Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Smart Home
  3. Reviews

Leaving town? This box won’t just detect a burst pipe, it will stop it automatically

Drew Prindle
By
lowes new smart valve shuts water detects pipe burst waxman volve
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Just in time for the frigid winter months that lie ahead, home improvement retailer Lowe’s has just added an ingenious new gizmo to its popular Iris home automation line — a smart water valve that can automatically shut off your water if it detects that a pipe burst.

Designed by Ohio-based company LeakSmart, the Smart Valve was first unveiled back in January during CES but wasn’t actually available for purchase until recently. It’s essentially a motorized, network-connected ball valve that can be installed on your home’s plumbing system. Because it can connect to your home’s wireless network and communicate with other Iris sensors, the valve can be controlled from anywhere in the world via smartphone app, and also be configured to activate automatically based on environmental triggers.

Recommended Videos

For example, let’s say you’re away on vacation and you turn your heat off to save power. If the temperature were to dip below freezing and cause a pipe to burst, Iris moisture sensors could detect the leak and automatically tell the Smart Valve to shut off the water main. And that’s just the worst-case scenario. With the help of Iris temperature sensors, the valve could ostensibly be configured to shut off your water before the temp hit the freezing point — effectively preventing a pipe burst from happening in the first place.

Related

“Many of our customers have experienced serious flood damage from burst pipes and leaks,” said Kevin Meagher, Lowe’s vice president and general manager of the Smart Home division. “The Smart Valve offers a new level of protection for their homes and gives them the peace of mind to know that if anything happens they will be alerted and damage can be minimized.”

The only downside here is that installation might be a bit tricky. Unlike the Water Hero — a similar device that recently popped up on Kickstarter —the Smart Valve isn’t an easy retrofit. You’ll need to do some cutting and soldering in order to get it installed, which might mean calling a professional to do it for you. The difference is that Smart Valve is available right now for $160, whereas Water Hero isn’t expected to ship out for another year.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Drew Prindle
Drew Prindle
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Drew Prindle is an award-winning writer, editor, and storyteller who currently serves as Senior Features Editor for Digital…
Trifo’s Lucy robot vacuum won’t run over poop, doubles as a security system
Lucy vacuum robot top

It's 2020, so it's about time robots started becoming more useful additions to our home. It looks like one particular robot is going to fulfill some of our futuristic fantasies. Trifo, a home robotics company, unveiled its latest robot on Thursday, January 2. Its name is Lucy and its basically a super-smart robot vacuum and a security system. Lucy will be strutting its stuff at CES 2020, though there's no word as of yet of when the robot will be available for purchase.

“Revenue for smart home products globally will grow to $28.4 billion in 2020, up 54% from $18.5 billion in 2018, and the feature set of these devices continues to improve,” Trifo founder and CEO Zhe Zhang said in a statement. “Lucy reflects the evolution of our products from robot vacuums to AIoT-enabled home robots that can assist with a wide range of features that help people with their life and work.”

Read more
Ikea’s smart blinds won’t work with Apple’s HomeKit until ‘early’ in 2020
ikeas smart blinds probably wont work with homekit until sometime in 2020 fyrtur block out roller blind 0746146 ph158185 s5

If you invest in smart blinds, you'd expect them to work with the home hubs they were supposed to work with. Unfortunately, if you were planning on buying Fyrtur Smart Blinds from Ikea, or you've already installed them in your home, we have some bad news if you have Apple's HomeKit. It looks like these smart blackout roller-style blinds won't be compatible with HomeKit until some time in early 2020. This information comes from a tweet made by Ikea U.K. Support on Twitter.

The Fyrtur blinds have the ability to be operated remotely and can be put on a timer to open and close automatically. They are currently available in various sizes on the Ikea website and start at $129 each. The blind will work remotely with Ikea's Smart Home App and the remote they come with, but they were supposed to be compatible with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and HomeKit right out of the box.

Read more
How to fix a Yale Assure Lock 2 that won’t connect to Wi-Fi
The Yale Assure Lock 2 Smart Lock Deadbolt keypad being used by someone.

The Yale Assure Lock 2 is one of the best smart locks, as it's available in a variety of formats and makes it easy to keep tabs on your front door when away from home. Much of this functionality is driven by support for Wi-Fi connections on select models, as you can quickly connect the unit to your home network and access all its features via its companion mobile app.

However, some users may notice their Yale Assure Lock 2 appears offline or that it's no longer connected to Wi-Fi. It can be a frustrating issue to deal with, as a lock that's offline won't let you access its best features – meaning you'll want to get it back online as soon as possible.

Read more