My neighbor came back from a 4-week vacation with $34,500 damage due to an ice-maker line leak. The damage included furniture, walls, the ceiling below, etc. Now, he turns off the water main before vacation.
I have a well and electric water heater. I always turn the breakers off when leaving overnight. This means I could get whatever is in the tank and no more water. Moved in this house about 4 years ago.
The other house was fed by a comunity well and a gas water heater. It was built around 1965. The water pipes started getting pin hole leaks about 10 years ago. I had the pipes replaced after patching them about 5 times over a couple of years. After moving and while trying to sell the house I left the water on. Came in after being gone 2 days and found one of the hoses of the washing machine had broken and was leaking very bad. Just lucky it was a house where the washer was in the little room of a carport so there was no real damage done. I then cut off the water and turned the water heater to pilot unless I was at the house.
Just put it on pilot. Mine's a power vent , and i just shut it off when we leave for more than 24 hours. 'Course the water gets shut off also.
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