---
title: '5 Unique Smart Home Sensors I Never Knew I Needed'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=OWiPaKARNcU'
video_id: 'OWiPaKARNcU'
date: 2026-08-06
duration_sec: 602
---

# 5 Unique Smart Home Sensors I Never Knew I Needed

> Source: [5 Unique Smart Home Sensors I Never Knew I Needed](https://youtube.com/watch?v=OWiPaKARNcU)

## Summary

The video showcases five unique smart home sensors, highlighting their unexpected features such as battery-free operation or rechargeable battery compatibility, and demonstrates practical automations for each, including a vibration sensor for dryers and a temperature probe for grills.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to Unique Sensors** [00:02] — The presenter introduces five unique sensors, emphasizing that they either don't need a battery or use rechargeable batteries instead of coin cells.
- **Vibration Sensor Features** [00:27] — The vibration sensor has adjustable sensitivity (high, medium, low) and is fast at detecting both vibration and no vibration, solving previous issues with slow or insensitive sensors.
- **Vibration Sensor for Dryer** [01:09] — The presenter successfully uses the vibration sensor on a dryer by setting it to max sensitivity, which previous sensors couldn't handle reliably.
- **Rechargeable AAA Batteries** [01:37] — The sensor uses AAA batteries, which can be rechargeable (like IKEA ones), addressing the presenter's dislike for coin cell batteries due to waste and inconvenience.
- **Vibration Sensor Price and Protocol** [02:07] — The vibration sensor costs $20 and uses Zigbee, requiring a compatible home assistant hub.
- **Apollo Temp One Sensor** [02:19] — This sensor measures temperature in extreme environments like freezers or grills by keeping the microcontroller outside and using a probe with a flat cable that can pass through a freezer door.
- **Temp One Design** [02:46] — The sensor's microcontroller stays outside for good wireless connection, and the probe has a flat cable so the freezer door can close on it.
- **Temp One Power Options** [03:11] — The wall-powered version is available, but there's also a battery-powered version using rechargeable CR23A batteries, useful for monitoring food temperature with a stainless steel probe.
- **Temp One Grilling Use** [03:40] — The sensor can monitor food temperature during grilling or oven use, with a magnetic mount to prevent sliding.
- **Temp One Drawbacks** [03:55] — The main complaint is the lack of a physical power switch; turning it off requires removing the top and battery, otherwise the battery drains within a day unless long sleep intervals are set.
- **Temp One Connectivity** [04:07] — It uses Wi-Fi and ESPHome to connect to systems like Home Assistant.
- **Sponsor Segment: Roborock Saros** [04:21] — The presenter introduces the Roborock Saros vacuums, highlighting their slim design, detachable mops, fast charging, and other features.
- **Temperature and Humidity Sensor with Screen** [05:44] — This sensor displays temperature and humidity on a screen, making it easy to check without a dashboard or app. It's used in bathrooms to detect shower usage via humidity spikes.
- **Sensor with Screen Battery and Protocol** [06:35] — Unlike similar sensors that use Bluetooth or coin cells, this one uses Zigbee and AAA batteries, which can be rechargeable.
- **Unique Water Leak Sensor** [06:48] — This water leak sensor has no metal contacts on the bottom; instead, it uses metal strips attached to screws that touch the ground to detect water.
- **Water Leak Sensor Size and Alarm** [07:28] — The sensor is large and oddly shaped, but it has an on-board alarm that sounds even if disconnected from the smart home, making it useful in hidden spots.
- **Millimeter Wave Sensor from Apollo** [08:06] — This sensor is highly accurate at detecting presence and provides data on distance with three zones, which can be adjusted without fine-tuning.
- **Millimeter Wave Sensor Size and Features** [09:02] — The sensor is very small, can be plugged directly into USB-C without cords, and includes an RGB light, temperature, light sensor, and optional CO2 monitoring.
- **Millimeter Wave Sensor Price** [09:27] — The sensor costs around $40.

### Conclusion

The video concludes by encouraging viewers to explore unique sensors and share their own, while the presenter sets up an automation to hold himself accountable for working out.

## Transcript

better today I have five unique sensors to show you and even if you think you've seen these before they have some unexpected features like all of these sensors either don't need a battery or if they do it's not a coin cell plus you
can use rechargeable batteries seriously you got to check these sensor right here it's unlike other vibration sensors I've used before look
vibration sensitivity with the little switches inside very high high medium and low and vibration sensors are fun I've shown some cool automations you can do with hitting a countertop or piece of furniture to turn something on with an
automation but I got a lot of comments saying it didn't work well for them either the vibration sensor was slow or it wasn't sensitive enough well this solves that it's super fast at recognizing vibration and it's also fast
at detecting no vibration I don't think I've seen a vibration sensor work this well before which is great because I've actually been needing one for my dryer I've tried other vibration sensors on the dryer in the past and they've never
worked reliably enough for me but this one works great because I can turn it to Max sensitivity and it can detect the dryer with no problem I just slap some remove it to change the batteries and I'm good to go it was a little bit
challenging to figure out the automation but I'll explain how I did that in an below that you can check out after this video if you want to set this up yourself you probably notice that this is a big fat sensor wait not fat just
big bone that's because it uses AAA batteries and I'll take that tradeoff because I can even use rechargeable aaa's I'm using ones from Ikea and you hear that big guy you're beautiful to me you see I hate coin sell batteries
with a passion I hate buying them keeping away from my toddler making sure I have enough on hand they just feel wasteful when I'm replacing them so rechargeable batteries will make my life so much easier the vibration sensor is
20 bucks and as I mentioned earlier it uses zigg so you'll need a compatible home assistant and it's been working great I'll put a link to it in the description as well as everything else in this video all right this next sensor
is unique because it can help things like your grill hot tub freezer fish house becomes smart and that's because it measures temperature but not like the traditional smart home sensors we've seen before Those sensors would not work
well in something like a freezer it's difficult to get a good Wireless signal the batteries wouldn't last long and I get asked about this all the time well this new sensor from Apollo called the temp one is the solution the way it
works is the microcontroller part of the sensor stays outside of the freezer or temperature of that way you can keep a good wireless connection and you can plug in a temperature probe into it which has a flat cable so the freezer
door door can shut on it just fine and still monitor the temperature inside smart it's around 30 bucks depending on how you configure it and this one can only be plugged into the wall for power but they also have one that's battery
powered that uses rechargeable cr23a batteries if you're monitoring a freezer the freezer is plugged into so you wouldn't need the battery version but you might want the battery powered one because the temp One sensor can also
monitor the temperature of food here's how there's a food probe you can get that's also very inexpensive and it's made out of stainless steel so it can handle really high temperatures perfect for grilling or the oven and if you're
grilling there's also a magnetic Mount that can help it not slide off everything's sounding good maybe too good which is a problem because I might get stuck cooking dinner every night but don't worry it's not perfect my main
complaint is how inconvenient it is to turn off the battery powered sensor if there was a physical switch on it that would be great but instead I have to pop off the top pull out the sensor pull out the battery and it's just it's annoying
and if I don't do that the battery will quickly drain within a day unless I have it do long sleep intervals it uses Wi-Fi and ESP home to connect a systems like overall it's a really good sensor for the price especially if it's just
monitoring your freezer temperature all right I'm excited to show you three more really cool smart home sensors but first I have a question what if the S8 Max V I have a question what if the S8 Max V Ultra and the newer qo curve had a baby
well you would get this the sorrow line that even surpassed its parents features for example these Saros vacuums are the thinnest Robo rocks ever so they easily fit under my cabinets plus the mops can automatically detach in the dock when
just vacuuming so you don't have to worry about a wet mop on your carpets robor Rock sar's vacuums also have fast charging and honestly this is just scratching the surface on what these new Roo Rock can do the Saros 10 is the more
traditional option with a mod pad and lar navigation in fact the lar can even retract down to keep the slim profile on the other hand the 10r has the Dual spinning mobs and solid state liar this is my personal preference between the
both have the adapt lift chassis which lift the robot vacuum over thresholds and help it avoid getting stuck and probably my favorite feature is the Dual divide brush that prevents hair Tangles it saves me so much time because no hair
ever gets stuck add in extremely high suction power dirty spot detection for extra cleaning and a powerful dock to clean the mop and add detergent these new Robo rocks are impressive they're on sale now so check them out in the links
below thanks to Robo Rock for sponsoring this video okay so this next sensor also detects temperature but with a Twist the temperature and humidity are displayed on the screen so you can see them in a quick glance and I'm finding this way
more useful than I thought I would I like to see the temp temperature and it's nice not needing a dashboard or an app on my phone to check it I've been using this in our bathrooms since it can detect humidity and I think it's perfect
the shower is running you just look for the spike in humidity look at the graph shower's on right and this is just my showers imagine when it captures alli's
extremely long showers okay but how is this useful well you could use this for keep the lights on while someone showering basically if you want to run an automation based on the temperature or humidity this is a good option I've
seen other sensors with screens like this but they either use Bluetooth or coin cell batteries like the zigg one from sonoff well this one uses zigg and AAA batteries nice and I'm using rechargeable ones as well and it works
great now this is the strangest water leak sensor I've ever used most water leak sensors use a coin cell battery and have little metal contacts on the top or bottom you know pretty standard but when I pulled this sensor out of the box it
didn't look anything like the usual water leak sensors there's no metal contacts on the bottom so I was really confused on how it works well it turns out there are these little metal strips included in the box that you can attach
to the screws on the bottom both the metal strips and the screws which stick out slightly to touch the ground will detect water huh it seem to work well but the sensor is pretty large and it's kind of an interesting shape too some
people might not like it but others will love it I mean look at Lil Wayne's face he got multiple tattoos of it because he likes it so much but if it's going in a hidden spot then I don't think the size is an issue like I'm going to put ours
won't be able to see it I get why you might want a smaller sensor though like if it's in a more visible spot like behind a toilet but this sensor has a nice trick up its sleeve there's an alarm on board that will make a sound a
notify people nearby that way it can still alert you even if it disconnected from your smart home so even though this water leak sensor is big and kind of weird it might be worth it okay last up is this millim wave sensor from Apollo
and sure there are lot of millimeter wave sensors available now but this one is unique for a few different reasons the first and main reason is just how accurate the millimeter wave sensor is look how fast it is at detecting me plus
in the room or just holding still and it's awesome I have access to all that data for automations plus tons more data is provided so I can see exactly what the sensor is seeing not only that but there are three zones to display how
close I am to the sensor so it knows if I'm standing far away kind of close or right in front of it perfect for keeping those close talkers a healthy distance
Reed's personal space the great thing about these zones is that I can adjust the distance for each one but I didn't have to do any kind of setups for the zones as well as any fine tuning for the millimeter wave sensor it just worked
perfect right out of the box I love it another reason the sensor is unique is the size look how small it is you can barely see it on the counter you can also buy a small piece that connects it straight to the USBC plug and that means
no cords and no counter space used at all there's also an RGB light temperature and light sensor on board that you can use for automations plus if you want to monitor CO2 you can buy it with one of those sensors as well so
this little sensor can pack quite a punch and the price isn't bad either around 40 bucks all right that about does it I'm going to have fun setting up more automations with these sensors and if you have any unique sensors that you
like let me know down in the comments I would love to check them out thanks for watching oh what's that for oh I'm setting up an automation you know to setting up an automation you know to hold me accountable so I work out oh
nice wait what why are you on the bike dad told me to so he gets credit read oh