One of our neighbors recently suffered a massive flood in their house due to a burst sink supply hose:
Readers: What material do you think we’re looking at here? A vinyl or rubber inside pipe surrounded by braided stainless steel?
All of our houses in this sub-development (within Abacoa) are 20 years old so it is possible that this supply hose had been waiting to fail for 20 years. This plumbing company says to replace the supply lines everywhere in the house every ten years, but also implies that five years is the correct interval:
The general rule of thumb is to replace all your supply line hoses every 5 years as a preventative measure to protect your home against any potential leaks. But since braided supply lines have a rubber core, we recommend that they can be replaced every 10 years.
The Fluidmaster Pro supply lines have a 10-year warranty, which presumably means that replacing after 7-8 years would be smart. A set of two is less than $20, I think, so it wouldn’t cost a lot to hit all of the sinks and toilets in a house.
Does anyone reading this have a Moen Flo AI overlord water shutoff device in his/her/zir/their home? If so, I would love to hear about it in the comments. It seems as though it would have potential to generate hassles, e.g., Family Member A is in the house taking a shower while Family Member B is outside topping off the pool, which looks to the Flo like a one-hour massive leak (it is possible to tell the Flo to sleep for a bit while one is doing something unusual with water). The Flo can be installed outdoors so long as there is an electric outlet nearby and it can latch onto 2.4 GHz WiFi (I think we can meet those requirements).
Another potential source of paranoia is erosion of copper supply lines by hot water recirculation. Apparently the pump has to be sized exactly right, which involves a lot of calculation (example). In an innumerate society such as the U.S., the inevitable result is a lot of houses being built with big pumps thrown at the recirculation system.
I think a WiFi/Zigbee/whatever leak detector is a better idea. I used to have some in my old house, and on two occasions they detected potential flood issues: a dishwasher leak and a a leaking water heater in the basement.
E.g.: https://shorturl.at/B2z3q
Now I sort of do not care.
Thanks, Ivan. I already have a bunch of Govee sensors for leaks in various places. https://amzn.to/3UsUV5e seems to be the latest version. They do work well, but what if we’re not home and it happens in the middle of the night and the phone is on “sleep mode” and, even if we did hear the alert, can’t wake up a neighbor?
Maybe the lion kingdom will stick to renting.
Replace not just the hoses, but all the valves too. The floor + walls in my downstairs bathroom was ruined by a leaking valve that went unnoticed for a few days (it’s a room that is rarely used).
My mother’s whole house was ruined by a plumbing leak, that happened while they were in Hawaii for a month. The leak on the upstairs bathroom seeped through the ceiling, down onto the main floor. The insurance company decided it was a totalled.