Usage Alerts determine when you get notified about certain water usage patterns. Flume creates two Usage Alerts when you first install your device.

The Flume Smart Leak Alert and High Flow Alert rules can be turned on, off, or modified. Let's take a look at the default alerts:

By default, this Usage Alert will notify you if water runs continuously for 2 hours. This Usage Alert is very good at detecting low-flow leaks such as running toilets, slab leaks, pinhole leaks, etc.

This Usage Alert is "smart" because it will ignore certain events, such as irrigation. So, let's say that this alert is set to trigger if water is running continuously for more than 2 hours. Let's also say that you irrigate for 3 hours every day. You would expect that your irrigation would trigger this alert 2 hours into your irrigation schedule. However, since this alert is smart enough to ignore the irrigation, the alert will not trigger.

By default, this Usage Alert will notify you if water runs at least 5 gallons per minute for 15 minutes or longer. High-flow leaks are rare, but they can cause a lot of damage in a short period of time. We suggest enabling this alert or creating a similar alert like this if you would like to keep an eye out for these types of leaks. However, this type of rule may set off some false leak notifications if you have anything in your house that uses more than 5 gpm for a period of 15 minutes. If this is the case, you may want to monitor your water usage in the Flume app to see what your peak water usage is per minute. You can then bump up the flow rate to something more appropriate or set up a Do Not Alert Schedule.

To view or edit the settings for Usage Alerts, just click the name of the applicable Usage Alert. For instance, click on the "Flume Smart Leak Alert" on the Usage Alerts screen. Then, default settings can be adjusted as necessary.

Turning Usage Alerts on and off

In the screenshot at the top of this article, you see a slider next to each Usage Alert. To turn a Usage Alert on, just click the slider until it turns green. To turn a Usage Alert off, click the slider until it turns white.

There are three components to usage alerts:

This indicates the number of gallons per minute that you would like to trigger an alert. Any GPM higher than the Flow Rate indicated here will trigger a leak alert.

This indicates the amount of time you would like to pass before an alert is triggered. Any usage continuing for longer than the time indicated here will trigger a leak alert.

This indicates how often you want to be alerted while the leak is still active. For instance, you can choose to be notified every 2 hours or every 2 days.

To customize a Usage Alert, start by clicking on the Usage Alert.

Let's say that you want to edit your "High Flow Leak" alert so that it only notifies you if water runs at a flow rate of 11 gpm for more than 10 minutes, and alerts you every 2 hours while the leak is active.

As you can see below, we need to change "Leak Duration" to "10 minutes", change "Flow Rate Above" to "10 gpm", change "Notify Every" to 2 hours, and click "Save".

To add a new Usage Alert, simply click on the "+" sign at the top of the page.

You can delete any of the Custom Alert Rules by doing the following:

You can not delete the "Flume Smart Leak Alert."

When you click on "push notifications", you can click into the specifics behind each notification on the app's dedicated page for alerts.

When you click on a Usage Alert under your push notifications, you will be taken to your water usage data that triggered the alert. From this page, you can update your Usage Alert, and if it's a Flume Smart Leak Alert, you will see additional information, such as tips to locate the leak and a way to provide Flume feedback if we've alerted you to something that wasn't a leak.

Do Not Alert Schedules allow you to disable a usage alert rule during a specific time frame during the week. For example, if you run irrigation on Monday and Wednesday from 4:00- 6:00 AM, you can set up a Do Not Alert Schedule so you are not alerted during this time. You will still be alerted if your usage meets the parameters of the alert outside of the specified timeframe. To learn how to set up a Do Not Alert Schedule, click HERE.

If you receive repeated leak alerts for water use that’s actually normal (like irrigation, humidifiers, or softeners), you can now reduce those alerts using Expected Usage. This feature helps Flume learn what’s normal in your home so you get fewer unnecessary notifications—while still protecting you from real leaks. To learn more about Expected Usage, click HERE.

If you are leaving your house and you don't expect to be using any water while you are gone, you may want to set up a rule for Away Mode. This will notify you if any water is running for more than a couple of minutes. This can also be very useful for vacation homes. To learn more about Away Mode, click HERE.