Moen Flo Smart Water Monitor and Automatic Shutoff Sensor, Wi-Fi Connected Water Leak Detector for 1-Inch Diameter Pipe, 900-006

I've heard about these for a while and thought it would be a nice thing to have, but never actually bought one, until now. After our neighbor's house flooded for the second time I thought it might be a good idea to have this, since all of these houses were built by the same builder. If they're having that many problems it could be a matter of time before we do as well, as both times their house was severely damaged. I'm not a plumber but have basic skills and had no problems installing the Flo valve. I used a 2" nipple between the Flo and our water filter and a shark bite on the other side to connect into our PEX pipe that comes off the PRV. It took less than an hour to install. Setup was simple and instructions were easy to follow. It took an hour or so for it to realize that it was installed, and then took another week or so to 'learn' our usage habits. Right after installation I began getting real-time data on flow rate, pressure, temperature, and gallons used. The data is pretty cool, but historical data is extremely limited. In the app, you can only get hourly data for the current day and weekly data for the current week. On the website you can only view/download hourly data for the current and prior day, daily for current or past four weeks, and monthly for the past 12 months. We've had the Flo installed for just over two weeks now and had no problems with it. We subscribed to Flo Protect but thus far it still has not identified individual fixtures. A note on that; they say 'we need a couple weeks of data before we can identify fixtures.' I contacted support and they told me it's actually three weeks. I suggested to them that they change their messaging on that to manage expectations. I've seen quite a few people unhappy that they have to pay $5/mo for the Flo Protect plan after paying $400+ for the valve. I have no problem with paying for it. We pay $15/mo for our alarm monitoring after paying around 2k for our system to protect our home. Water can cause severe damage, so I'm good with paying $5/mo to monitor that since it's probably more likely to happen than a break in when you think about all the places plumbing could fail and the extent of damage it can cause. Sure, insurance will probably pay for most of the repairs, but as I sit here listening to them jack hammering up the hardwood floors a couple doors from me for the entire day and watch all the various work trucks coming and going, I think of the inconvenience of it all. Overall I give the system a 4 star rating because availability of historical data is quite limited and I'd like the ability to download detailed hourly or daily data for a large period of time into Excel to perform more detailed analysis. If the data was more available I'd give it a full 5 stars. Support through the water concierge chat is excellent but anything I've sent via e-mail has gone completely unanswered, so I recommend using the chat. Today I purposely left our kitchen faucet on at a trickle while I was eating lunch and they called my phone after around 30 minutes to alert me to long water duration. I also got an e-mail about it and an app notification, all of which gave me the option to turn off my water immediately or ignore it. They said if I did not respond they would shut it off in five minutes. I'm pretty sure if a pipe broke and a lot of water was flowing it would have alerted much faster, but I only left the faucet barely trickling. All things considered I think this is a great product and both it and the monitoring are worth it in my opinion. Update 3/8/2020 Usage by fixture finally became available after a little over three weeks of use and I wanted to provide some information on this. My expectations were pretty low for this feature and thus far I would say they may have just barely met them. My thoughts on this are that it would be quite difficult to isolate usage to a particular fixture, since the only data points they could use to identify fixtures would be flow rate and duration and many things could have similar flow rates, not to mention overlapping usage (i.e. you flush the toilet, then go and wash your hands, washing machine could be running while you're taking a shower, multiple people using water, etc.) That being said, it has done a fairly good job in identifying faucets, toilets, and showers/baths, but not always correctly. It has not been able to isolate anything else, such as the washing machine, dishwasher, refrigerator, etc. You do have the ability to go in and reclassify an event but I'm not certain that it learns anything from that or not. I know I changed one it got wrong from faucet to shower/bath and later I looked and it had changed it back. When you look at the event details it only provides the time, duration, and gallons used. It would be extremely helpful if it also provided the flow rate, as that is one of the most useful data points in identifying what fixture may have been using water. I plan to make that suggestion and hope they'll consider implementing it. If I can accurately reclassify events and it actually learns from that then maybe it would get more accurate over time. My overall rating and opinion of the device is unchanged and I still feel it is very useful and provides an extra layer of protection for our home. Update 4/7/2020 Upgrading my overall rating from 4 to 5 stars because they just added expanded access to historical data which was the one thing that I felt was lacking. You can now view data by day, week, month, year, and even by custom date range. Being able to view a custom range is helpful if you want to compare the Flo data to your water bill as you can set it to the same billing period.

I've been in the homeowners insurance industry for 18 years now. I know the devastation that water damage can cause. After finding out about this device from a few of my companies (and a few of those even give discounts on insurance for having the device installed), I, my parents, and one of my business partners decided to give it a shot and have the device installed on our homes. I definitely wouldn't say it was an easy process. While most of the instructional videos on YouTube indicated that the device should be installed at the supply line to the water heater (located in our garages) were all told by our plumbers that the device should actually be installed outside on the main water line because there it would be able to monitor the entire water supply to the house and not just to the water heater and plumbing fixtures fed by the water heater, which made sense. Installing it outside, however, also required an electrician to install a waterproof junction box for the power supply to the device. Between the cost of the Flo, the plumber, and electrician, it ran about $1200. This is where the fun began. After the plumber installed the device, it would not connect to my Wifi. The connection button on the device did not work. As there was no other way to connect it to my Wifi, I contacted Moen's tech support. They advised me to buy a new device and return the defective one. After some back and forth with them over the cost of the plumber now having to come back out, un-install, and re-install the device, Moen agreed to send out one of their preferred plumbers at their cost. After it was installed, it worked perfectly. When the device is first installed and the app is learning your water usage, there are definitely 'growing pains'. If you take a shower longer than 5-10 minutes or if the device learns you take your showers around the same time every day, taking a shower during a different time will trigger the app to think there's a leak. You'll then get a message on the app, an email, and an automated phone call from Moen saying they've detected abnormal use and your water will automatically shut off in 5 minutes if the notification on the app isn't cleared. I've recommended the Flo to a number of my clients who have all said the same complaint about the device shutting the water off while showering. Anyways, for the 2.5 years I've had the device installed, it's worked great. This brings me to the present day. Each week, the app sends a notification of weekly water use. Two weeks ago, it said it didn't register any water use. I thought it was odd, but figured it was an error. This week, I received the same notification, so I contacted Moen. I was told that this likely means the turbine inside the device that reads the water flow is clogged with debris and that it's as simple as removing the device and flushing it out. I'm not handy enough to do my own plumbing work and even if I was, there's no way in hell I'd be messing around with my own water main. I called the plumber who Moen had sent out to do the first replacement and was told they only do installs and do not do service on existing devices. I called a few other local plumbers and was told the same thing. I called Moen back and they sent me a link to all of their recommended plumbers. I'm located in South Florida. Between Jupiter and South Miami, their list has 25 plumbers. The first 22 that I called all said the same thing as the first plumber. It wasn't until the 23rd who said that they would try -- it could be debris in the turbine, but he's also seen the turbine blades break due to water pressure -- so he can't guarantee a fix. This is when I took to trusty Twitter to @Moen. Their first response was again for me to me to remove the device and flush it myself, which I'm not doing myself, Their second response was to send me that same list of plumbers. That's when I called Moen back and was told that I should buy a new device and then send Moen the receipt from the original device and they'll reimburse me. The problem with that is 2.5 years ago, I paid around $400 for the device. As of April 2022, you can't find this device ANYWHERE and third-party sellers on Amazon are price gouging for between $800 and $1400, and Moen would only reimburse me for the original price paid. I went back to Twitter, this is when I finally got help. They asked if they could contact me directly, to which I obliged. They said that if the plumber cannot fix the issue to call them back and they'll send me a replacement device under warranty (but I'll still have to pay for the plumber). At this point, I think this is the best I'm going to do. In the end, caveat emptor. The device isn't cheap (especially as of April 2022). The installation isn't cheap, unless you're one of those super handy people who can do it yourself. If something goes wrong with the device, you're going to have to pay for a plumber again... if you can find one to service an existing device. Moen's product support, after a bit of pushing, is very helpful and they do stand behind their product. Even with these costs and hassles, the benefits of the device do outweigh the stress and costs of having a pipe burst and your house flood. Just know what you're getting yourself into. -------- **UPDATE** Now, 14 months later, my app started giving notification that my water pressure is low. I tested all my faucets, and it's fine, so I called tech support. They ran their tests and determined it's a bad sensor inside the device that's just not reading pressure anymore, so here we go again! They've sent me yet another replacement device, and it's great that they stand behind their product... but I still have to spend hundreds of dollars to get a plumber out to replace it. Now, two years in a row... ridiculous. ---------- **ANOTHER UPDATE** A few months ago, i got the same low-pressure warning again. Again, with a call to Moen, they sent me a replacement. I had the plumber come out again -- again spent hundreds of dollars to replace it. This time, despite Moen's written promises to reimburse me for the cost, I keep getting the classic "the check is in the mail" response. Meanwhile, last month, I got a call from my mother in a panic. Her Flo app was telling her that there was a major leak somewhere in the house. She was running around the house checking sinks, showers, toilets, hoses, water heaters, refrigerator lines... there's no water anywhere. She called a plumber who came out to perform a leak inspection. Over $500 later, it was determined there was no leak and it was, you guessed it, another faulty Flo device. Exasperated, she had the plumber remove the device from her home. I will be doing the same when (not if, but definitely when) the device fails on my home next. THIS DEVICE IS A MESS AND SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN RELEASED FOR SALE WITH *SO* MANY FAULTS.

Love having a smart water shutoff. It takes a few days to train the system to avoid false alarms, and even now it turns off once in a while like when one of my kids took a shower that lasted more than 30 minutes, but I really appreciate the protection. Having experienced a flooded basement years ago due to a burst washing machine hose, I well know the dangers of letting water run endlessly. The app isn't great about inferring what type of event each occurrence of water usage is due to, took me a while to realize I could tell it manually what events were due to what.

I bought an old house three years ago. The inspector informed me that there was a mix of copper and plastic pipes. I knew about Pex pipes but had never heard of Polybutylene pipe. There was also a strange mix of PEX connectors, including lots of push-on Shark Bite connectors. Shortly after moving in, I started having water leaks. Some due to old push-on Shark Bite connectors & some from small cracks in the Polybutylene. Upon further exploration, I could see there were many small repairs using Shark Bite connectors where just a small section of pipe needed replacement rather than replacing an entire run of pipe. I've had around si, major leaks that did cause some damage, not to mention opening up walls and ceilings to get to the pipes. Not to mention mold remediation and replacing insulation, etc. I installed this Moen shut-off valve easily & got it working with Alexa. I also have several wifi leak detectors scattered throughout the house. I often am away from home on business and can't afford a major leak while I am gone. I really love the valve and it has saved me a number of times. It also tests my system for leaks regularly, which is how I discovered a few that were not obvious. It also warns me about excessive pressure, which I mostly solved with an expansion tank on my water heater. The few times my leak detectors went off while I was away, I simply shut the valve remotely until I could return. I also like the fact that when I am working on pipe repairs or installing new fixtures, I can shut off the water with my phone & turn it back on when I want to test the work. One thing that took some getting used to are the rare occasions when the valve shuts off when I didn't need it too, such as during an extra long shower. It does send warning texts and even calls my phone to let me know it has detected suspicious behavior and is about to shut off the water. The first couple of times, I didn't want to get the phone while I was in the shower, then the water just stopped. I checked my phone, & the missed call was from Moen. The other time I couldn't figure out what was happening, was when I pressure washed my deck. At first I thought I killed the pressure washer, then I remembered my long showers. I guess the pressure washer was too loud to hear my phone. Once I figured out what happened, I was able to turn the water back on with my phone & keep washing. If you have lots of plumbing problems like me, this is a must have and it's the only one like it I'm aware of. Your needs may vary, but if you're thinking about one and reading this, you probably need one, especially if you have smart devices already and are used to the convenience they offer. I could even ask Alexa to shut off my water if I wanted, but I always just use the app since it has valuable information like how much water I used each week.

UPDATED UPDATE: it works. I still like the device but the troubleshooting isn’t awesome. It kills a little bit of my faith in the device but that’s alright. It’s still worth the money in my eyes. UPDATE: Well, I guess it was high hopes on my part. It’s been 6 months and now the water meter has stopped reading. All of its readings now say I’m using 0 gallons of water. Yes, I’ve restarted the device. Yes, it’s still connected and online. But 🤷🏻‍♀️. There goes $400 for the device and $400 for the install down the drain. After three separate very expensive incidents (winter pipe burst, sump pump failure resulting in a basement flood, and a $700 water bill from a leaky toilet) I've learned that it's best to just put in money to prevent rather than fix. This is where the smart water meter comes in. I bought this water meter to: 1) be able to turn off my water remotely (so I don't have to climb into the crawl space underneath the house) when I'm out of town for peace of mind. 2) monitor (and/or limit water usage) and 3) MOST IMPORTANTLY get notifications if there's a leak somewhere in the house. A running toilet can consume 250 gallons an hour. That's 42,000 gallons a week, and almost 200k gallons a month. In other words, don't wait until your receive a water bill in the thousands before finding out you have a running toilet downstairs. Now pragmatically - I did need to have it installed by a plumber, and the reviews are accurate - it is a B*TCH to connect. I have worked in tech for 20yrs, I can do this stuff in my sleep and it was still annoying. Its not just you, It's definitely the software, just be patient and it will work. To connect it: 1) once the plumber installs it, it has to be plugged in. You may need an extension cord and hope there's power in your crawl space or wherever your water meter is. 2) download the app (QR code provided) and answer many many questions (that your plumber may need to help you with) 3) climb into the crawl space to press the button on the device to put it into pairing mode and then connect your phone to the "wifi" emitted from the smart water meter. (Another QR code provided here). Here's the catch, if you're in a crawl space - your signal may not be strong enough to connect back to your main wifi and you may not have a cell signal. That's where half of the problem is. Just keep repeating the process until it eventually works. Realistically, just the app setup and device testing took me about 30mins. BE PATIENT!! It will be hard and annoying when it doesn't work like it's supposed to, but you'll get there eventually. Once it IS connected, the app is pretty cool. I had a faucet turned on and then turned off the water to the house with one button push on my phone to test. I highly highly recommend this device. It is an investment, but can easily save you THOUSANDS of dollars preventing one single incident. I will be installing one in every new home I own from now on.

Okay, I did a ton of research to find the best water/leak detection system available today. I finally decided to try Flo by Moen, because it had great reviews on everything I could find about Flo. I’m an engineer and I’m very particular about what I buy and I look for mainly quality but also price. I’m also very into smart devices (lights, alarm system, and yes, water leak sensors), but I wanted a whole home leak detection system and auto shutoff! Water damage sucks and we have known many families who came home after being away to find water flowing out the front door and then months of repair and living in hotels, insurance claims, etc. It’s 2020 and it’s about time there is something to prevent disasters! Okay, enough of what you already know... Flo arrived yesterday from Amazon (Friday) and I woke up this morning wanting to install it. Pre-Installation: You know a product is gonna be good when it arrives and the packaging is nice and has clear instructions. Well, I opened the box and the instructions were easy, setting up and account with the app (I use an iPhone) and the app is excellent. Easy setup with the Flo device, WiFi and Flo App. Installation: I thought about installing it myself, but I’m not crazy about working on plumbing. I decided to hire Dutton Plumbing and I called them at 9am and they were here at 11am. I won’t give prices here because I’m not reviewing the plumbing company (although they did a great job and also raved about Flo by Moen). Fair price for a great job and peace of mind that it’s installed perfectly. See pictures. 30 minutes or so later and they were done. They even hung around and helped with app to ensure Flo operation from the app was good. Post Installation: The plumbers left and I started noticing the water pressure increasing... 80,90,100... at 108psi I shutoff the water with Flo and turned off the main city valve. I turned the water on again and the pressure went up again.. see picture showing 83psi... but it was still going up again (I didn’t get a screenshot at 108, but I was so freaked out I didn’t get a screenshot). Anyhow, I suspected I had a bad water pressure regulator because the faucets have been spraying to hard when turned on. I went to a local plumbing supply and got a new regulator and replaced it in 10 minutes. Turned water on and now the pressure is a steady 50psi (or thereabouts) and nice and normal! So, Flo already identified a HUGE issue and now it’s resolved! Crisis averted! I’m super happy with it so far and the app is stellar good! Summary: It’s working and I’m happy to see such a quality device / App combo work so well and this is now by far the smartest and most useful smart device in the house. Support: I did not rate the support because I’ve not need to contact support yet. However, the website and app support pages look good and full of information. Protection Plan: There is $5/month protection plan and I’m on the free 30 days. So, I’m not going to review that portion of the service yet. The next day I woke up at 6am and noticed that 93 gallons of water were used since midnight! I see the water come on every 4 minutes for 5-10 seconds or so... found a toilet that was running (with a leaky flapper valve) wasting water! I shut off the toilet and fixed went to Home Depot for parts and fixed it. Flo saved me again! I don’t usually rave about a product, but I have to say this thing is great! Just to note, Flo did not alert me that there was a toilet wasting water, I just noticed the number of gallons used was 93 since midnight. Flo is still in “learning mode” while learning the habits of the house water usage, it takes 7-10 days before Flo will become able to auto shutoff and leak send alerts. For more info on leaning mode search the web for Flo by Moen and learning mode.

We were forced into buying a water leak detector by our Insurance Company Farmer's, otherwise would be at risk of being declined home insurance. We were advised to get this specific product, they apparently have agreements with Moen for purchase and then installation at supposedly lower rates. Had to show proof of installation. Since this has been in, we've had only false alarms accompanied by water shut offs, along with two actual small leaks in which it failed to detect anything. The device is completely useless and is an impingement on enjoyment of the home. Anytime you use water out of a regular pattern, it notifies you of abnormality and then shuts off the water. I've had the water shut off now three times while I'm in the shower with it noting abnormal activity for the time of day. Imagine that. You go to take a shower, but because it's not your usual time for that activity, it detects abnormality and shuts off your water right in the middle of your shower. How are you notified? Through text, email, and phone call. Who brings their phone into the shower with them? There's no way to adjust for this except to go back to the beginning and do what they call a restart which for 10 days you have to teach your device all the patterns. Moen themselves suggested that during those 10 days you just leave the water running uninhibited so that your device learns a high water usage and won't go off. I did it in the beginning. Who can do that now? It's winter time and raining. And I'm going to let my water flow freely so it can supposedly learn that water should be used during these hours? It's an unpleasant and quite frankly useless addition to the home. I regret having purchased this quality of device, and should have just bought the cheapest device out there and had it installed to satisfy insurance needs. Extensive reading of reviews also discussed this device giving out in 2 to 5 years, and I discussed this with Moen and they admit that it could be a 2-year device only. This is a racket. I paid close to $2,000 together with the device and installation. The app is difficult and doesn't allow you to easily turn back on your water. Just last night when I had noticed the phone call at 11:30pm, after having gotten out of the shower, I tried to cancel the shut off, it's in an in between mode where you can't do anything with the app. The dial is spinning. There's no one to call and nothing to do about your app trying to figure out what it's supposed to be doing. Your other option is to go outside and do a manual turn on. Twice, when we had a small drip leak from a refrigerator line and then under the sink after a Workman had damaged these, 5 days of slow drip, the app was detecting it but decided not to notify me because the settings weren't on sensitive. That was the explanation from Moen. They advised me to turn all my sensitivities up to the highest level. I did that and then I started receiving notifications and warnings of impending shut off for every little thing. Then Moen just told me to lower the sensitivities back down. So again, if I have a slow drip, it's not going to notify me. I talked to them about using water during a non-usual times, like taking a shower, and their answer is simply there's nothing to do about it except do a restart. Our home was repiped with copper just about 22 years ago, 2 years past the deadline for which the insurance company says they will waive requiring the device. Just a bunch of hassles and one more thing to do in your home and be stressed out over. Difficult app, difficult device, doesn't do much smart thinking except what's programmed into it on a very basic level. Difficult customer service with Moen. Not recommended.

I recently purchased a home that was 15 years old. I started to look for home protection solutions and found Flo By Moen. Moen has always had quality products and after some research comparing competitive products, I decided to install this product. I have had the product installed for about two months and it has worked great. The app control panel is easy to read and provides your water pressure, temperature, and flow rate. The dashboard shows daily, weekly, and monthly gallons used. The data that is collected is useful in making sure the home is secure and to help understand your water usage. The apps learning stage lasts about 7 days to learn normal usage and after that period, it is able to monitor and protect the home. The health test determined that I have a small drip somewhere and I was able to troubleshoot the issue to determine which fixture was leaking and replace it. There have been a few occasions where I get an alert when the product believes there could be a critical leak and the valve will shut off the water in 5 minutes if the alert is not cleared. Luckily, these alerts have stemmed from extended dish washing after hosting and not from a burst pipe. The alert is very easy to clear on the app or the phone call from the company. There is a sleep functionality that I have started to use when we expect to have more than normal water usage like hosting or watering the lawn. There is also an away mode that you can use when no one will be in the house which provides a sense of security when away for an extended period of time. Overall, the Flo By Moen product has worked great so far and provides a sense of security knowing if there is a major leak in the system, that the damage should be extremely limited. I also enjoy seeing how much water we are using so that we can try to conserve as much as possible as well. Installation: The app was easy to install and connect. There are multiple ways of installation but I chose to solder connection fittings. I chose to place the valve in my basement in a vertical orientation. The process was relatively easy if you have soldered before. Total installation time was 2.5 hours from set up to completely finished and tested. Installation Tips: Make sure you connect the product to your WiFi before cutting the main line. This ensures you will have water if there happens to be any connection issues. The power cord is not super long so determine a location to install the device near a power outlet. The cord was not long enough to reach the outlet in my installation. The company does sell a much longer power cord but I just used an extension cord that was laying around. There is a installation spacing tool to help determine where to cut but it helps to pick a point in the water line in which there is some flexibility so your cuts do not have to be perfect and you can push or pull the lines together to connect to the device. Make sure to use thread tape between the connection fittings and the valve threads. You will also need a small amount of grease for the o-rings.