Either it's happened to you, or you probably know someone who's had it happen to them. I'm talking about the unfortunate circumstance of a major flood in a home caused by a burst pipe or broken plumbing component. Knock on wood, it's never happened to us in our home, but it's occurred in my parents' second floor laundry room, the second floor bathroom of an aunt and uncle, and the upstairs bathroom of another friend. In each occurrence, a burst pipe, broken washer on the toilet, or cracked washing machine part resulted in a several hour long interior waterfall that ultimately ended in thousands to tens of thousands of dollars in damage, weeks or months of inconvenience, and a level of frustration I'd rather not imagine.
Given the level of effort we put into our home, we've done all we can to ensure we are not one of the millions of insurance statistics filing a claim for water damage. We use braided metal hoses or solid metal supply lines on all fixtures (where possible), we shut off the water entirely when we go on vacation, we check our connections regularly for minor signs of leaks, and we use connections and shut off valves that are appropriate for each place they are installed, like this polished nickel brass supply line with high quality quarter turn valve in the guest bathroom.
All that being said, we have no protection against a broken part or burst pipe causing a leak that is allowed to run for hours or days while we're away, damaging floors, walls, ceilings, and all of the precious items we've worked so long and hard to build or restore. Honestly, I'm such a serious worrier I don't know how I've been able to sleep at night or function as a normal person with this horrible possibility hanging over our head.
After knowing so many people affected by similar situations and the crippling paranoia that has started to mount in my chest since I started writing this blog post, I have something that may be able to lower my blood pressure just a bit. A while back I began researching fail-safe options for our house. I felt there had to be something that would be able to sense a major leak in progress and shut down the water main rather than allowing it to gush until we return home. Though nothing is foolproof, a water sensor and auto shutoff valve seems like pretty a great way to control some of the uncertainty. Well, wouldn't you know it, I'm not the first one that had this idea, and there are a slew of products out there that can help protect your home from a catastrophic water disaster.
After much research, we settled on a product called the "WaterCop." The device is an inline and remote controlled water shut off valve that installs directly on your house's main water supply line. It comes with several radio frequency sensors that install in the various locations around your home where major leaks often start and cause significant damage, such as behind toilets, under sinks, around water heaters or washing machines, or anywhere water might tend to accumulate form a burst pipe.
The whole package consists of just a few parts. The box comes with a 1/4 turn shut off valve, the remote operated actuator that controls the position of the valve, and several leak sensors (the number depends on the package that you order).
The sensors run off of battery or auxiliary power via an adapter and have a lead that is placed within cabinets or on the floor near potential trouble spots. If the lead senses water, it sends a remote signal to the WaterCop main unit in the basement to activate the mechanism, which turns the value into the off position, hopefully greatly reducing the amount of damage from a leaking pipe or fixture. Additionally, the sensor makes a high pitched beep when it comes in contact with a liquid, so you know where the leak may be occurring. Pretty novel idea, I'd say.
The true workhorse of this product is the combination of a quarter turn ball shut off valve with a special operating fitting..
...and the main mechanical housing, that plugs into a nearby outlet. When plugged in the housing is always "listening" for a signal to close if a sensor touches water. Two front mounted buttons offer the ability to manually test or reset the device. And the one other cool thing on the device is the housing's auxiliary I/O port on the front. The manual comes with a pin-out wiring diagram that I may be able to use to program an add on board that would notify me if the valve closes or even allow me to open or close the valve from my iPhone/the Internet. Cool? Yep, I think so too.
While I wish we could say this was a sponsored post and we got this for free (because it sure wasn't cheap), it's not, that's for sure. But in this case, as with many "insurance" items around the house, an ounce of protection is hopefully worth thousands of pounds of soggy home renovation prevention.
Though we're hopeful for the function of the product, I know this device has some drawbacks to be aware of, but they are rather hard to get around in just about any product. It's reliant on electricity to function, so if we have a power outage and a leak at the same time, the battery sensors will beep but the valve won't shut off. Additionally, if the leak occurs where a sensor isn't located, such as within a wall, we have no protection.
Placement of the sensor is critical. If the floor isn't level and the leak doesn't accumulate near the sensor, it can leak for hours and never shut off. And finally, false positives are a concern. If we're cleaning and get the sensor wet, it will shut our water supply and require a reset. But all of these things are okay as long as you know them going into the job.
The install of this great device *should* be very straight forward. We're planning on installing it in the next several days, so we'll hopefully be back with a little install guide that tells you just how simple it really was. Unfortunately, I know we were probably just cursed by the DIY gods for typing that statement.
Have you ever dealt with a water leak in your home? Do you have any leak protection type gizmos in your house? If so, is it the brand we have or another, and what are your thoughts on it? If not, have you considered it? Let us know what you think.
