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Pleco Smart Water Watch keeps an eye on home water usage

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The Pleco sensor is simply strapped to the home's water meter
Nudge Systems
The complete Pleco Smart Water Watch system – the battery housing/transmitter (center) takes four D-cell batteries, which should reportedly be good for about 12 months of use
Nudge Systems
The Pleco sensor is simply strapped to the home's water meter
Nudge Systems
The Pleco sensor and the attached battery housing/transmitter unit
Nudge Systems
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One of the keys to reducing your household water usage lies in knowing how much water you use for what purposes. Debuting at CES 2021, the Pleco Smart Water Watch is designed to provide you with that information.

The setup is manufactured by California-based startup Nudge Systems, and consists of four parts: a sensor, a battery housing/transmitter (which is hard-wired to the sensor), a display unit and an iOS/Android app.

Users attach the sensor to their home's existing water meter, via an integrated strap. That sensor passes data to the battery housing, which in turn wirelessly transmits the data to the display unit. That unit uses the home Wi-Fi network to relay the data to the cloud for analysis, with both it and the app finally displaying the processed results.

The complete Pleco Smart Water Watch system – the battery housing/transmitter (center) takes four D-cell batteries, which should reportedly be good for about 12 months of use
Nudge Systems

It sounds interesting, but how does it actually work?

"Most of the water meters in the US use the same working principle of magnetic coupling between the moving part inserted into the water flow and the dial mechanism," Nudge Systems' Daniela Camargo tells us. "We created a system that detects this magnetic field and processes the signal from it, from a single point at the water entry. Our unique proprietary algorithms then process these signals and convert them into usage at shower, irrigation, [toilet] flush, faucet, etc by analyzing the patterns of the water flow (rate, duration, etc)."

The system is also reportedly capable of detecting leaks in the water line, alerting users to their presence. It additionally provides data such as total water usage per day, week and month, along with variations in water usage at different times of day.

The Pleco Smart Water Watch can be ordered now via the link below, and is priced at US$249. You can see the system in use, in the following video.

Source: Nudge Systems

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8 comments
Aaron
How does this compare to Flume, which seemingly does the same thing?
minivini
I really like this concept. I wish for a HomeKit tie-in, but honestly the subscription model is absurd for this. I’m really getting sick of all the subscription requirements. I understand the need when data management is critical, but it seems very unnecessary for this.
Philip Shelton
You will have to buy and install the meter if you have a drilled well.
Eddy
That's about AUD$349 outlay plus USD$5 per month for an ap that does the sums and collates the data.
I think I would be financially happier taking daily water meter readings for free if I needed to track my use more often than the usage report I get with the water bill, why would you need to know the time the toilet gets flushed and how long Daughter takes in the shower. As for making savings with the data, the majority of my bill is made up of administration charges and add ons.
PlecoSmartWaterWatch
Hey everyone! Regarding the monthly fee for the app we have decided to scrap that idea. Users will only pay the initial 250 dollars (US) for the device. Our website has been updated to reflect this change.
Pleco needs an existing water meter for the sensor to attach to. If your home doesn't have one you can buy a water meter online for about 50 dollars (US).
PlecoSmartWaterWatch
We have an app demo on our website if you're interesting in seeing more about how it looks and how it works.

https://www.nudgesystems.com/

Scroll down towards the bottom and you will see where it says "Explore the app"
PlecoSmartWaterWatch
Regarding Flume, we are not intimately familiar with that device, however we have been asked about them a few times. While there are similarities, we believe that Pleco offers more detail regarding specific water use.
ljaques
OR, pop a web cam over your meter and capture the video for a month.