Technology helps you avoid costly water damage

If I could have just one smart home product, although it’s a tough choice, I’d choose the Honeywell Lyric Wi-Fi water leak and freeze detector. I came to this conclusion after having a leak undetected last year, causing a lot of damage.

The hardware is about the size of a squared hockey puck and is powered by three AAA batteries. The free Honeywell Lyric app (iOS and Android) is needed and it walks you through the setup to pair and name your detector as well as to connect it to your existing Wi-Fi. The app also lets you choose who will get notification warnings in the event of a problem.

The detector sits on the floor or mounts to a wall. In my mind, what makes this device innovative is the 4-foot braided cable sensor that plugs into the jack on the detector. This extends the water sensing area since the entire cable is now a sensor.

The detector is shipped with a single cable; additional cables ($19.99) can be purchased to extend the reach.

In addition to water detection, you will be alerted about temperature and humidity, which can suggest upcoming problems, such as if your air control system goes out while you’re away.

The detector has a speaker, which can be muted, along with an LED to display the Wi-Fi connection, power and leak detection.

yourhome.honeywell.com, $79.99

LAMP DIMMER KIT

The Lutron Caseta Wireless lamp dimmer kit is a complete smart home system to control table top and floor lamps for turning on and off and dimming.

Not long ago, this would have required having an electrician install dimmer switches. Now it takes just minutes to install the system yourself (no wiring involved) and control lamps in your home or remotely with a smartphone. The setup is simple and like any other smart home system, you need an app. In this case it’s the free Lutron app.

Included are a pair of dimmers that plug into a standard AC wall outlet. Each dimmer allows you to turn the lights on or off, or dim as needed. The remotes do the same from just about anywhere in your home.

A smart bridge is included to connect to your existing Wi-Fi router, which then connects to the dimmers to let everything talk to the app.

Within the app, Geofencing technology turns the lights on as your arrive. You also can set up the lights to turn on and off at specific times.

The Caseta wireless kit is certified to work with Apple HomeKit.

www.lutron.com, $189.95

SMART OVENS

GE smart home ovens allow remote control with an app to turn it on and, just as important, to make sure it’s off when not in use.

The Wi-Fi-enabled wall oven allows you to wirelessly control the oven’s mode, temperature and timer from a smartphone. This allows the oven to be preheated remotely, enabling it to be ready when needed.

You can also set a timer for temperature and time, as well as check the cooking status and get a notification on your smartphone when the cooking is complete. This includes the new GE smart home ranges and wall ovens.

products.geappliances.com, prices vary by model and size, gas or electric

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Technology helps you avoid costly water damage."