I’ve used a simple leak and moisture detection unit in the past, and have had good experiences with it. It alerted me a couple of times of a leak in my boiler room. However, I was at home at the time so I was bale to hear the alarm. A more useful leak detector would be able to let me know about a leak even remotely. This is why I was excited about this La Crosse monitor system.

The leak detector was a bit of a pain to setup. It only works with La Crosse’s website and it required many tricky steps to go through before it worked. Furthermore, I was hoping that this would be a fully wireless monitoring system, i.e. one that does not require a separate Ethernet connection to connect to the web. Even thought the detector is wireless, the base station requires a wired connection to the Internet. I already have a warren of Ethernet cables all over my place, and was hoping not to have to deal with yet another one.

I also didn’t realize it at first that for the full support of this device you’d need a subscription to the website. I find this to be more of an annoyance than true hindrance, but it’s still not something that I was prepared to deal with. I also would have appreciated having a stand-alone alert app, and not a mobile optimized website that deals with alerts and tracking.

When it comes to the actual leak measurements I found this device to be fairly responsive and accurate. I’ve created a “false alarm” situation with the detector and was pleased with its response. The system also tracks the temperature and humidity, and these in their own right are useful pieces of information to have on the long-term basis.

I will give this system four stars despite its shortcomings solely based on the fact that it seems to be the best such system currently available. However, for the price and functionality I definitely expected more. If you don’t immediately need such a system then I would recommend waiting a year or two for better products to come to the market.