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With even a small 40 gallon water heater, even if the incoming water is shut off it is going to do serious damage if it dumps the contents. There are containment products available which will capture a low-pressure leak and direct it through a drainage hose. No electronics, no moving parts.
My water heater is on the second floor, but it sits on a pan that drains to the outside of the house faster than the unit would leak. My builder made sure to explain it to me when I expressed concerns about it being upstairs.
I like the shut-off gizmo for the washing machine, though.
I'm telling you guys, having a pan that drains under the water heater isn't enough. Mine spewed several feet, missing the pan completely. I was lucky it was over the garage, and I only had to pay about $400 to have the ceiling repaired. My water heater was only about 4 years old. The "warranty" (if you want to call it that) only covered the $80 control panel piece that allowed the gushing to happen and didn't include house damages. I wish I had thought about it sooner and spent that $400 on preventable measures. I will at this house.
My water heater is on the second floor, but it sits on a pan that drains to the outside of the house faster than the unit would leak. My builder made sure to explain it to me when I expressed concerns about it being upstairs.
I like the shut-off gizmo for the washing machine, though.
In my neighborhood, all of our water heaters are on upper floors and are in pans (most of the homes were built between 2004 and 2008 and code requires that now) that have 3/4" lines to run outside.
One water heater failed by just a small leak. The pan contained the water just fine. Its just that about level with the 1st floor, there was a bad joint, so the water seeped into the sill and the subfloor. The people noticed the leak when the floor started buckling. It cost $9,000 to fix.
Another heater went (the one I mentioned earlier) and probably started as a small leak judging by the rust on the outside of the heater, from the water soaking the insulation. However one day, when they were gone all day, it went in a big way. The drain pan fitting was no longer tight and the rubber washer had become dry. SO, the water just ran out. Not only was the water running into the street, when I walked in, it was coming through the ceiling and light fixtures on the first floor and the entire floor in half the house had standing water and they were frantically trying to catch it with garbage cans. Went upstairs and water was coming through the light fixtures and ceiling from above, onto their beds and everything else in the bedrooms on that side. All the carpet was squishing water when I walked. Finally got to the finished attic where some of the floor was dry and found the heater. I was able to shut off both lines and drain the heater for them using a hose out the third floor window. It really did cost them over $20,000 and a moth or so to get it all fixed. All the drywall of the ceilings on half of two floors and to be removed and some of the walls. Same with carpet. (did I mention this was the day before Thanksgiving?)
So, moral of the story is a drain pan is nice if it works, but a shutoff is relatively cheap insurance to stop more catastrophic damage.
Both those people as well as a few others have opted to go with tankless heaters mounted on the outside of the house as their replacement.
If you're usually home, there's a relatively cheap way to be notified of a leak more quickly.
There are more expensive solutions which can tie into Home Automation, alarm systems, etc.
My home which we have not moved into is heated with gas and has all utility's on,located in CT Hartford county.
Our son-in-law checks it periodicly and it does worry me.To protect home which has gas heat I have a 30,000 Btu heater which is used when temp runs below constant low freezing temp in case of power outage.I also have thermostat device with 2 red lights set in window set at 55,the house temp is set at 65.
Daughter and husband do sleep there occasionally.
Water has been my concern,with the Flood Alert I could locate it next to meter and have two sensors.Water heater is new and water to washer shut off,never thought about this type device.Thank You.
Get the equipment out of the attic.
I'd never have such.
It must be something that's popular in the South where winter temps don't get that low. Nobody in the North puts a water tank (or water pipes for that matter) in an attic because that's asking for trouble in terms of frozen pipes.
I wouldn't have it myself, either. If you don't have a basement, put it in the garage but not in the attic!
BTW, you can also purchase metal washer hoses that are much less likely to leak than the regular ones. When I moved my laundry out of the basement to the first floor, I bought those as a very cheap insurance policy.
I installed one of these after two of my neighbors had water heaters go, leaking hundreds of gallons into their houses causing $20k ish worth of damage. FloodStop Water Heater Auto Shut Off Valve 3/4 NPT at least it limits it to the 60 gallons in the heater instead of running until water was flowing into the street like the people that came knocking at my door at 10:30 one night after being gone since. 8:00 am. We all have drain pans but theirs had the fitting not tight enough so it leaked.
Just ordered one plus sensor Thank you for link,better price than ebay and more confident with this company.
I ended up buying the OnSite Pro brand shut off system. I like the water sensor better, and there are plenty of their videos floating around online showing it in action. I noticed the owner is also responding to negative reviews on Amazon, trying to make it right. That's good enough for me.
It must be something that's popular in the South where winter temps don't get that low. Nobody in the North puts a water tank (or water pipes for that matter) in an attic because that's asking for trouble in terms of frozen pipes.
I wouldn't have it myself, either. If you don't have a basement, put it in the garage but not in the attic!
BTW, you can also purchase metal washer hoses that are much less likely to leak than the regular ones. When I moved my laundry out of the basement to the first floor, I bought those as a very cheap insurance policy.
Linda
Moving about the country will inform/show one why things are done different.
The answer is that few homes in the south have basements/cellars and attic freezing is not an issue. Also few (if any) use oil heat and would consider a fuel of last resort.
When I first moved to the south my home builder told me I was hung up on heating my house and I should be more hung up on cooling it.
I know plenty of cheap olde Yankees (notice the olde) that will say air conditioning is not needed. I say, wrongo cheap olde yankee......LOL
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