How FAST does Phyn Plus detect a leak?

by Margaret · Published November 16, 2021 · Updated February 6, 2022

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Text leak notifications from Phyn Plus.

The goal of this post is share the results of how fast Phyn Plus detects leaks of all sizes–small, medium and large. This post is going to cover all those scenarios and give you a preview of what you can expect from Phyn Plus if you are considering one for your home.

The first series of tests were medium to large scenarios. These involved running the water through a hose bibb to flood irrigate the citrus trees in my back yard instead of wasting the water.

When we first installed Phyn I was focused on creating the in depth features review video. HOWEVER, I ran a couple baseline tests as soon as the month-long learning cycle was over. While at one month there is already a lot of system learning on our household habits, Phyn does not recommend enabling auto shutoff because, as the Homeowner guide states, Phyn promises to be a good houseguest.

If you enable auto shut off during the learning cycle, Phyn Plus is more likely to shut off the water off during a normal event, because it hasn’t had a chance to learn your behavior.

Not to worry, the nightly plumbing checks are running in full force from day one.

At 8.5 gallons per minute, 3 minutes in I received the first round of notifications stating there was a possible problem.

First notification from Phyn Plus detecting a potential plumbing leak.

The second round of notifications warning of impending shutoff came two minutes later.

The water was shut off at 7 minutes and 37 seconds with 56 gallons used.

.6 gallons per minute triggers the first notification at 5 minutes, a second at 15 minutes and the valve automatically closed at 30 minutes and 7 seconds with 19 gallons used.

We installed Phyn Plus in January and I performed the next set of tests at the beginning of May, so there had been 4 months for Phyn’s AI to learn our household habits. While I manually flood and irrigate our citrus trees from the hose bibb over the winter months, I intentionally did not run a full irrigation cycle where I water all the citrus trees in one day and instead only watered one tree on any given day at random flow rates and durations.

Repeating the full blast test, it maxed out around 8.4 gallons per minute this time. I received the first round of notifications at the 29 minute mark and a second round of notifications 2 minutes later. The water was shut off at 32 minutes and 42 seconds with 274 gallons used.

My next test was at 3.1 gallons per minute. At a slower flow rate, this event triggered the first notifications after 21 minutes, a second notice 5 minutes later and the water was shut off at 31 minutes and 18 seconds with 95 gallons used.

A flow rate of 1.5 gallons is caught at 24 minutes, another set of notices at 10 minutes and shut off at 39 minutes and 20 seconds with a measurement of 57 gallons.

Half a gallon a minute triggers the first notification at 21 minutes, a second 10 minutes later and the valve automatically closed at 46 minutes and 22 seconds with 24 gallons used.

As you can tell, as much as I tried not to use a lot of water in one setting, Phyn has discovered my tree watering habit and increased the allowable flow threshold to run longer. The allowable threshold WILL change as I water more often in the summer and less in the winter, so definitely keep that in mind as your own usage changes.

Phyn Plus same test 4 months apart different results

Phyn Plus results same test 4 months apart.

It is important to note at this point, and this the really cool finding in this video so stick with this, Phyn Plus has an ultrasonic pressure sensor, which is a different design from water monitors that use an impeller or turbine to mechanically measure the flow of water. What that really translates into is each fixture in my house and yours has a different pressure signature so Phyn Plus can tell that I’m using the outdoor hose bibb and since I generally use it for longer events, Phyn is more likely to let me run that fixture longer than let’s say, a shower that is only used in the summer due to the plumbing run of at least 50 feet from the water heater. Since it is now summer, we’ve started using it again and Phyn started sending alerts the first two times we used it at the 14 minute mark both times. It has since learned about the “new” fixture and has not sent another notification.

So if you were alarmed at that 274 gallon number, the fact that Phyn saw an unusual usage and detected it at only 19 gallons used while also allowing me to use the hose bibb during my irregular watering in an attempt to fool Phyn’s algorithm, that should give you some peace of mind.

Actual event notifications from those three instances. Remember, you can click to enlarge a photo.

I don’t know if it was because it was flagged as a new pressure signature, a low flow that is similar to our other bathtub and shower combination, but we used slightly more for slightly longer, or a combination of all three.

In any case, I saw this as a good thing and if you are annoyed by these kinds of notifications, I challenge you to think of it in light of protecting your home from a real leak.

This is really smart, really useful technology.

Phyn actually publishes their leak thresholds and you can check it out here on the Phyn website.

Phyn Plus plumbing check thresholds

Their page also has a lot more information concerning leaks. It is especially important for you to click on the link and verify for yourself because while I can change this blog, but they can easily change the website as the developers improve the system before I know about it.

It is fantastic that Phyn is upfront with the baseline thresholds, but it is also important to understand what you observe will deviate from the baseline once Phyn learns your household’s habits.

As you can see here, at this point the bottom limit for automatic shutoff is a flow of less than a third of a gallon a minute.

Phyn Plus auto shutoff thresholds

It’s also important to consider high usage settings that very much have an impact on how much water can occur in a single event before an alert is triggered. All the scenarios I just showed you did not have any form of sprinklers or irrigation selected. Since Phyn Plus is already at 274 gallons without irrigation selected, I’m not going to show you how long it runs, as my tree berms were totally filled when I had run that test.

Phyn Plus testing different leak scenarios

While my trees need more water in the summer, I have still not selected an irrigation system of any type despite using a Melnor Raincloud. However, I don’t have the Raincloud flood the berms with a continuous flow of water. Instead, I set my Melnor Raincloud to eco mode where it turns on 3 minutes and off 6 minutes, setting the flow around 1 gallon a minute. This keeps Phyn happy and prevents it from shutting off the water, while also teaching it new behavior.

Phyn Plus detects leaks faster with short usage irrigation settings. NOTE: Eco mode is ON. It’s not actually running for 140 minutes.

What this shows you is that you can carefully consider your usage and how you might try to select a more conservative setting by changing the usage pattern of other events to make your home more secure from actual leaks.

Now we’re on to the really small leaks, which won’t be caught any other time than during an automatic or manually run health check. And for those results–that’s what next Friday’s video is all about. I’ve also shared the exact same testing with Flo by Moen and will be doing a follow on video comparing the results, so consider subscribing so you don’t miss that one.

I also have another video on a full walkthrough of all the notifications you can receive from Phyn when a leak occurs, which I only touched on the alerts within the app here.

Keep in mind, your own experience will depend on your own household habits as the Phyn’s artificial intelligence recognizes your usage patterns and adjusts the reaction time accordingly. You have to consider how grumpy you might be if you are cut off in the middle of a long relaxing shower with bubbles in your hair.

However, grumpy is OK in comparison to missing a leak and dealing with extensive water damage. For those of you who have experienced a leak, like me, you know what I’m talking about. There is a fine line between too much interference and detecting a real leak.

Phyn Plus (10% off) – https://www.phyn.com/plus-smart-water-assistant/ enter discount code ‘Margaret10’ at checkout

For other pricing/reviews: Phyn Plus on Amazon