Product Library / Water Protection & Plumbing
Research profile · last verified 2026-07-19Phyn Plus Smart Water Assistant + Shutoff (2nd Gen)
Compatibility
| Ecosystem | Support | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon Alexa | WorksWorks with this ecosystem | Usage queries plus opening and closing the water, but through a CUSTOM skill, which matters more than it sounds. The documented grammar is 'Alexa, ask Phyn Device to turn off my water' — custom-skill grammar normally cannot be used as an action inside an Alexa Routine, so the thing most buyers assume works, putting a third-party leak sensor and this valve in one Routine, is unconfirmed and probably not available. Separately, no voice PIN is documented for closing OR reopening your water supply. |
| Google Home | WorksWorks with this ecosystem | Status, leak queries, and opening and closing the valve. Same missing-PIN concern as Alexa — nothing documented prevents a voice command from shutting off or restoring your water. Verified from Phyn's own documentation only; no Works-with-Google directory entry was retrieved to corroborate from the counterparty side. |
| Apple Home | Doesn't workVerified: does not work with this ecosystem | No Apple Home support. Phyn's own product page lists only Alexa, Google Home and IFTTT, and published third-party testing states affirmatively that there is no HomeKit support. Worth knowing the history: Belkin announced a HomeKit-enabled Phyn water assistant in 2019 and it never shipped. The only route is Home Assistant plus a HomeKit bridge. |
| SmartThings | Not checkedWe have not verified this yet — this is not a claim about the product | No path was found, and the evidence leans strongly toward none, but nothing establishes it. The only substantive source is a SmartThings community thread from December 2019 that ended unresolved with the observation that Phyn had closed its API, and no Edge driver exists. Recorded as unknown rather than none because a seven-year-old forum thread is not a vendor statement in either direction. |
| Home Assistant | PartialPartial support — see the catch | Full valve open and close, plus usage, temperature, pressure and flow — via a community HACS integration, not an official one. It is actively maintained (v2026.6.3, released 2026-06-20), but it rides Phyn's closed cloud API using your account password, it is cloud-dependent rather than local, it broke on 2025-06-11 when Phyn changed the API (patched the same day), and it rests on a single volunteer maintainer. An earlier fork was archived 2025-08-31. Rated partial because the capability is real and the support model is fragile. |
? Not checked means we haven’t verified that ecosystem yet — it is a statement about our research, never a verdict on the product. A Setup Check can research it for you.
Protocols: WIFI
Subscription reality
✓ Works without a subscription: Yes.
Unusually, this is an AFFIRMATIVE vendor claim rather than an absence argument. Phyn states 'No subscription fees. At Phyn, we believe that your data is yours. We don't charge you a fee to access your water use data' and 'We think you shouldn't have to pay a monthly subscription to help save our water.' The app carries no in-app purchases, and the auto-shutoff help article documents the feature end to end with no fee or plan language anywhere. No plan names, tiers or prices exist on phyn.com, the help centre or either app store. One precision caveat: the verbatim no-subscription clause is scoped in its own explanatory sentence to DATA ACCESS — but nothing anywhere gates shutoff, and there is no plan structure with which to gate it.
Maintenance reality
- Cloud dependence: Yes — a server shutdown would degrade or brick this device
- Mains powered from a standard outlet, not hardwired, and the outlet must be close — Phyn's product page says within 12 ft while its help centre says 11 ft, so plan for the conservative figure. BACKUP BATTERY: Phyn is silent, and published third-party testing states there is none; recorded as unestablished rather than asserted, because the vendor never says so. On a power cut the valve holds whatever position it was in, and a manual shutoff tool is provided on the mounting bracket. The unmitigated risk is that no battery means a power outage disables protection entirely, and outages correlate with exactly the freeze and storm events that burst pipes. Rated 125 psi, 25 GPM, max 50 °C, with under 7 psi pressure drop at full flow; fits mains up to 1¼ inch via 1 inch NPSM male threads, adapters not included. Plumbing Check closes the main on its own overnight schedule for 3–5 minutes (extended runs 10–13) and alerts on a 4 psi drop over 3 minutes. No consumables or maintenance article was located — recorded as unestablished, not as 'none'.
The catch
The price is not the cost, and the protection has gaps you would not guess. Add unquoted licensed-plumber labour to cut into your main, possible thread adapters that are not included, and an outlet within about eleven feet. There is no battery backup, so a power cut disables protection entirely and freezes the valve where it stands — during exactly the storms that burst pipes. Auto-shutoff is disabled by default for up to 21 days while the system learns your home, and published testing reports false alarms clustering in those first weeks. It only sees plumbing downstream of itself, so irrigation teed off ahead of it, outbuildings and split service lines are invisible. And third-party leak sensors are second-class citizens: Phyn's own pucks trigger the valve natively in-app, while everything else goes through IFTTT polling or an unofficial component.
Who it's for
Homeowners with an accessible main, a nearby outlet and a willingness to pay a plumber, who want whole-home leak detection without scattering point sensors, and who value the absence of a subscription — over five to ten years that is a real cost advantage against subscription-tied competitors. It fits Alexa and Google households, and Home Assistant users comfortable running a community integration. It is a poor fit for Apple Home households, SmartThings-centric setups, renters, homes on well or non-potable supply, homes with branch plumbing ahead of the install point, and anyone unwilling to add a UPS to cover the power-outage gap.
Sources & method
phyn.com/products/phyn-plus-smart-water-assistant-shutoff-v2 — active cart at $579.99, outlet within 12 ft, valve 'will remain in the state it was in when the power is lost', manual tool on the bracket, Alexa/Google/IFTTT only, licensed plumber recommended. SKU PHYPF007 corroborated by Home Depot and SupplyHouse listings. — vendor-page research, verified 2026-07-19 · phyn.com/pages/phyn-plus-difference states 'No subscription fees… We don't charge you a fee to access your water use data' and 'We think you shouldn't have to pay a monthly subscription to help save our water.' The App Store listing shows the app as free with no in-app-purchase section. helpcenter.phyn.com auto-shutoff article documents the feature with no fee or plan language. No plan names, tiers or prices exist anywhere across phyn.com, the help centre or either app store. — vendor-page research, verified 2026-07-19 · helpcenter.phyn.com/help/what-is-offline-leak-protection-and-how-does-it-work (page last updated 2026-01-30) — activates when the unit has power but no Wi-Fi or Phyn cloud, monitors for a high flow rate plus continuous flow duration, and 'If both thresholds are met, Phyn Plus will automatically shut off your water.' Vendor-stated limits: 'Leak detection during offline mode is limited to catastrophic leak protection only', no push or SMS alerts until reconnection, and the valve must be reopened by physically pressing and holding the blue button. Numeric thresholds are not published. NOTE THE ASYMMETRY: Phyn's puck sensors relay through the Phyn cloud, so puck-triggered shutoff does NOT work offline, unlike the valve's own pressure sensing. — vendor-support research, verified 2026-07-19 · helpcenter.phyn.com/help/what-is-auto-shutoff-and-how-does-it-work — 'Auto Shutoff is disabled by default while Phyn learns your home's water usage patterns', unlocking after 700 water events for most homes or 1,000 for homes with irrigation, a pool or a softener, and 'Regardless of the number of water events, Auto Shutoff will automatically become available after 21 days.' — vendor-support research, verified 2026-07-19 · helpcenter.phyn.com irrigation article — if an irrigation system 'is fed from a separate supply line, Phyn Plus will unfortunately be unable to monitor and protect that system' — vendor-support research, verified 2026-07-19 · helpcenter.phyn.com Alexa article documents the invocation 'Alexa, ask Phyn Device to turn off my water' and makes no mention of Routines. Custom-skill grammar of this form is not normally usable as a Routine action, but no source confirms or denies it for this skill — recorded as the highest-value open question on this record, because leak-sensor-triggers-valve via a Routine is precisely what buyers assume works. No voice PIN is documented for either direction. — vendor-support research, verified 2026-07-19 · Phyn's own product page lists only Alexa, Google Home and IFTTT; published third-party testing (TechHive review of the 2nd gen) states affirmatively that there is no HomeKit support; a 2019 Belkin announcement of a HomeKit-enabled Phyn water assistant never shipped. The negative rests on an affirmative published statement plus vendor enumeration, not on silence alone. — vendor-page and third-party-testing research, verified 2026-07-19 · community.smartthings.com thread 180388 (December 2019) ended unresolved with a report that Phyn had closed its API, with no replies after 2019-12-12, and no Edge driver was located. That is not a vendor statement in either direction, so the level stays unknown despite leaning strongly toward none. — counterparty-community research, verified 2026-07-19 · github.com/jordanruthe/homeassistant-phyn, v2026.6.3 released 2026-06-20, exposing valve control plus usage, temperature, pressure and flow; it authenticates against Phyn's closed cloud API with the user's password, broke on 2025-06-11 when Phyn changed the API and was patched the same day. The earlier MizterB fork was archived 2025-08-31. — counterparty-source research, verified 2026-07-19 · Phyn's own Smart Water Sensor triggers the valve natively in-app per helpcenter.phyn.com. Third-party sensors have two confirmed routes: a dated first-person Home Assistant community report (2024-10-09) of an IKEA BADRING Zigbee sensor closing the Phyn valve through the community integration, and official IFTTT applets (ifttt.com/phyn — one trigger, three actions) whose polling latency is 5 minutes on paid plans and 1 hour on free, which substantially undermines the point of automatic shutoff. No direct SmartThings or Ring path was found. — vendor-support and counterparty-source research, verified 2026-07-19 · phyn.com/pages/warranty states TWO years from delivery, conditioned on installation per Phyn's installation guide and applicable code, NOT on a plumber credential. MYTHS TO REJECT: claims of a '3-year warranty if professionally installed' and that 'warranty claims require a plumber license number' both trace to a single plumbing contractor's blog — an interested party — and appear nowhere in Phyn's warranty text. Also note phyn.com/pages/find-a-phyn-pro states a Phyn Pro is 'not an employee, agent, representative, joint venturer, or partner of Phyn LLC', so the directory is not a certification. — vendor-page research, verified 2026-07-19 · Outlet distance is 12 ft on the product page and 11 ft in the help centre. Professional installation is 'recommended' on the product and installation pages but listed as a hard requirement on the setup-requirements page. Rated pressure appears as 125 psi in the headline specs against a 100 psi maximum-working note in installer documentation, likely a materials-versus-certification distinction. — vendor-page research, verified 2026-07-19 · A csa-iot.org certified-products search for Phyn returned no entries and no public Phyn Matter commitment was found. Recorded as no evidence of Matter support rather than as a confirmed absence, because the registry's filter-driven interface does not permit a clean asserted negative. — registry research, verified 2026-07-19. This is a research profile: compiled from manufacturer documentation, certification registries, and published testing — we state facts, not verdicts, and we have not physically tested this unit. How we work →
Compatibility and lifecycle information reflects the last-verified date above and can change without notice (firmware updates, cloud-service changes, discontinuations). It is provided as-is, for information — verify with the manufacturer before purchasing. Spot an error? Tell us and we'll fix it. Full terms: Terms of Service.