Ive been running these for a little over two years now, slowly building out my hub's capacity until it maxed out. These are easily my favorites, but I have a few notes for anyone considering these. 1) The hubs max out at 8 sensors, so be sure to be strategic about which plants get these. Ideally, i like to map each of these to a specific plant, i.e. one for Tomatoes, one for Cucumber, etc, but so long as you are strategic and think through your mins and maxs carefully, you can mix plants. 2) They are water resistant, but not waterproof. I had two of these die during the deluge that was Hurricane Helene. That was the worst of my damage, so i count myself lucky compared to others. Newly manufactured boxes now come with rubber caps to help with this issue - use these caps. Otherwise, they do just fine outdoors. 3) They do require a fairly deep pot, which makes using them with seedling pods a bit of a hassle. You can make it work, but the new seedlings main root may grow through the slit in the middle, which can cause problems for the plant. 4) If you use Home Assistant, consider using the plant entity to map these to a plant. That will track too much or too little water for that specific plant really easily, and you can even set up automations based off this to autowater. 5) Consider using open plantbook to get the min/max values for your plant. They have most plants listed, though you may have to do a bit of googling to find your plants scientific name to fins your plant.
Great to hear your experience! I totally agree, they are GREAT sensors, and yes the waterproof cap has made a big difference. I don't see why they can't increase the connections per gateway, but I'll reach out to them and see what the product roadmap is and when the larger capacity gateways will be coming out. I'll let you know. :)
I totally get that and as I said in the video if you have a great zigbee network it might be all good. But where I was the moisture level recorded is quite far away and I need the range.
I dont have much experience of these devices, but it does seem to be accurate and with its calibration feature is allows for exceptional accuracy. As I mentioned in the review, an additional hub might actually be worth it for this type of accuracy and buying into the EcoWitt ecosystem..
I will be interested to see how long they last now they come with the battery cap. I purchased 10 and had 8 fail within months. Reluctant to purchase again as had no success getting them replaced under warranty
Thanks for letting me know, they look pretty watertight now. Drop me a line to my email and I'll see what I can do for you with EcoWitt as they are usually great for support.
Best video, thanks for sharing. I’d like to use this approach to measure the moisture level of my soil around our foundation, to make sure the moisture level is adequate… do you think the WH51L, which has the sensor on a longer wire, would work the same? Also, how many sensors can you put on one hub??
I have the WH51L it works exactly the same but as you say has a 1m wire between the sensor and the controller unit. The control unit actually looks better insulated and is more of a commercial unit. The number of supported moisture sensors is an interesting one. Most documentation you read says 8 supported devices. However, as of hub firmware version 3.1.5 this has been increased to 16 sensors.
Well. I couldn’t find the link you said you’d post for more about the up and down on the %age. And, yes. This gateway only supports 8 sensors. So I bought another gateway and 8 more sensors (16 total). The second gateway just connects to the first 8 sensors. The 9th-18th sensor does not connect to the first or second gateway. You have a good tutorial. Probably the best one here about this. But imo, you’re missing an important part. Can you elaborate on how to connect a 9th sensor via a second gateway on one app?
I dont personally have 9 sensors (wish I did :)) but I did some hunting for you and you and to connect more than eight moisture sensors using two Ecowitt gateways, you can follow these steps: Assign Unique Channels - Ensure each sensor is assigned a unique channel or serial number to avoid conflicts between the two gateway. Configure Separate Ports - If using Home Assistant, configure each gateway to communicate on different ports to prevent data overlap. Manual Configuration - Manually enter the serial numbers of the new sensors into the second gateway and disable the original sensors on it to ensure proper synchronization. And if you want to read more about it then this forum post takes you through the process - www.reddit.com/r/myweatherstation/comments/16yvx0x/adding_moisture_sensors_to_a_second_gateway/
Ive been running these for a little over two years now, slowly building out my hub's capacity until it maxed out. These are easily my favorites, but I have a few notes for anyone considering these.
1) The hubs max out at 8 sensors, so be sure to be strategic about which plants get these. Ideally, i like to map each of these to a specific plant, i.e. one for Tomatoes, one for Cucumber, etc, but so long as you are strategic and think through your mins and maxs carefully, you can mix plants.
2) They are water resistant, but not waterproof. I had two of these die during the deluge that was Hurricane Helene. That was the worst of my damage, so i count myself lucky compared to others. Newly manufactured boxes now come with rubber caps to help with this issue - use these caps. Otherwise, they do just fine outdoors.
3) They do require a fairly deep pot, which makes using them with seedling pods a bit of a hassle. You can make it work, but the new seedlings main root may grow through the slit in the middle, which can cause problems for the plant.
4) If you use Home Assistant, consider using the plant entity to map these to a plant. That will track too much or too little water for that specific plant really easily, and you can even set up automations based off this to autowater.
5) Consider using open plantbook to get the min/max values for your plant. They have most plants listed, though you may have to do a bit of googling to find your plants scientific name to fins your plant.
Great to hear your experience! I totally agree, they are GREAT sensors, and yes the waterproof cap has made a big difference. I don't see why they can't increase the connections per gateway, but I'll reach out to them and see what the product roadmap is and when the larger capacity gateways will be coming out. I'll let you know. :)
I dont want extra hubs. I only buy zigbee, thread or WiFi devices. Nice video btw 👍
I totally get that and as I said in the video if you have a great zigbee network it might be all good. But where I was the moisture level recorded is quite far away and I need the range.
It is not the best - it is the only one that really works!
I dont have much experience of these devices, but it does seem to be accurate and with its calibration feature is allows for exceptional accuracy. As I mentioned in the review, an additional hub might actually be worth it for this type of accuracy and buying into the EcoWitt ecosystem..
Hahaha, data nerd! Thank you for another great review sir!
Thanks and keep that Data rolling in :)
I will be interested to see how long they last now they come with the battery cap. I purchased 10 and had 8 fail within months. Reluctant to purchase again as had no success getting them replaced under warranty
Thanks for letting me know, they look pretty watertight now. Drop me a line to my email and I'll see what I can do for you with EcoWitt as they are usually great for support.
Best video, thanks for sharing. I’d like to use this approach to measure the moisture level of my soil around our foundation, to make sure the moisture level is adequate… do you think the WH51L, which has the sensor on a longer wire, would work the same? Also, how many sensors can you put on one hub??
I have the WH51L it works exactly the same but as you say has a 1m wire between the sensor and the controller unit. The control unit actually looks better insulated and is more of a commercial unit.
The number of supported moisture sensors is an interesting one. Most documentation you read says 8 supported devices. However, as of hub firmware version 3.1.5 this has been increased to 16 sensors.
Is smart home your app also?
Alas no.... I don't have the skill set to design and build App, wish I did.
Well. I couldn’t find the link you said you’d post for more about the up and down on the %age.
And, yes. This gateway only supports 8 sensors. So I bought another gateway and 8 more sensors (16 total). The second gateway just connects to the first 8 sensors. The 9th-18th sensor does not connect to the first or second gateway.
You have a good tutorial. Probably the best one here about this. But imo, you’re missing an important part. Can you elaborate on how to connect a 9th sensor via a second gateway on one app?
I dont personally have 9 sensors (wish I did :)) but I did some hunting for you and you and to connect more than eight moisture sensors using two Ecowitt gateways, you can follow these steps:
Assign Unique Channels - Ensure each sensor is assigned a unique channel or serial number to avoid conflicts between the two gateway.
Configure Separate Ports - If using Home Assistant, configure each gateway to communicate on different ports to prevent data overlap.
Manual Configuration - Manually enter the serial numbers of the new sensors into the second gateway and disable the original sensors on it to ensure proper synchronization.
And if you want to read more about it then this forum post takes you through the process - www.reddit.com/r/myweatherstation/comments/16yvx0x/adding_moisture_sensors_to_a_second_gateway/