{"id":207,"date":"2011-02-17T13:11:41","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T18:11:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/?p=207"},"modified":"2012-12-05T16:27:20","modified_gmt":"2012-12-05T21:27:20","slug":"water-alarm-could-have-prevented-basement-flood-disaster-customer-case-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/water-alarm-could-have-prevented-basement-flood-disaster-customer-case-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Water Alarm Could Have Prevented Basement Flood Disaster: Customer Case Study"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"WaterTis the season for cold weather, ice and snow\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6and the threat of frozen pipes and ensuing floods.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Many kinds of disasters can cause water damage to your home.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Fortunately, there are also many devices on the market for water leak detection<\/a>.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 A water alarm<\/a> will notify you as soon as a water leak or flood is detected so you can address the problem immediately.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Here is a real life story of a homeowner who had an unusual problem with a frozen pipe which prompted him to run out and buy a water alarm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On a cold December evening, Bill Coleman arrived home from work and heard the sound of rushing water in his basement.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 He quickly discovered that the water main supply pipe had frozen and burst.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Water was spraying everywhere!\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 He tried to thwart the damage by shutting off the water at the home\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s main valve, but that proved fruitless because the crack was between<\/em> the water main valve and the street.<\/p>\n

Bill placed a frantic call to the town and they dispatched an emergency DPW crew.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 It took 45 minutes for the crew to arrive on the scene and turn the water off at the street.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 By that time Bill\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s basement had taken on more than four inches of water.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Based on the rate that the water was pouring in, the DPW estimated that the pipe broke only 15 minutes before Bill had arrived home.<\/p>\n

\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cIn one short hour, my basement took on four inches of water and I had extensive damage to the floor, walls, ceiling, and furniture,\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d Bill says.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cImagine what a mess there would have been if I had gotten home 8 hours later?\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/p>\n

What really troubled Bill was that because the break in the pipe was before his home\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s water main valve, he couldn\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2t turn the water off himself.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 He had always worried about frozen pipes and had already installed <\/strong>a power failure\/freeze alarm monitoring system<\/a> by Reliance Controls<\/a> that would automatically notify him by phone if his heat went out. \u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0Now, after this recent incident with the broken water main pipe, he began searching for a similar alarm dialer<\/a> that would also notify him of a water leak.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 He was happy to learn that Reliance Controls<\/a> now offers a more advanced model called the THP201<\/a> that monitors for power failures, freezing and<\/span> flooding.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 And, it costs only a few dollars more than his previous system.<\/p>\n

\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cI learned the hard way that a pipe can freeze and burst for reasons other than a power outage or furnace failure, and being able to detect the ensuing water leak is the only way to protect yourself,\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d says Bill.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c5\u201cEven an automatic water shut off valve<\/a> \u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u20ac\u0153 which will address 99% of in-home floods or water leakages — <\/strong>would not have helped in my situation.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 For an extra layer of protection, I suggest adding an auto alarm dialer like I did.\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u009d<\/p>\n

Water damage can happen at any time and the results can be devastating very quickly.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 For less than $100 you can purchase a do-it-yourself device that will alert you of a water leak<\/a> in your basement or near an appliance like a washing machine or dishwasher.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 For more information on selecting a water alarm<\/a>, contact diycontrols.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tis the season for cold weather, ice and snow\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00c2\u00a6and the threat of frozen pipes and ensuing floods.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Many kinds of disasters can cause water damage to your home.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 Fortunately, there are also many devices on the market for water leak detection.\u00c3\u201a\u00c2\u00a0 A water alarm will… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[12,11,24,25],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-freeze-alarms-heat-alarms","category-home-monitoring-security","tag-freeze-alarm","tag-freeze-alarms-2","tag-water-alarm","tag-water-alarms","clearfix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":215,"href":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.diycontrols.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}