Automated Water Control and Water Damage mitigation for Home or business

Like any other building, your home or business keeps you safe and warm to work and live. You worry about the things that cause harm or damage to your family or your home. This is why you get alarm systems or insurance.
Shouldn't water control be a concern too?

Water Control is the ability to control the water both on and off, coming into our property. It Is something most of us never think about. Unfortunately because of the costs of the damage that may occur when a water line breaks, we all should, not only think about it but prepare for it. This is especially true if you own a vacation home or business that you only use occasionally.
You might be thinking "But I turn off the water when I am not there". That is great, but what will happen if you forget to turn off the water prior to leaving, of if you are up for the weekend and you are out on the boat for the day? A leak can happen at any time. When it does, if you are not there to turn off the water immediately, there can be some major water damage.
Some interesting facts about water damage.

• Water damage is something that can happen at any time.
  Since your water lines are pressurized, usually 50-70 pounds per square inch. A water line or water hose can burst at any time. 
• It does not take a natural disaster to cause it.
  Water lines can break or leak when nothing happens. The age of materials is the leading cause of failures, but even temperature fluctuations can cause a water hose to leak or burst.
• It can happen to newer and older homes.
  Poor construction or move in damage can cause water line breaks too.
• I have seen water leaks cause damage slowly .
  A cracked water line behind a refrigerator can spray a mist on a wall for years and cause black mold.
• Water damage can run into the tens of thousands of dollars.
• Water damage may not be covered under your homeowners insurance.
  If the water damage is slow and unobserved, most insurance companies do not cover this type of damage.

All of these problems can be mitigated or even eliminated with a properly installed Automated Water Control System.

​Now lets talk about you and your home or business and what to look for and finally how to fix it.
Your Home or Business
The first thing to keep in mind is that all of your water pipes are pressurized and filled with water. Any of these pipes can leak or burst at any time, but the places you are more likely to see a water leak are places like,

• Under your sinks
• Behind your clothes washer
• Behind your refrigerator
• Near your water heater
• Under your jetted bath tub
• In your basement or sub flooring where water pipes or drains are
• Under your dishwasher
• Behind Toilets
• Or any other place there are pipes or soft hoses filled with pressurized water.

Take a stroll around your home or office. Look at these places and think what would happen if a water line broke in these locations and how much it would cost to fix the damage caused, especially if you did not catch the leak for several days.
These are the places you should think of placing the first line of defense in your water shut off strategy. The Water sensor.

Water sensors are battery operated devices that sense when water is around them and send a signal to your home controller.
These devices vary in cost, shape, size and features and usually last a year or two on the batteries.
We recommend ones that have a long sensor wire on them versus ones that are all in one tiny box. This gives you the ability to more easily change the batteries because they are not back behind the water heater and give you the ability to put them in more locations by to having the transmitting antenna high up and not down under a big metallic clothes washer.
These Water sensors detect water with 2 or more metallic, usually gold colored probes.
These probes are constantly sensing the resistance between them. When the resistance is close to 0, they report to their home controller that water is present. When there resistance goes above a level they report the water is not present. 
They can also give battery level readings to the controller also.

This brings us up to our captain in our water control system, our Home Controller. 
​Home controllers are devices that receive sensor data from your sensors and tell devices to do things. In the case of water control, after receiving a water signal from a water sensor, the home controller would tell an electric Water Valve Motor to close the main water valve, thus turning off the flow of water into the home and stopping the leak from causing further damage. Then the controller would notify you that there was a leak and that the water has been turned off. Saving you from costly damage.

The Water Valve Motor might be our last device in our safety net but is definitely not our least.
Water valve motors are devices you install over your existing main water valves to close and open the valve when instructed by the home controller.
They are this systems silent knight that works quickly and efficiently when needed.
​This motor does require a 110 vac outlet near.

These three components comprise a Water Control system.  
You may have a controller already and can easily add the sensors and a valve motor to your existing system to complete your own water control system.

Now that you have your home and water control systems installed you can do some really interesting things with it.
If this is a second / Vacation home and if you do not have a stop waste valve controlling your system, you can program your system to automatically turn off your water when you leave your home and on when you arrive. This will make those weekends at the lake house, easier because you will not have to do it yourself and take the pain out of forgetting to turn it off.
I like to do this with electric locks that are paired to the home controller system.
If you would like to learn more about water control and each of the parts described above, please click on the links 

If you are building a home and are interested in installing a Water Control System in it, I would think about routing your main water supply pipe through a garage wall or some other accessible and dry area and putting a main water shutoff valve in that area maybe in the wall with an accessible cover it for easy access. You will also need a 110V outlet for the power to this motor in this area.
I recommend an accessible area because at one point you might need to replace the valve or motor. It is much easier to do this in an accessible area than it is laying on your back in the dirt under you home.
If you live in a colder climate, you might want to think about installing two of these valves to make a stop and drain (stop and waste) system to automatically drain the water in your pipes to prevent them from freezing and bursting the pipes. One valve to turn off the water and another valve to drain the water from the closed system.

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​The benefits of having this system are, the ease of using it manually and if you have it set up as a emergency automatic shutoff system, you will never have to think about it.
With these three devices installed and properly programmed, you will have an extra safety net covering your homes water system and you can rest assured you will probably never have to experience any extensive water damage to your home or business.

We carry these components separately or as a Water Control Kit.

I hope this article informed you on the the benefits of having a water control system in your home or office. If you have any questions, please contact us or ask here.