Any experiences, good or bad, with the Watts FloodSafe for water heaters? -- shown here, for example:
Perce
I don't have any direct experience, but recently was looking into similar for washing machines. I found that there are also whole house products that function by being placed on the water main pipe after it enters the house. These units in turn come in at least two varities. One uses wireless sensors which can be AC or battery powered and placed anywhere within range. The other uses intelligence to monitor water flow and if even a small flow continues for more that a programmable time, it will cut it off. The obvious advantage to these is that for a little more cost they can be used to guard against a variety of leaks: water heater, washer, ice maker, dishwasher, etc., without having to install a cuttoff type unit for each one. Some can even be connected to the internet or your alarm system to send an alarm. So, if you have multiple locations to protect because of wood floors, etc. they could be worth looking into.
They have their own pros/cons too. The most obvious one for a water heater application is that the whole house type would not shut off the gas, which could be a problem if the tank were to spring a major leak that could empty it. Also, being wireless, possibly battery operated sensors, etc, not as reliable as the one location type you are considering.
rote:
the more protection stuff you add the better the chance of a malfunction, which might be very inconvenient......
like faulty sensor turns off water and gas to tank, and after bypassing system tank fails to relight for any reason, no doubt with house guests coming for christmas, on christmas day.
such cascade failures do occur, I have had some happen here:(
on major leak drains tank but water is off???
my thought is tank is bad anyway, so what if burner comes on in a empty tank? dont tanks have a high limit control?
whats the worst that could happen to a already leaky tank?
Incidently I had a water heater fail with house guests coming for christmas. couldnt buy a heater anywhere finally found a plumber with a tank in his truck:)
his tank install on christmas day was 1600 bucks:( we were lucky to get him....
I NOW replace my water heater every 8 years or so, on my schedule DIY.
I think it's a law of the universe that fail-safe systems fail by failing to fail safe.
If the tank fails wont it flood the pilot light, it will go out and nothing will happen. A pan under a tank and hose to drain always works, its cheap. A whole house shutoff would be better and get an insurance price reduction.
Our WH is in the basement, two rooms away from where the sump and pump are. Installing a pan under an existing WH -- with solid copper plumbing, not the now-recommended flexible connections -- would be difficult, and arranging for it to drain into the sump would be difficult.
Perce
Here's a video demo of the Floodsafe:
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