110V sensor?

I have a lake house, in the country so that means a septic system. We do short-term rentals and renters sometimes run to many water features at once (showers, dishwasher, laundry, etc) causing a high water alarm. However, the control panel / alarm is outside the garage and can barely be heard inside the house when it’s dead quiet. The alarm’s light is a 110V bulb so I’m wondering if there’s a 110V sensor that’s ZWave/Ring Alarm caompatible??? Would appreciate any guidance on this - thanks!

@odomc wrote:

I have a lake house, in the country so that means a septic system. We do short-term rentals and renters sometimes run to many water features at once (showers, dishwasher, laundry, etc) causing a high water alarm. However, the control panel / alarm is outside the garage and can barely be heard inside the house when it’s dead quiet. The alarm’s light is a 110V bulb so I’m wondering if there’s a 110V sensor that’s ZWave/Ring Alarm caompatible??? Would appreciate any guidance on this - thanks!

Hello @odomc ,

Although it is battery powered (not 110v), the “Dome Siren” is compatible with the Ring Alarm system and will loudly sound off whenever the Ring Base Station does (as long as it is within the Z-Wave range). The battery in this Dome Siren is suppose to be good for up to 3 years, and the two CR123A batteries are easy to replace! It is relatively small ( just under 3" in diameter and about 1" thick) and can be placed on a table or shelf, and comes with double-sided tape for mounting, or can hung on a wall by the ‘nail-hole’ on its back (just like a small picture frame).

https://ring.com/products/dome-siren

If the distance is far between the garage and house, then you could also possibly use a Z-Wave “Range Extender.”

https://ring.com/products/alarm-range-extender-v2

It just appears you are just looking for a way to make the Ring Alarm be hear better inside the house, and this could possibly be your solution.

I hope you find this useful :slight_smile:

Thanks for the info but I wasn’t as clear as I could have been. I need a sensor where if 110V electricity becomes present, sets off my ring alarm. So, like the flood sensor but for electricity instead of water.

@odomc wrote:
Thanks for the info but I wasn’t as clear as I could have been. I need a sensor where if 110V electricity becomes present, sets off my ring alarm. So, like the flood sensor but for electricity instead of water.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh @odomc , so do you have a two alarm systems?

  • One non-Ring Flood alarm system to detect High Water (in septic tank), with a control panel/alarm outside the garage? And when this alarm sounds, it also activates a 110v light? But this alarm can hardly be heard in the house?
  • And second Ring Alarm system in the house already for Intruders?

And you are looking for a Ring sensor, or compatible Z-Wave sensor, that will trigger the Ring alarm when the other Flood High-Water alarm light comes on? You want to hear it inside the house, and/or take advantage of the Ring’s alarm ability to send text-type ‘pushed’ Notifications, and/or the Chirp Alert sounds to come from the App, Base Station, and Keypads?

If I understand you correctly this time, then the answer to your question, “I’m wondering if there’s a 110V sensor (to detect when 110v is present) that’s Z-Wave/Ring Alarm compatible???” the answer is unfortunately No. There is not a compatible sensor.

OK then, but I can think of some alternative potential solutions that you can possibly use that might satisfy your desire for the other 'High-water" alarm to be heard in the house, or activate your house’s Ring alarm system:

  • **1.) **Purchase the Ring "Alarm Flood & Freeze Sensor. https://ring.com/products/alarm-flood-and-freeze-sensor . It ties directly via Z-Wave into your Ring Alarm system.

  • 2.) Make the garage other High Water alarm louder with the use of a third-party Siren (and forget about attempting to tie it to your Ring Alarm). You could plug in an outdoor siren into the 110v light socket. You could, for example use these:

  • 3.) I do not know anything about your other High Water alarm system, but you might be able to use this as a way of tying it to your Ring Alarm system through the use of a Ring Retrofit Alarm kit: https://ring.com/products/retrofit-alarm-kit

    • PROs: Allows the High-Water alarm to be tied to Ring Alarm.
    • CONs: A very expensive method to connect your High Water system to Ring, because it is designed to be used for Intruder/Break-in detection. It is designed to activate the Ring Alarm, which you may not really want official response personnel (Police, Fire, or Medical). _ I think _ you could set it up as a zone so that you only get those text-type ‘pushed’ Notifications and Alert Tone sounds to your App, if desired alone and not activate the Ring Alarm.
  • 4.) I do not recommend this next idea, unless you are pretty handy, but I bring it up to maybe help give you some ideas, and you really still want to somehow utilize your Ring Alarm system to alert you (with text-type “pushed” Notifications sent to your App, and/or Chirp Alert sounds that are sent to your App, Base Station, and Keypads) when your other High Water alarm system is triggered. Build your own “When power is present” sensor utilizing a Ring Contact sensor. https://ring.com/products/alarm-window-door-contact-sensor-v2 This Contact Sensor (2nd Generation) comes as two half portions (electronic sensor part & the magnet part) and the two parts can initially have as much an one-inch gap between them. You could attach/mount the Contact Sensor’s Electronic half to a board, and then attach the other half of the Contact sensor’s Magnet half to a “Pull Type” 110V Electromagnet Solenoid. So that when the Solenoid is powered on (by the light socket, using one of the adapters in option 2 above) the attached Magnet half moves apart from (and far away enough) from the Ring Contact sensor’s Electronic half, sufficiently to trigger a simulated door/window opening. https://www.amazon.com/SA-1092-Stroke-0-6Kg-Solenoid-Electromagnet/dp/B08F52556S/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=Pull+Type+AC+110V+Stroke+0.6Kg+Force+Solenoid+Electromagnet&qid=1602445907&sr=8-3 Because with this particular Solenoid, the magnet half will only move back away from the electronic portion 10mm (13/32"). You will have to make the mounted gap between the Ring Contact Sensor’s two halves large enough (start with gap initially at 1") for the magnet to maintain closing the internal “Reed-switch” in the electronic half, and yet the additional 10mm movement is enough to move the magnet portion sufficiently more than one inch from the electronic portion. Finding the ‘perfect gap’ may take a little trial-and-error. Now you can use your Ring App to get Notifications and/or Chirp Alert sounds (which occurs regardless of what Alarm Mode you currently are in). You probably should not have this Contact Sensor enabled to activate the Ring Alarm Siren in the “Home” or “Away” Alarm Modes because with Professional Monitoring this will result in an official response (Police, Fire, Medical). If you do not have Professional Monitoring, or change to “Self-Monitoring” in your App, then you could enable this Contact Sensor if that is the desired effect you want. And since the Ring Contact sensor is Z-Wave wireless connected to your Ring Base Station, your home-built "When power is present" sensor can remain in the garage.

Whew, well, I hope I understood what setup you actually have (a separate Flood High-Water alarm for your septic tank, in addition to a house installed RIng Alarm system). And I also hope I’ve come up with some potential alternative ideas/solutions to what may work for you. It is unfortunate that there isn’t currently a Ring sensor (or compatible sensor) that ‘detects’ when 110v is present.

I would be interested in hearing back on what does become your final solution. :slight_smile:

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@Boone thank you!!! Genius ideas. I’m going to do both #2 and #4 :wink:

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@odomc wrote:

@Boone thank you!!! Genius ideas. I’m going to do both #2 and #4 :wink:

Thank you @odomc for you kind words of thanks. Your thanks put a big smile on my face!

I enjoy solving tough ‘puzzles’ and your problems made me scratch a little bald spot on my head. Just joking LOL. I also enjoy ‘paying back’ by trying to help other fellow “Ring Neighbors” here because I found this Ring Community forum was helpful to me when I encountered issues.

I’m very glad I was helpful for you. Take care. :slight_smile:

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Oh oh oh @odomc , one other thing! As I was coming up with solution #2 with the external siren, I just quickly picked one without looking at it in much detail, because I was just listing the link as an example. As I later went back and looked more carefully at that particular siren, I found this very disturbing note, way down at the bottom:

NOTE
1. The alarm motor cannot work for long time, the normal alarm time is about 3 minutes. Overtime using will cause the motor overheat and burn.

Yikes! So, if I were you, I would NOT purchase this particular siren. Pick a better one, in case nobody is around to check within 3 minutes. A better and more sturdier siren capable of continuous sounding for a long time, without the danger of “overheat and burn”, would be well worth the extra price for safety and preventing the possibility of burning your garage down! :wink:

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Update for anyone interested… The solenoid and contact sensor worked very well for about 2 1/2 years but the humidity levels eventually corroded the solenoid. Thus, I came up with a MUCH better solution… The Ring flood sensor basically has a ground and positive terminal that become shorted by water, triggering an alarm. Connect up a relay’s Normally open wires (OONO DPST 1NO 1NC 8Amp Power Relay Module, AC 110V 115V 120V Control Voltage) across the pins on the flood sensor. If the septic alarm sends 110V to the relay (tapped into the alarm light and buzzer) then it basically acts like water - closing the connection and triggers an event within the Ring app! No moving parts and pretty simple wiring!

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