A few weeks ago, I had a pipe break outside my house. Fortunately, the damage was limited to a sink-hole in my yard, but the water pipes for the house and the sprinklers go through the foundation right near where the break was. As a result, I had some very minimal leaking down the inside of the foundation.
Because of how the concrete slab, that makes up my basement floor, meets with the foundation, the water leaked through a small space and in to the dirt below. (Hopefully harmlessly.) So, I was thinking that I might have caught the problem faster, and possibly prevented the sink-hole if I had a leak sensor attached to the foundation below the holes that the pipes come through. The catch (aside from it being a wall and not a floor) is that there was only enough water to make the concrete damp. So the sensor would need to be sensitive enough to work through any adhesive that might be used to secure it to the wall.
Has anyone else had this problem, and found a sensor that would work in a scenario like this? (I don’t care if it is Z-wave, Insteon, or just a raw sensor with a contact closure. All are welcome here.
And, while I am at it, what types of leak sensors are people using in basements with concrete floors? I had a hot water heater nearly go critical a few years ago, so I’d like to put a sensor on the floor near the water heater to hopefully give me a little more early warning. (Granted, I had a fair bit of warning on the old water heater. I was just stupid. But now that I know better, I’d like an early warning.
I have installed 11 Everspring Water sensors, 2 Fortrezz water shutoff valves and a Fortrezz strobe/siren. These as controlled by a scene which shuts of the main valve or the irrigation valve based on the sensor. It then activates the strobe/siren for 2 minutes and sends appropriate notifications. These sensors will activate by touching the probles with a slightly moistened fingertip. Working well so far and I tested them with a few dribbles of water. This was initiated because we had a burst irrication pipe a couple of years ago that flooded an area of the finished basement and the cost of repairs far exceeded the expense of these devices. A side benefit is I open and close the water feeding the irrigation system at each end of the scene so these lines are not loaded/pressurized when not in use.
I have a couple of the Everspring water sensors. The nice thing about them is that the sensor itself consists of two metal contacts on the end of a wire (instead of being embedded into the device itself, like in the Fortrezz model). Cut the metal contacts from the wire and solder the wire ends to two smallish flat metal plates, then fix these plates close to each other on the wall with some adhesive (around the edges only; make sure the plates are in contact with the wall). That should be enough to detect the concrete becoming damp.
The Fortrezz valves look like a nice option. The manual mentions that they are Euro certified, but does anyone know if they are available here*? (* meaning: in Europe )
I just installed the Everspring water sensor. I haven’t (fortunately) had a reason to test it yet with a real flood but just when installing it I found it very sensitive. Just touching the two probes tripped the sensor so I suspect if the probe tips were put in contact with the concrete they would trip the sensor if they got damp. Might even be too sensitive since concrete by its nature will absorb moisture from the air.
I also like the fact that the Everspring has a fairly long wire between the module and the actual probe. I mounted the module on the floor joists above in my basement and put the probe on the bottom of a lally column near my hot water heater and condensate pump. Module is out of the way and protected from a flood.
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