on sensors, responds quickly when it senses water or if it loses power, and features a loud (94 dB, by our measurements) siren. In addition, the kit comes with a matchbox-sized remote battery-operated sensor that connects wirelessly to the hub from up to 300 feet away. It includes a plug-in hub (and so can be placed only in areas near an electrical outlet), but it also has a removable 19-inch water-sensing cable and a 38-inch extension cord to lengthen that cable’s reach.

The D-Link DCH-S1621KT Whole Home Smart Wi-Fi Water Leak Sensor Kit combines the best capabilities we’ve seen available in leak sensors into one bundle.

Flume water sensor