12 or 24 VDC Whole house water shutoff valves

[Robert Green]

"John Grabowski" wrote in

Lots of valves, indeed, and some interesting candidates. Thanks for the URL!

-- Bobby G.

[Berkshire Bill]

Ross Valve might be overkill for your application, but you could mount the operator of your choice.

Bill

[Robert Green]

I'm really locked into the electrical valve for a number of reasons, the primary one being that I can rig water sensors and autoshutoffs pretty easily at each potential problem point. Mom's getting forgetful, too, and she has been known to leave the water running and get distracted by a phone call.

Thanks. I've gotten some pretty good pointers and have discovered that Magnatrol, the valve maker I believe that Matt pointed me to, also makes valves for nuclear power plants. If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me! Besides, an electric shut-off valve is probably going to make the house the least non-standard of all the options suggested. If I move, I can unscrew it and replace it with a manual valve or a simple piece of pipe pretty easily.

The house is almost all copper pipe. I don't think I am going to switch to plastic. It's OK for DWV stuff, but I prefer copper and sweated joints for pressure lines. I hope that doesn't start a flame war. I just prefer to use stuff that won't melt and burn in a fire.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

"Berkshire Bill" wrote in

It's clear that there are lots of different grades of valve on the market. Some of the ones I've looked at are rated at NEMA 7, which apparently is "explosion proof."

I just want a nice, inexpensive, house-rated, 3.4" motorized ball valve that won't make a plumbing inspector have heart failure. I may end up shelling out the money for a Watercop after all. :-(

Thanks for the URL, I'll give them a look.

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

Yes, I looked at two of the three sites above and the valves are nice but pricey. They are probably overbuilt, at least for my needs. A Google search led to Grainger's - they have some fairly cheap low-power DC solenoid valves. It may be a problem getting product from them, as you point out. Thanks for the URL'S!

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

Nice valve but at $300 it hardly saves any money over the existing Watercop units. I'm looking in the $40 range. I've got a list of candidate valves in that price range but have to get more information before I make a final decision. I'm waiting to hear back from my county inspector on what the regulations are in my locale.

Thanks for the help! It's much appreciated!

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

There are a number of folks marketing package solutions already, and from what I read in a business article, each one of those companies can barely keep up with demand. In some places, insurance companies are making them manadatory if you've had a water leakage claim and wish to continue with that kind of coverage. Water damage is the number one household insurance claim. Katrina's going to spike that statistic even higher, I am afraid. (Not that an electric valve would have any effect on hurricane damage!)

refrigeration

Yes - that's an idea. I am not quite sure what I want to have happen in a power failure state. That's why I am looking for something that could run a long time from an AGM deep cycle battery.

Yeah - I thought I could use a UPS to power a 110VAC valve and provide some level of immunity from a power failure, but I really prefer 12VDC solutions for such things, having faced a flooded basement after a tornado with a

110VAC Flotec pump and no live outlets to plug it in!

Wow! That's incredible. Everything I've read about Watercop and Flomagic and the others leads me to believe that there are plenty of them out there. I guess not.

Thanks for the info!

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

If anyone is interested in the resolution of this problem, the solution cost less than $100:

[no affiliation - just a happy customer!]

It's a full port, 3/4" 6 volt motorized ball shutoff valve with compression fittings, an AC controller and battery backup power. Not sure if it's well-made internally as the motor housing is much smaller than the industrial process valves, but my limited testing seems to indicate no problems. Installed in 20 minutes with a tubing cutter. Meant for water heater control but should work equally well as a main house cutoff.

The controller, which I've mounted upstairs, has buttons for on, off and mute (it sounds an alarm if it's sensed a leak and caused the valve to close - that alarm also sounds if you close it manually). Couldn't ask for more! It's so inexpensive I am going to order two more to control the front and rear hose bibs so that they can be shut-off easily for vacations and winter freeze protection.

Thanks to all who offered suggestions. I just knew that the parts weren't really worth $400 that Watercop charges!

-- Bobby G.