Home Tech Smart Gateways Watermeter review, the Best Water sensor kit in 2021?

Smart Gateways Watermeter review, the Best Water sensor kit in 2021?

The first water meter that is so simple to add into Domoticz Home Assistant and many more..

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This review is about the Smart Gateways Watermeter Gateway. One of the big advantages of smart home automation is that you can integrate the meter dat of your utilities (e.g. gas, water, energy, heating). More of the analog utility meters are replaced with digital versions with options for readout. Unfortunately, the Dutch watermeters still remain analogue utility meters, which requires an analog sensor that outputs a digital signal.

I already was monitoring my water consumption closely with a self build ESP in combination with a pulse counter. But I had some complains about it: the readings not always were correct and, on the software side, both Home Assistant and Domoticz are not that complete (this is not a hardware or software fault but more lack of my own scripting skills). Last week I noticed a product that caught my attention: a water meter kit: Smart Gateways Watermeter Gateway. With possible some advantages over my current setup, a fair price and sufficient connectivity options to integrate it into my Home Assistant and Domoticz setup.
I contacted Roel from Smart Gateways about the meter and he sent me a kit to review.
Although it’s a sponsored product (thanks again! ), I will be honest, strict and fair.

The Smart Gateways Smart meter is sponsored but this review is completely honest!

Contents

Watermeter Gateway Features

Get yourself some insights in your water usage with the smart watermeter gateway. It can be integrated in Domoticz by API or you can use MQTT to integrate it in Home Assistant, Domoticz or something else.

Smart Watermeter Gateway Features:

  • Easy mounting (with Velcro)
  • Can be used with all meters with a rotating disk
  • Compatible with Domoticz and Home Assistant
  • MQTT support
  • Firmware upgradable
  • Automatically backup of the latest statistic in case of power issues
  • Powered by Micro-USB

The founder of the Smart Gateways Watermeter Gateway did not only create the hardware and software, but also developed a well thought of dashboard for Home Assistant (Lovelace code)!

Expectations

I already used a pulse tracker sensor on a nodeMCU with ESPHome. But it looked like (and to be fair: it was) a non-durable DIY solution and the software side was not that great. I could read values but did not have options to integrate it easily with my smart home systems. The Watermeter gateway from Smart Gateways looks better and provides you a lot of connectivity options. That makes it easy to integrate in both my Domoticz and Home Assistant instance and the same time.

Does it fit your mailbox?

Yes it does. I received a small package that contains not only the Watermeter Gateway but also the p1 gateway (I will cover that in another post).

Packaging What’s in the box?

Watermeter gateway installation

Installation starts with configuration of the watermeter gateway. It’s very easy with this guide: installation & configuration manual
It contains a few simple steps:

  • Attach the Watermeter Gateway to a powersource like a USB charger of computer.
  • Connect to the WIFI SSID Smart Gateways WATERMETER with password: 12345678
  • Choose your Lan and setup information like static ip and your MQTT broker.
  • Save and let the watermeter gateway reboot.
  • After that, you can mount it to your water meter. Open one of your water faucets so the water starts flowing through the meter and the silver disc in the meter starts to rotate. That is handy to place the sensor at the right spot and mount it to the meter using the Velcro. Be sure you mount it secure! Test if your see the RED LED blinks every time the disc rotates.
  • Press the button at the meter again to fill in the value of the meter and correct the MQTT settings if needed. Be sure every time you open the configuration webpage you have to fill in the WIFI SSID and password again.

Watermeter gateway in Home Assistant

To get the water usage insights on a lovelace dashboard you must to a few steps.

  • Run a MQTT broker (You probably already use it for projects linke Zigbee2mqtt or something else).
  • Fill in the configuration at you Watermeter Gateway configuration web page. You already did that at the configuration and installation steps.
  • Edit you configuration.yaml file. (add the code you can cope paste from the article below)
  • Edit your Home Assistant pages and place the lovelace code at the richt blocks.

The tutorial for editing the configuration file and your lovelace dashboard can be found here: Click on the Home Assistant screenshot below.

https://www.connectix.nl/watermeter-koppelen-aan-home-assistant/

Watermeter gateway in Domoticz

Domoticz can be used with MQTT of course, but also with a native http/https poller. The instructions for adding the water meter are easy and clear. You can find the tutorial from Roel to enter the gateway to Domoticz here: https://smartgateways.nl/support/

Watermeter Gateway with other apps

Blynk

for the P1 gateway Smart Gateways developed a Blynk project. The watermeter gateway also has the possibility to use Blynk, but to need to make your own project (or extend the p1 project) read here how it works: https://smartgateways.nl/slimme-meter-uitlezen-app-op-telefoon/


HOMEY

For the people who use Homey, there is also an app for that: https://homey.app/nl-nl/app/com.cyclone-software.smartgateways/SmartGateways/

The Smart Gateways Watermeter Gateway is well designed: a 3d printed case with the option to mount it with a screw. a LID indicator, sticker with printed MAC address and QR code and one button.
On one side a Micro-USB connector and the other side is used for the Watermeter sensor. Simple and effective!

Build Quality & Design

Firmware and support

Firmware changelog

https://smartgateways.nl/firmware-changelog/

Alternative and complementary products

Smart Gateways also developed a several other gateways. For example the Smart meter Gateways for metering your Electricity p1.

Click on the Smart Gateways logo to enter the Smart gateway webshophttps://smartgateways.nl/

Almost the same time that Smart Gateways released there Watermeter gateway several other Dutch developers from the Home Assistant community released there Watermeter gateway as well. Mounting is maybe a bit easier, the price is higher and the product comes in two versions: a complete assembled version or DIY version of the Watermeter gateway. In the latter version you have to print and solder the divice yourself.

Price quality

Where to buy the Smart Gateways Watermeter Gateway?

Click on the picture and buy at: https://smartgateways.nl/product/slimme-watermeter-gateway/
Smart Gateways Watermeter gateway 49,50
  • Design
    (5)
  • Quality
    (5)
  • Usability
    (5)
  • Home-Automation compatibility
    (5)
  • Price
    (5)
4.9

Summary

I got the Watermeter gateway system ready in a couple of minutes, because I already use MQTT.
Simple and effective measuring, that is the goal of the Watermeter Gateway from Connectix and they succeeded.

The few steps in the Dutch manual are easy to read and understand. But the support on the site is also great.

The manuals that I used:

Pros

  • Easy installation
  • Easy configuration
  • Affordable
  • WIFI
  • MQTT (for Home Assistant)
  • API (Domoticz)
  • Homey App
  • Great (firmware) support

Cons

  • Velcro works perfect but a fixed plastic 3d print would be a nice upgrade.
  • Only a manual in Dutch available (but easy to translate).
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