Don’t Leave Home Without Doing This!
Have you ever left home on vacation and then heard news there is massive flooding in your hometown? Or you start your vacation and worry the entire time that maybe the hot water tank started leaking. Or you might be sitting around on vacation talking with friends sharing stories and your “friend” tells you this crazy flooding story about people going on vacation and coming back to their house wrecked by a burst water pipe. If you ever go on vacation and then worry the entire time about flooding, this device will help you sleep at night on your vacation.
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I work in the home repair industry and see and hear countless stories of homes flooding because of a leak. As I know that my home is no different than anyone else, I finally was on the search for a device that would warn me of leaking.
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Notice Water Sensors Where Arrow Points
After working at a house that had a complete new kitchen and basement because of a burst pipe I went and bought an alarm. This alarm has actually saved me (Zircon Leak Alert). The alarm is simple. When water touches these two metal rods the alarm sounds continuously until taken out of the water. It takes one 9 volt battery. I put one right beside my hot water tank in line with the floor drain so if it ever starts leaking hopefully the water should flow towards the drain. The other alarm I put right beside our sump pump pit.
If you have ever opened your basement door and been greeted by 24 inches of water back up then yes you will buy an alarm. Sadly we were purged of all our year books and many other memorabilia around 2010. I can still remember having a box in hand and telling my wife I was headed down to the basement to start cleaning the file cabinet. Well, I was a little late as it had been cleaned out already.
This was our basement!
Needless to say I would have rather been awoken to an alarm telling me water is flooding my basement than opening a door and seeing it!
I have had my eyes open for a water alarm that sends a text or email message to your phone. So far all the alarms I had seen required some additional hub or membership or or or or. No fun right! I know the alarm is worth it and could pay for the membership if it saved our basement from flooding. Yet, I don’t like paying all the additional fees more than anyone else.
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Good news! Found the device I now recommend! Ironically it is made by the same company that makes the easy and simple water alarm I bought many years ago. This alarm requires no membership or hub or wires (order now). Once purchased and connected to your home wifi network you are done. The one exception is that it does require a battery that says should be replaced once a year. And believe me you should put the battery replacement in your calendar to alert you to change it. I personally haven’t had it long enough to see how long the battery works but I don’t want to find out as I want a new battery every year.
Great News! Take your trip and sleep at night. I found a water sensor that will email you if it finds water. Know that there is nothing else you could do to avoid a water disaster. Well, you can always turn off the water before leaving on vacation and that will help avoid plumbing leaks but not flooding from rain or city sewage back up.
Hilarious Side Story: One summer I stayed up until 2 a.m. getting the garden watering timer all hooked up. I had created the perfect watering system to have the garden keep growing while we were gone camping for a couple of weeks. So at 6 a..m. right before we pulled out for an epic trip I went through the house one more time and checked everything. I didn’t think twice and shut the water off so no major water floods. We drove down the road happy as ever knowing our garden will grow grow and no water leaks. What??? Happy watered garden supplied by house water and shutting the water off don’t go together! Yes, I never realized it until we got home and walked in the back yard and saw no living plants! Then it was as obvious as ever I had shut the water off!
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I love this new water alarm sensor! It alarms me with a siren if I am in the house and sends me an email message if I am home or away. I would recommend putting your email on alert notification for this email. That way if you get an email from the water sensor you will have immediate notification. Tip: create a new email address just for this alarm. So if you don’t like email notification to pop up on your phone fine for all the other spam email but not this one! Make this email alert pop up and only use this email address for this water alarm.
What other tips or tricks have you learned over the years to help you have a worry free vacation away from your home?
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