Water Leak Detection (WLD) system

6. 12. 2022

Early Water Detection is essential in a lot of businesses, for example, data centers, industrial sites, offices, hotels, residential buildings, and more. With the right detection of water and early alert, costly water damage can be avoided. HW group offers several products that provide ideal solutions for Water Leak Detection (WLD) that are developed to protect your facility against any water damage that might threaten you.

Water Leak Detection uses a sensing cable that detects water along the entire cable length and a WLD device (WLD2 / NB-WLD / ...) that can communicate an alarm in case of water occurrence (a few drops anywhere on the cable is enough). With the HWg monitoring eco-system (sensors + devices + SensDesk Technology portal), you get long-term reliable alerts, graphs, PDF reports, open API, remote device management, etc.

In Contrast to Water Leak detection with WLD sensing cable, there is Spot water detection with a Flood sensor that detects water in 1 spot (the detector has to be entirely flooded). This is a cheap but not reliable solution for water detection. We explained why in an article Water Leak Detection: Sensing cable versus Flood sensor.

Content:

WLD applications and usage

Advantages of our WLD system

WLD system components

WLD cables

WLD Devices

SensDesk Technology portal

WLD system scheme

Creation of WLD zones

WLD Realy output options

Alerting options

Horizontal menu

Support

WLD applications and usage:

WLD Water Leak detection using sensing cable in server room. Installation under the raised floors. WLD sensing cable detects liquid along the entire length of the sensing cable and even the smallest amount of liquid can send the alert. The cable can be routed under the floors in datacentres or along the walls or wrapped around the pipes. Custom solutions for every need are possible.

Water detection under raised floors.
Leaky pipe detection (cable wrapped along the pipe).
Protection against floods from skylights – sensing cable routed along the walls.
Detection of water leaks in drip trays.
Detection of water leaks under air-conditioning outlets
Water leak detector for security systems

Advantages of our WLD system

Unique features of WLD sensing cable

detects liquid along the entire length of the sensing cable across the extent area
detects even the smallest volume of conductive liquid
re-usable (cable can be cleaned, dried & used again)
No Bend limit: WLD sensing cable Type A is not limited by any bending radius. The sensing cable can be knotted and still works properly.
No Twist limit: WLD sensing cable Type A can be twisted as any other electrical cable.
No Grip limit: Water detection functionality is not limited by point pressure within a reasonable range.

Easy and cost-effective installation

The cable can be routed under the floors in datacentres or along the walls or wrapped around the pipes
WLD sensing cable installation can be realized even after other electrical cables are installed already.
No special training is required for WLD sensing cable installation.
Combination of sensing & non-sensing (prolong) cables according to the possible presence of water
Can be fixed using clips or adhesive tape
Custom solutions for every need are possible

Long-term stable detection

Once installed, the WLD sensing cable does not generate false alarms
Micro movements caused by the movement of the surrounding cables do not cause false alarms
Fast reaction (reaction time is 1-5 minutes) - even a few drops of the water will be detected
Mechanically disconnected WLD sensing cable will be indicated

WLD system components

HWg monitoring Eco-system provides you with not only the sensors but the whole monitoring system with reliable alerts and other monitoring features, that help you to take care of your facility. The WLD system by the HW group is composed of WLD cables, a WLD monitoring device, and SensDesk Technology portal for reliable alerting, device management, graphs, PDF reports, and more. Other methods of alerting and open API are available.

WLD cables

There are 3 kinds of WLD cables that can be combined to create a customized solution for every area.

WLD connection cable A - 2m (Green terminal block, 2m, Terminator)
WLD Sensing cable A - 2m / 10m / 50m
WLD prolong cable A - 5m

The sensing cable is an essential part of the WLD system. It detects the presence of a liquid (most often water) along the entire length of the sensing cable. A few drops of water are enough to trigger an alarm. The sensing cable is available in lengths of 2m / 10m / 50m. Zone detection states: OK / Flooded / WLD cable disconnected

>> WLD sensing cable product page

One WLD zone always starts with the connection cable in the WLD input in the WLD device. Then combination of sensing cables and prolong cables follows. The possibility of combining the sensing and prolong cable allows you to create cost-effective solutions, where the sensing cable covers only the areas where the water occurrence is most likely, and the prolong cable covers the rest. One WLD zone can be up to 185 meters/zone in total. Terminator is required at the end of the zone.

WLD sensing cable components: Sensing cable, Prolong cable, Connection cable, Terminator, WLD device

WLD Devices

WLD devices with sensing cables can communicate with the system in various ways. There is the most common WiFi / Lan connection on SD-WLD and WLD2 devices. NB-WLD includes an NB-IoT Sim card and communicates via the NB-IoT network.

Connectivity / Interface
	WLD2	SD-WLD	NB-WLD	WLD-Relay
NB-IoT	-	-	yes	-
LAN (RJ45)	yes	yes	-	-
Wi-Fi	yes	yes	-	-
1Wire-UNI (RJ11)	-	-	-	yes
Relay output (NO/NC)	-	-	-	yes

A special case is WLD-Relay which can function either with relay output without any external connectivity or as a regular sensor connected to any device with 1Wire-UNI input. In that case this sensor can be connected to the system via WiFi / LAN or even LTE / GSM network.

WLD2

WLD2 device is a WiFi / LAN water leak detector with support for WWW, SNMP, e-mails, and PoE. WLD2 supports the creation of up to 4 WLD zones. Zones are independent and different phone numbers can be called for each zone.

Thanks to WiFi connectivity, the WLD2 Water Leak Detector can be installed in remote places. In case of water presence, the device can send alerts via e-mail, SNMP trap, or the SensDesk Technology portal. With an external SMS gateway by HW group, it can send SMS or dial a phone number.

SD-WLD

SD-WLD is a simple device with WiFi / Ethernet connectivity, that detects water leaks using 1 sensing cable. The total wiring length can be up to 185m (85m sensing cable + 100m connecting cable).

SD-WLD has to be connected to the SensDesk Technology portal. Alerting and configuration is done remotely using the portal.

NB-WLD

NB-WLD is a remote monitoring device with 1 WLD zone (1 sensing cable). NB devices connect through the NB-IoT network (NarrowBand IoT), prepaid NB-IoT SIM card is included).

It is powered by an internal battery with up to 3 years of a lifetime or an external power supply. The device has to be monitored and configured remotely using the SensDesk Technology portal.

Sensor WLD Relay 1W-UNI

A universal WLD sensor with 1 WLD sensing cable input and 2 kinds of outputs. Sensor WLD Relay can be used as a Standalone WLD sensor (power + relay output) or as a 1W-UNI sensor connected to any STE2, Poseidon2, HWg-Ares, or other HWg devices.

>> Compare WLD devices

HWg Video Flyer about Water Leak Detection system and it's components

SensDesk Technology portal

SensDesk Technology is a portal solution from the HW group to manage remote sensors and devices. Portals offer a central overview of all the values, long-time reliable alerting , and provide a variable combination of other extra features like PDF reporting, graphs, history records, outputs into the Open API, etc.

WLD system outputs
	WLD2	SD-WLD	NB-WLD	WLD-Relay
SensDesk Portal Connectivity	Yes	Yes (mandatory)	Yes (mandatory)	Via external device
Web interface, SMTP	Yes	Via portal	Via portal	-
E-mail alert	Yes	Via portal	Via portal	-
SMS & Call alert	Via SMS Gateway or portal	Via portal	Via portal	-
Disconnected device alert	Via portal	Via portal	Via portal	Yes (sensor = -999)
Remote relay alert	Yes	Via portal	Via portal	Via external device
Multigraphs, PDF reports	Via portal	Via portal	Via portal	-
Open API (SNMP, XML)	Yes	Via portal	Via portal	-

There are several portals available. The manufacturer provides HWg-cloud.com and SensDesk.com, 3^rd party companies provide more than 10 other portals (Portal providers).

Mobile Apps

There are two available Mobile Apps to display the portals, HWg Monitor and SensDesk Mobile.

WLD system scheme

Below there are possible installations of the WLD system using different WLD devices from HW group.

Creation of WLD zones

WLD zone is the area covered by WLD cable or cables from one WLD Input. WLD zone starts in the WLD terminal block and contents of connection cable, a variety of prolong and sensing cables, and a terminator at the end. Creation of a various number of WLD zones is possible depending on individual WLD devices.

WLD zones in different WLD devices
	WLD2	SD-WLD	NB-WLD	WLD-Relay
Number of detection zones	4	1	1	1
Max length of WLD zone	185m / zone	185m	60m	185m

NB-WLD device, SD-WLD device, and Sensor WLD Relay support only one WLD zone.

WLD2 supports creating up to four WLD zones. Each zone detects water individually, for each zone is therefore individual alert with different parameters. Creation of multiple zones can be also achieved by using more Sensor WLD Relays with a monitoring device, e.g. Poseidon.

WLD Relay output options

Alerting options

WLD system Alerting
	WLD2	SD-WLD	NB-WLD	WLD-Relay
SensDesk Portal Connectivity	Yes	Yes (mandatory)	Yes (mandatory)	Via external device
Web interface, SMTP	Yes	Via portal	Via portal	-
Output states	0 (ok), 1 (water), 2 (cable failure)	0 (ok), 1 (water), 2 (cable failure)	0 (ok), 1 (water), 2 (cable failure)	0 (ok), 1 (water), 2 (cable failure - RJ11 output)
Disconnected device alert	Via portal	Via portal	Via portal	Yes (sensor = -999)
Remote relay alert	Yes	Via portal	Via portal	Via external device

WLD2 device - alerting options

You can choose the devices and sensors based on your topology, network, etc...

If you are not sure which product is the most suitable for you, please contact us at support [at] hwg [dot] cz.