KLIPPBOK water leak sensor teardown (to remove the buzzer)
Inside KLIPPBOK (IKEA's Matter-over-Thread water leak sensor)
I bought my first KLIPPBOK a couple of months ago, and it worked well under the kitchen sink. I thought of buying another one for the bedroom, but I needed it to be permanently quiet. It looks like a way to mute this sensor may become widely available at some point (https://www.reddit.com/r/tradfri/comments/1txryu6/silent_mode_in_klippbok_water_leak_sensor/), but until then I've decided to silence KLIPPBOK's buzzer with a bit of 'surgery' ✂️
TLDR: the sensor is sealed for waterproofing, so it's impossible to open without causing damage. Two plastic parts are thermally bonded, so they're pretty hard to pull apart. I broke my utility knife's blade while trying to do this.
The result was far from aesthetically pleasing:
You may have better luck if you use a hot blade to melt the plastic at the edge, but I haven't tried this.
Here is what KLIPPBOK has inside:
I tried to desolder the buzzer but pulled it a bit too hard. It came off and took three of its four contact pads with it, so putting it back would be impractical. The sensor is cheap, so it's not a big deal.
The device was still alive after the 'surgery'. I was able to onboard the sensor onto my Thread network, and it detected water as designed:
Of course, I lost the waterproofing around the top edge of the sensor, so it could no longer be fully submerged.
The 'surgery' is obviously not a perfect solution, but it's good enough for my case. I am aiming to detect moisture around the window sill, where I don't expect massive floods. I don't want the sensor to disrupt my sleep, but getting scheduled HA notifications should help me fight mould on the curtains.
With a bit of glue and black tape around the edge, I've got a permanently muted KLIPPBOK that will hopefully do its job!
My advice: don't disassemble this device until you've explored the EnableDisableAlarm option. By the time you read this, there may be more info on silencing KLIPPBOK programmatically.
Fun fact: the body of KLIPPBOK is bulkier than the components inside it. It looks as if they were planning to make the sensor thinner but changed their mind after the board was made. It could be just aesthetics. My other wild guess is that they wanted the sensor to float in water, so they increased the amount of air it holds. What else could explain this design decision?
