Wyze adds two environmental sensors to its Home Monitoring kit
Check out the new Wyze Sense Climate Sensor and Wyze Sense Leak Sensor.
Wyze's new climate sensors come in a three-pack for $25 (preorder price).
Disclaimer: We aren't recommending that consumers purchase Wyze products at this time. Over the past several years, Wyze has suffered from repeated data leaks and security breaches, including a 2019 user data leak, exposed databases in 2022, and exposed video files that same year. More recently, Wyze has seen both 2023 and 2024 security flaws that let at least 13,000 people see through other Wyze security cams owned by unrelated users.
Wyze's forum report on the latest breach includes an update from February 2024: "Our engineering team has added a new layer of verification between users and event videos to prevent this from happening again. We've also removed the client library and will not be using caching until we can find a new client library and stress test it for extreme scenarios like we saw on Friday."
This response is a start, but Wyze has repeatedly struggled to reliably update its approach to security and meaningfully communicate with its users. While we have seen security companies bounce back from security problems in the past, we haven't seen this kind of improvement from Wyze yet. So we are not endorsing their products or any services where you need to create a Wyze account with your personal info.
We'll keep you updated on Wyze's security and privacy if our recommendations change. If you're looking for security brands that have made notable security improvements or have good privacy track records, we can recommend products from Ring, Google's Nest, Blink, and Arlo.
Wyze on Tuesday added to its roster of home accessories with the new Wyze Sense Climate Sensor and Wyze Sense Leak Sensor. Available now for preorder, the Climate Sensor costs $25 for a pack of three; the Leak Sensor three-pack costs $30. Both devices require the Wyze Home Monitoring kit to work.
The Seattle-based startup sells a wide range of cheap home products. It makes everything from a video doorbell and a robot vacuum to a night light, a sprinkler controller and a thermostat. A number of its devices have earned CNET Editors' Choice Awards for their unique balance of impressive performance at good prices.
In a May blog post, Wyze said it would be increasing the pricing of select products citing "world events" as the cause. Folks were not happy about the decision. But the price hikes have been minimal so far. The Wyze Cam v3 increased from $30 ($24 for the camera plus $6 shipping) to $33 for the camera (with free shipping). It's up to you to decide whether that's a good deal, but these prices are still low compared to similar brands. The Ring Indoor Cam -- Ring's cheapest security camera -- costs $60.
New Wyze sensors
If you have the Wyze Home Monitoring kit, you can now add Wyze Sense Climate Sensors and Wyze Sense Leak Sensors into the mix. My colleague David Priest reviewed the Wyze Home Monitoring kit and liked its low price, reliable performance and optional smart home integrations.
Out of the box, the Home Monitoring kit comes with a hub, a keypad, door/window sensors and a motion detector. That's a decent lineup of basics, but introducing the climate and leak sensors gives customers more options to scale up the system as needed. The Wyze Sense Climate Sensor has temperature and humidity tracking capabilities and the Wyze Sense Leak Sensor is designed to alert you if a laundry, kitchen, bathroom or basement leak occurs. Both devices are battery-powered and have an expected battery life of up to 18 months.
Again, these sensors won't work as standalone products and must connect to the Wyze Home Monitoring hub to work. Both are available for preorder now on Wyze.com.
