I am always surprised when I find that most people have not heard about a water alarm. I think it’s just as necessary as a smoke alarm in your home. These things are BRILLIANT and have saved our bacon more times than I can count. Water damage can be very expensive. We’ve had water in our basement at least 10 times now from either our washer, our water lines, or bad storms. So over the years, this little ten-dollar water leak detector from First Alert has saved us thousands of dollars!
How Does a Water Alarm Work?
So, what’s a water alarm, you ask? So simple. It’s a little doohicky about the size of a pack of cards. You can buy a water alarm online at Amazon or any home improvement store. It sits on the floor anywhere you are likely to have water coming into your house – near the washer, water heater, back door, under the sink, etc. Then if it senses even one drop of water, it sets off a piercing alarm to let you know there is a problem.
For example, just yesterday, we had a very sudden, very HEAVY rainstorm. Sure enough, the drain by our back door clogged up (again!). And the water started pouring in the over the door sill to into our laundry room. It took us a couple of minutes to figure out what that alarm noise was. Then we had to grab towels and the shop vac. By then, there was half an inch of water and it was spreading quickly through the basement area.
If we hadn’t had a water alarm, we wouldn’t have noticed until we next went to do laundry. It was a mess to clean up, but it didn’t cause any damage. Another hour later and we would have had serious damage and unnecessary expenses. We actually have several of water leak alarms – one under each of the bathroom sinks, one near the water heater, one by the washing machine, you get the idea.
Of course, you’ve got to be home to HEAR the alarm, but some of the more pricey models have a way to send an alert to your phone. That would definitely be a helpful feature.
Sidebar: We went on a weeklong vacation once only to find out that our St. Bernard had decided to dig up the backyard and had caught the sprinkler line. It fountained up and seeped under the sliding glass door. We came home to find mushrooms growing in our very expensive berber carpet – sigh. That was a pretty expensive experience…
You might even be able to get a discount on your homeowners insurance for having a water leak alarm to detect unexpected water leaks.
Water alarm – get one NOW (or maybe get a couple of them!). I promise you, you’ll be happy you did.
