water shut off

[heehaw]

i want a device i can put on the water line coming into a house, that will shut the water off, if it runs for 30 minutes straight..then it could be reset if everything was ok. my youngest daughter got home last night to find @2 inches of water in the whole house. the line to the kitchen sink had broken or something?? not sure yet, she called a restoration co. here in town, they came out with 6 guys and removed all the carpet, vacuumed up the water, and left a dehumidifier in the house, took 2-3 hours..this little shut off thingy would have stopped this problem..
any ideas out there??
heehaw

 

[snowman]

I know that you can buy lawn sprinklers that you can set a timer for; as water goes through the hose into the sprinkler, it "winds down" the timer and then shuts off (blocks) the water from the hose.

It sounds like this is along the lines of what you looking for.

May want to contact fire control or sprinkler companies (or any plumber, probably) as I'm sure many commercial buildings have the type of automatic shut off valve.

 

[heehaw]

this same thing has happened recently, to 2 other people i know, one caught it early, so just a minor problem, the other was like my daughter, but the insurance co replaced all of the flooring in the house. i may be thinking wrong, maybe a switch at each sink, push the switch and the water is on for 30 minutes and then goes off, this would be easier to do??
heehaw

 

[MossRoad]

Also available in several different pipe sizes. Heck, you might want to check out <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.smarthome.com>the whole Smart Home site. Lots of cool, but pricey stuff.

 

[snowman]

Your first idea - a shut off on the main line, is probably the best solution. That would protect you no matter where a water line breaks. If you have a shut off at the kitchen sink, but the water line breaks somewhere in your wall, then your kitchen sink shutoff wouldn't be of any use.

 

[heehaw]

using the switch idea, the shut-off is installed on the main line coming to the house, then a switch, or pushbutton located at each water usage location, push the button, and you have water for 30 minutes. it could even be wired into the light switch in the bathrooms, turn on the light and it triggers the timer to give you water..this one would be easy to do, especially if you use remote control switches, so you don't have to run wires. the problem with the watercop, is having to have at least 3 sensors, and with a house on a slab, the watercop would have to be installed outside, underground> not sure how well it would work, or last that way.
heehaw

 

[Wingnut]

Heehaw,
you might want to look at it a different way. Instead of a timer type device ... there are switches the work off a moisture and/or water sensor. I had one in Alberta to automatically switch my sump and sewer pumps on if moisture was detected in my basement. Since you can usually always get switches as normally on or normally off .... you could use a normally on in this case ... which would mean that it would switch the pump off if moisture was detected.

 

[heehaw]

thats sorta what the watercop does, but it would take 4 sensors/switches to cover the house, and protect the carpet.
i'll keep looking, a device that will shut off the water if it runs for a preset time, would be the easiest to use..if such a thing exist.
heehaw

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I built a similar system to cure a problem we had with teenitus in a male child. He would stay in the shower till there was no more hot water, so I installed a solonoid on the hot water line that shut down after 5 minutes. Odd thing was Little Prescious only had to get the message once, and I didn't get to hear his mother bich about cold showers after that.
Since we live on a well, my considerations toward water use were different from hers, but I definitely loved hearing the screaming as Little Prescious egressed the cold shower. His mother was concerned till I told her to just wait 10 minutes for the system to reset.
The biggest problem in constructing such a system on "city water" is sensing flo. Most flo sensing switches are designed for pipes at least 2" diameter. The simplest solution would be to install a timer controlled solonoid valve, activated by buttons at each sink or water using device.

 

[ewoss3]

I would worry that if you shut off the water feed that you could starve an appliance(most likely your hotwater heater). I see homes with busted water pipes every year and 70 percent of them end up cooking thier water heater.