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This WiFi Leak Detector Is a Smart Way To Keep a Dry Home

Get roped in by the Honeywell Lyric WiFi Leak and Freeze Detector

The Honeywell Lyric Wifi Leak and Freeze Detector Credit: Reviewed.com / Daniel Wroclawski

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Leaks and flooding in your home can be anything from a significant pain to a full-blown disaster. It's an unfortunate reality that there's no way to absolutely prevent unwelcome water from pooling where it shouldn't, but the sooner you're able to deal with the problem, the less damage it will cause.

That's where Honeywell's Lyric WiFi Leak and Freeze Detector steps in to save the day—and maybe even your wood floors. Now on sale for under $99, it's a perfect way to keep an eye on your house when you're away on vacation.

Home tech company Honeywell is best known for its thermostats and temperature regulators, but it's not the first time we've seen water alarms in the lineup of Honeywell gadgets. At a glance, the Lyric WiFi Leak and Freeze Detector looks markedly similar to the brand's current offerings. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes apparent that Honeywell has given the Lyric a healthy dose of WiFi connectivity.

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How It Works

The Lyric WiFi Leak and Freeze Detector has two main components: the main hub and the rope extension. The main hub holds a lot of tech, including the unit’s WiFi connector and its temperature, humidity, and water sensors—not to mention a speaker, LED notification light, and three AA batteries.

Credit: Reviewed.com / Kyle Looney

The Leak and Freeze Detector can be mounted on the wall with a single screw.

Of the three sensors in the hub, only the water sensor can be seen from the outside. The sensor, which is located on the bottom of the hub, has two metal contacts. When water fills the gap between the two contacts, it allows electricity to run between them, completing the circuit that triggers the alarm.

You're unlikely to miss the racket if you're in the house when it goes off—at about 100 dB the alarm is approximately as loud as a motorcycle and higher-pitched—but you won't hear a thing if you're not home. That's where the device's smart tech comes in handy, although you can just use the Lyric as a regular water alarm if you don't feel like enabling the WiFi connectivity.

The Lyric's rope extension is just what it sounds like: a strip of conductive material surrounded by woven material which plugs into the main hub. If the woven material absorbs water, it completes a circuit to sound the alarm.

This rope extension is especially clever because it means that multiple rope extensions—up to a total distance of about 400 ft—can be daisy-chained together into the same hub. This way, you can have one central device that detects leaks for multiple walls of a room—ideal for a basement or garage.

Connecting with The Lyric App

If you do decide to engage the smart functions of the Leak and Freeze Detector, you open up a world of monitoring capabilities.

Lyric app
Credit: Reviewed.com / Kyle Looney

The Lyric app allows you to customize humidity and temperature thresholds for the detector.

In the Lyric companion app, you can set thresholds for the temperature and humidity sensors. This allows you to set up the app and alarm to notify you if your laundry room ever gets colder than 32°F.

{{amazon name="Honeywell RTH8500D 7-Day Touchscreen Programmable Thermostat", asin="B0026ES9UQ", align="right"}} Similarly, you can set up a humidity threshold that serves as a pre-emptive warning for high water levels, especially in a small, enclosed space like the cabinet beneath the bathroom sink.

The Lyric app makes the Leak and Freeze Detector easy to customize. You can set the temperature and humidity thresholds, or shut them off altogether. The latter is a great idea for when guests take especially steamy showers. For the sake of your eardrums, there's also an option to shut off the audible alarm entirely.

Set It and Forget It

The Lyric Leak and Freeze Detector is definitely a "set it and forget it" product. The battery life for the detector is about three years, and it connects directly to your home WiFi network. These two features add to the unassuming and unobtrusive nature of this product. Once you set it up, connect it to the Lyric companion app, and choose your alert settings, you can forget all bout it—until it saves you thousands of dollars by giving you a heads-up before your basement turns into an underground pool, that is.

You can purchase the Honeywell Lyric WiFi Leak and Freeze Detector for $80 during presale. It's a small price to pay for peace of mind.

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