Valve opened

The Valve opened trigger fires after a valve entityAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] transitions to the open state. Valve entities represent water, gas, or air valves in your home.

Use it to react the moment a valve is opened, whether it was opened manually, by a schedule, through an automationAutomations in Home Assistant allow you to automatically respond to things that happen in and around your home. [Learn more], or by a voice command. Use this trigger in an automation to log irrigation activity, send a notification when the main water valve opens unexpectedly, or start a timer to auto-close a valve after a set duration.

Using this trigger from the user interface

If you prefer building automations visually, Home Assistant walks you through this trigger step by step. You pick what to watch, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To use this trigger in an automation:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. In the When section, select Add trigger.
4. Select what you want to monitor. Under By target, pick the area your valve is in, such as your garden or utility room. You can also select a device, a specific entity, or a label, as described in Targets.
5. From the triggers shown for that target, select Valve opened.
6. Under Trigger when, pick Each, First, or All to control how the trigger behaves when multiple valves are targeted, as described in Behavior.
7. Under For at least, set how long the valve must stay open before the trigger fires. Leave it at zero to fire immediately.
8. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this trigger in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required.

In YAML, refer to this trigger as valve.opened. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: valve.opened
target:
  entity_id: valve.garden_irrigation

This fires every time valve.garden_irrigation transitions to the Open state.

Options in YAML

YAML sometimes provides additional options for more complex use cases that are not available through the UI.

Targets of the trigger

This trigger requires a target. The target is the object that Home Assistant will watch. You can select a single entityAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more], a device, an area, a floor, or a label as a target, and Home Assistant will watch every matching valve entity behind that target.

• Entity: one specific valve entity, such as valve.living_room.
• Device: every valve entity that belongs to a device.
• Area: every valve entity in a room or area.
• Floor: every valve entity on a floor.
• Label: every valve entity that shares a label.

You can also select different target types in one trigger. For example, you can add a specific entity and an area as targets in the same trigger to monitor both of them at once.

Behavior with multiple targets

When you target more than one entity (or select an area, floor, or label that contains several), the Trigger when option controls how the trigger responds:

• Each (any in YAML, default): the trigger fires every time any one of the targeted entities transitions. For example, if you monitor three motion sensors in the living room and someone walks past sensor 1, the automation fires. When they walk past sensor 2 a moment later, it fires again. Every individual event counts.
• First (first in YAML): the trigger fires only on the first transition in the targeted group, then waits until all targeted entities have reset before it fires again. For example, if you monitor the same three motion sensors, the automation fires when the first one picks up movement (someone entered the room). The other two firing afterward are ignored, so you get one notification per “someone walked in” event instead of three.
• All (last in YAML): the trigger fires only after the last targeted entity in the group has fired, meaning all of them are now in the expected state. For example, if you monitor the lights in the living room, bedroom, and hallway, the automation fires only once all three have turned off. This is useful for scenarios like “start the robot vacuum only after every light on the floor is off,” so you know the room is truly empty.

Good to know

• The trigger fires when the valve reaches the Open state. It does not fire during the transitional Opening state while the valve is still moving. You can check the available states in The state of a valve entity.
• Valves that report position (0 to 100%) are considered open as soon as their position is above 0.
• Use the For at least option to avoid false alarms from brief or accidental openings, such as a momentary network glitch that causes a valve to re-report its state.
• This trigger works with any valve entity in Home Assistant, including water, gas, and air valves from integrations such as MQTT, Z-Wave, Zigbee, and ESPHome.
• You can conserve water by pairing this trigger with a timer. Create an automation that, when an irrigation or garden valve opens, starts a countdown and automatically closes it after the intended duration. This prevents over-watering caused by a valve left open, which is one of the most common sources of household water waste.
• Combine this trigger with a water leak sensor condition to detect unexpected openings that may indicate a burst pipe or a faulty valve. Catching these events immediately can prevent significant water loss and structural damage.
• Pair this trigger with a weather integration in an automation to water plants smarter, not harder. If rain is forecast or soil moisture sensors report sufficient levels, a condition can block the opening entirely, so your garden only gets watered when it actually needs it.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Go to Settings > Automations & scenes, create a new automation, and add this trigger. Save the automation, then change the state of the targeted entity to watch the trigger fire on your actual entitiesAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more].

More examples

Real scenarios where this trigger fires in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Automation: Send a notification when the main water valve opens unexpectedly

A safety automation that alerts you whenever your main water shutoff valve opens outside of a scheduled irrigation window. This is a useful early warning for unexpected water flow.

• Trigger: Valve opened
  • Target: valve.main_water_shutoff
• Condition: Not
  • Condition: Time (after 06:00 AM and before 08:00 AM)
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)

alias: "Alert when main water valve opens unexpectedly"
triggers:
  - trigger: valve.opened
    target:
      entity_id: valve.main_water_shutoff
conditions:
  - condition: not
    conditions:
      - condition: time
        after: "06:00:00"
        before: "08:00:00"
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      title: "⚠️ Water valve opened"
      message: "The main water shutoff valve opened outside the scheduled irrigation window."

Automation: Close irrigation valve automatically after a water-saving time limit

A water-conservation automation that starts a countdown the moment an irrigation valve opens and closes it automatically once the allowed watering time has elapsed. This prevents over-watering and avoids the water waste caused by a valve left open accidentally or by a schedule that does not account for recent rainfall.

• Trigger: Valve opened
  • Target: valve.garden_irrigation
• Condition: Numeric state (below 5 mm)
  • Target: sensor.rain_last_24h_mm (weather or rain sensor entity)
• Action: Wait for time to pass (delay: 15 minutes)
• Action: Close valve
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)

alias: "Auto-close irrigation after water-saving limit"
triggers:
  - trigger: valve.opened
    target:
      entity_id: valve.garden_irrigation
conditions:
  - condition: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.rain_last_24h_mm
    below: 5
actions:
  - delay: "00:15:00"
  - action: valve.close_valve
    target:
      entity_id: valve.garden_irrigation
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      title: "💧 Irrigation closed"
      message: "Garden valve closed after 15 minutes. Water used wisely!"

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the trigger you’re using and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related triggers

These triggers work well alongside this one:

• Valve closed: Triggers after one or more valves close.