How to Get a Text Message If You Leave Your Garden Hose Running
Forgetting to turn off a garden hose is easy—and it can be more than a wasted water bill. Left running long enough, a hose can flood your lawn, overwhelm window wells, saturate soil around your foundation, and even lead to basement leaks or costly foundation issues. This simple setup sends you an alert when water is still flowing.
Why Leaving a Hose On Can Become a Serious Problem
In the summertime, my kids love to play in the water, and it’s easy for a hose to get left running for hours. I’ve also been known to get distracted and forget to turn it off myself. Unfortunately, I have a window well right next to the spigot, so we’ve had a few close calls.
Running a hose too long near your house can saturate the soil around your foundation. In some cases, that can increase the chance of basement leaks and contribute to costly foundation problems. What I really wanted was a simple notification that says: “Hey—the hose is still on.”
The Simple Idea: Detect Water Flow
The core of this project is an inline flow sensor installed at the hose spigot. Inside the sensor is a small turbine that spins when water flows. That turbine rotates a magnet, and a Hall-effect sensor detects the changing magnetic field.
As water flows, the sensor outputs a series of electrical pulses. The faster the water flows, the faster the pulses. That pulse frequency is proportional to flow rate—so we can reliably detect when the hose is running.
If you want to go deeper on how flow sensors work, I also have a video that explains them in more detail.
Turning Flow Into a Text Message Alert
Detecting flow is only half the solution. To get a text message, we need a device that can read the sensor and send data to a server that can generate alerts.
For this build, I’m using a Vegetronix VegeHub WiFi Logger. It reads an analog signal and sends the data to the cloud. Because many flow sensors output pulses, I’m also using a small pulse translator to convert those pulses into an analog voltage that the VegeHub can read.
The VegeHub sends readings to VegeCloud.com, where you can monitor the data and trigger email and text message alerts when water flow is detected.
Adapters You’ll Need (Hose Threads vs. NPT)
One practical note: garden hoses use hose threads, while many flow sensors use NPT threads. To connect everything together, you’ll typically need two brass adapters to go from hose thread to NPT. I picked mine up at Home Depot.
How I Configured the System
The VegeHub is extremely low power and can run on batteries. I configured it from my phone to send data to VegeCloud every 30 minutes. VegeCloud watches the incoming readings, and if it detects water flowing during an interval, it sends me a notification.
Why This Works So Well
- Detects actual water flow (not just whether a valve is open)
- Works with virtually any standard garden hose setup
- Doesn’t require permanent plumbing changes
- Helps prevent costly problems by alerting you early
About Me
I’m Tim—the Techno Gardener—an electrical engineer who applies science and engineering principles to gardening, irrigation, and home automation. If you enjoy practical, data-driven solutions for everyday gardening problems, consider subscribing to my channel and checking out more projects.
Visit Vegetronix.com for more cool gardening gadgets and automation ideas.
