Best WiFi Water Shut Off Valves: Guardian vs Dome
Living in New England I hear all the time about sudden pipe bursts in the night or massive water leaks that caused thousands of dollars in damages because of frozen pipes.
Did you know there is a very simple resolution for this if you are willing to implement a wireless or wifi water shut off valve into your home?
All too often accidental flooding ruins childhood photos and precious memories. Installing a WiFi automatic water shut off valve is a simple way to make sure that you never have to worry about that.
These are also very handy if you own a second home and can’t be there all the time to make sure that you don’t get accidental flooding leaving you with a horrible surprise when you arrive at your vacation home or rental.
There are several questions that are probably already ringing in your head. I’ll try to answer your questions here and hopefully show you how helpful these tools are.
How Does A WiFi Water Shut Off Valve Work?
Smart automatic water shut off valves or wifi water shut off valves enable a homeowner to turn the main water off remotely via smartphone or automatically when used with a smart water sensor.
They automatically turn off the water when a leak is detected to prevent additional water damage.
Some of them come with a manual override as well, so that you can shut the water off manually. Which is highly recommended by most plumbers in the industry.
What Is Different About A WiFi Water Shut Off Valve?
What makes a smart water-shutoff valve different from regular water shut off valves is that it lets you turn off your home’s water supply from anywhere.
Whether you are away on vacation or monitoring your vacation home itself these new wireless water shut off valves will work extremely well at notifying you if there is a problem if they are implemented with water leak sensors.
Samsung SmartThings is a great system to implement with just about any smart water shut off valve mostly due to their water leak sensors compatibility.
How Hard Is It To Install A WiFi Water Shut Off Valve?
Typically it is not that hard for a homeowner to install. However, you may want to hire a plumber if you do not feel comfortable working with plumbing at all yourself.
There are some that really do require a plumber and for that reason, I am not going to include them in this article, also due to the fact that they are way out of the price range of the average consumer.
Which WiFi Water Shut Off Valve Should I Get?
There are a lot of different options for smart water shut off valves. But I’m going to give you the skinny on what is out there so that you can make the best decision on what is the best wifi shut off valve to purchase for your home.
Guardian By Elexa
The Guardian by Elexa system gives you a water-shutoff valve and three wireless leak detectors. So you don’t have to worry about purchasing separate water leak sensors.
When one of their leak detectors senses water and is triggered, the valve will automatically shut off your water.
The best part? No pipe cutting!
Instead, the device clamps onto your water intake pipe around the valve handle and uses a motor to turn the handle on and off.
This is probably one of the easiest solutions to install yourself that way you don’t have to call upon a plumber to install it.
You can check out the user reviews and current pricing over here on Amazon.
LeakSmart
As one of the newest automatic water shutoff and leak prevention options, LeakSmart focuses on the benefits of being able to integrate directly with your smart home. LeakSmart gives you leak detectors and the main hub to shut off the water main in case of a leak.
The best part for homeowners is that LeakSmart will send you a notification if a leak is actually detected.
The plus for you is that you can shut off your main valve remotely. But their awesome smart home integration means you could use your smart assistant to set in motion an automatic shut-off if freezing temperatures occur or if power is lost.
You can check out the user reviews and current pricing over here on Amazon.
Dome
I saved my personal favorite for last. The reason that Dome is my favorite is that it is the lowest cost of entry for automatic water shut off valves.
You can use it with any quarter-turn ball valve up to 1-1/2 inches and it works with 1/4-turn ball valves, even those found on water heaters and radiant heat systems!
The ball valve can be turned off manually if need be. If there is no power, there is a pull ring on the underside of the Dome that will disengage the arm from the motor to allow a person to manually turn the valve in either direction.
One of my favorite things about the Dome is that it integrates pretty much seamlessly with the Samsung SmartThings hub as well as with the Wink 2 hub.
You can check out the user reviews and current pricing over here on Amazon.
Conclusion
Unless you want to spend an arm and a leg on costly repairs from a flooded basement, I strongly suggest buying a WiFi water shut off valve.
It can also save a lot of tears from memories possibly being destroyed in a disaster like having your pipes freeze or in the case of an earthquake.
Smart home technology is changing the way we live and making our lives better in so many different ways. While you are here make sure you check out some of my other articles like my article on the best smart home thermostats.
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