Header Image

Header Image

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Water Leak Sensor


This is a great addition for your piece of mind anywhere that you have a water source, and it runs about $10. It is basically a battery powered water alarm that sounds whenever its sensor touches water.We had already purchased the Basement Watchdog backup sump pump so that even when the power goes out, we would have a plan b to keep our basement from being flooded, and it comes with its own alarm--and just as we were about to install it, we found out that doing it before the 2-year mark will void our plumbing  warranty from Ryan on the original sump, so it sits in the corner waiting for 2-years/1-day.

Quick lesson on sumps: You have a french drain installed around the outside of your house, so that as water seeps through the ground and reaches a certain level, it enters into the drain and fills up your sump crock (black round thing) in the basement. When the level of water in the crock makes the lever on the pump (which is inside the crock) activate, the pump turns on and  ejects water out of the crock. If your pump fails, the crock will fill up and overflow into your basement.



So, just to keep us sane we picked this up from amazon and tested it in a sink and it does its job. It has a 6ft extension cable for the sensor and can be placed in the basement sump crock, next to your hvac, water heater, under your clothes and dishwasher, sink cabinets...anywhere.

This is what we have now, not the prettiest but handles it's business.


Were going to drop the sensor inside of that black rubber stopper. It already has a cable going through it so this makes the most sense.

Installation is pretty self explanatory.






The box will go here



Run your fingers down the length of wire a few times to get it as straight as possible since it ships all wound up and wrinkly.

Drop into hole, and thread through rubber stopper



Our sensor ended up sitting about 6" above the incoming french drain pipe so if the pump doesnt activate for whatever reason, the alarm will sound. Its 85 decibels which is pretty loud.


3 comments:

  1. luckily I don't have a sump to deal with. BUT, there are setups like these that work for the washing machine/hot water heater. The fancier ones have automated valves that turn off the water. Something on my mind with a second floor laundry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. It is something to think about with a secondary laundry room!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This was great to read, thank you! It's now on my do it yourself after close list. Great Blog! Avid follower :)

    http://buildingourabode.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete