I'm glad for ST - saved me thousands of $$$ today

General Discussion
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So I thought I’d share a little experience today, my house is full of automation’s across the board and as a full time ST developer/enthusiast me and my team are constantly working on new ideas and apps.

However the power of a simple app really hit home today when the simplest of uses cases made me realize how thankful me and my family are to SmartThings.

I get a push notification follow up a text notification that there was water detected in the basement. Apparently our 2+ decade old water heater finally decided to give away while we were away from home. It would have literally flooded the basement if it weren’t for the two simple devices I had installed in our basement

  1. Utilitech Water leak sensor
  2. ZooZ Water Valve

Not only did the ST platform inform me that our basement was about to be flooded while we were far away from home and couldn’t do anything about it, it went ahead and activated the water valve on our main line and turned off the water supply.

In all an investment of about $100 ended up saving us $$$$$$$ today in extensive damage to other systems, floors etc not to mention an avoided insurance claim and peace of mind! (Now I really wish insurance companies would give us a break for installing these systems - we saved them $$$$$$)

While we use all kinds of apps every day to make our lives simpler, easier and safer this one really hit home for us today, SmartThings is our butler!

Thank you SmartThings!

@alex

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Congratulations on saving a boat-load of money by being proactive on protecting your home from water damage. I also use SmartThings Automation to protect my house from water damage. Unfortunately, my setup is nowhere near as inexpensive as yours. I tried a using a water shutoff device similar to the Zooz Water Valve (an EcoNet EBV105) but I found it just did not have enough torque to reliably shut-off a 1" valve. I instead elected to use a Homeseer HS-WV100+ Water Valve. At $250 + plumber installation it’s rather pricey but, in my mind, worth the cost. I’ve also invested in 5 SmartThings Water Sensors placed under the Water Heater, Washer and sinks. Hopefully, I will never have need of these devices, but I consider it cheap insurance. (Not to mention, a valid justification for spending quite a bit of money on Home Automation)

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Yes I had faced a similar issue with our 1" pipe. So with a little engineering bent I set out to figure out why the valve wasn’t closing the last bit and getting stuck and found it to be a mounting issue. You actually need to mount it off center (counter to the instructions) to get it to work. I’ve posted a little video of how to get it done here:

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I was in the same boat as you not too long ago. Awesome to hear.

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Even though you don’t have enough damage to file a claim, make sure you call your insurance company and tell them this happened. The more of us who tell them about this sort of thing, the more likely they are to give us a discount in the future. And hey, ask for a discount while you’re on the phone. Insurance sales agents have more leeway than you might think.

Honestly, I think if a tank-type water heater is installed in or above a finished living space, a leak sensor and an automatic shutoff valve should be a minimum building code requirement. Some jurisdictions have done this with automatic valves for washing machines (that disconnect the water supply when the washer is powered off).

And hey, now you’ll get a new hot water heater and I’m sure you’ll get one that can be controlled from Smartthings :slight_smile: . Something new to integrate!

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Thanks for the post. Found a shutoff I liked after reading this to control the whole house just in case.

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