IFA 2019: Eve Extend starts shipping and Eve Light Switch launches in Europe
Extending its HomeKit accessory range, Eve showed off four new products at IFA 2019, including a first look at Eve Water Guard, a water leak sensor that not only notifies you through HomeKit on your iPhone or Apple Watch, but also includes an audible alarm and visual notification.
The Eve Water Guard is coming January 2020, but we got a look at it on the show floor at IFA. Unlike the Fibaro and Aqara HomeKit-compatible leak detectors, which are battery-powered, Eve’s Water Guard plugs into an outlet and features a 1.5m sensing cable to cover a wider area. Adding audio and visual notifications will help avoid the problem of potentially missing an alert on your phone when there’s a leak.
The water sensor’s cable not only looks like a regular nylon charging cable but is super sensitive. One drop of water hitting any part of it sets off an alert, and the way you can extend and manipulate the cable to get it where you want, makes it a much more versatile option than most other water leak detectors, which essentially sit in one spot.
Other devices from the HomeKit specialist at the show include the recently announced range extender Eve Extend, which is shipping right now and costs $49.95; an enhanced version of the smart radiator valve Eve Thermo that will go on sale 16 September for €69.95; and an EU version of Eve Light Switch coming 1 October for €99.95.
Eve Extend is a small hub that extends bluetooth reach (which is traditionally only 20 to 30 feet) to your Eve accessories, so you can place Eve devices further from your HomeKit hub without seeing that dreaded “no response” in the Home app. You can assign up to eight Eve accessories to one Eve Extend, and you can have multiple in your home.
Eve is finally bringing a smart light switch to Europe too. Its EU version of the Smart Light Switch, which replaces your existing single or multi-frame switch, will now be available in Germany, Austria, Belgium, Luxemburg and the Netherlands, starting 1 October.
The smart radiator valve Eve Thermo gets some hardware improvements including a clearer display, added feedback from the touch controls, and a quieter motor.
