Water leaks and floods can be a very costly experience for homeowners. Just a small leak in your home that goes unnoticed or flooding outside your property from rain or leaky plumbing can cause structural damage, nasty mold growth, and other expensive repairs. Fortunately, advancements in smart home technology now offer innovative solutions to detect, prevent, and minimize water damage before it can become a major problem. A smart home can vastly reduce the risk of water damage by integrating advanced water leak monitoring sensors into susceptible areas of your home. As soon as leaks or sudden flooding is detected, homeowners can also receive notifications and alerts on their smartphones or local hub devices. In the past, detecting water leaks such as sudden increases in the water bill or noticing damp spots on walls, ceilings, and floors often meant the issue was far too advanced to prevent significant damage. And checking for flooding on your property during heavy rain usually meant going outside to inspect it yourself. But, with smart water leak detection devices homeowners have the ability to prevent water leaks from getting out of control and monitoring areas outdoors for potential floods means you can have a chance to minimize or prevent damage to your home and its surroundings.

Smart Devices to Help Prevent Water Damage in Your Home

A smart water leak prevention system includes several devices that work together to protect your home and provide peace of mind:

Smart Water Leak Sensors:

Water leak sensors are often small, battery-operated devices that can be placed in high-risk areas to detect moisture and send alerts when water is present. Depending on the brand and model, these sensors support various protocols, including Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Z-Wave, as well as compatibility with Amazon Alexa or Google Home networks. Most can be managed and controlled through a mobile app so that you can receive real-time notifications on your smartphone to allow you to quickly respond to prevent water damage.

Ideal areas where to place water leak sensors include:

• Kitchen: dishwashers, refrigerators, icemakers
• Bathroom: toilets, bathtubs, showers
• Basements
• Water Heaters
• Washing Machines
• Humidifiers
• Spigots
• Sinks

Smart water leak sensors can also be added to automated scenes to dynamically warn anyone in the building of a detected leak. For example, if the sensor detects a leak you can have smart lights in your home blink on and off repeatedly as a visual notification that there's an issue; or the sensor can trigger an indoor siren to emit an audible alert.

Automatic Water Shutoff Valve Systems:

Flood prevention devices include motorized shutoff valves that will close your main water supply to completely stop the leaks as soon as smart leak sensors detect water. These systems typically include a motorized actuator and a shut-off valve designed to work with smart water leak sensors. The actuator and valve are installed on the main water line and connect to the leak sensor either wirelessly or through a cable. As soon as a leak is detected by the sensor, the shutoff valve will turn off the water supply automatically to prevent flooding and at the same time, you can set up the system to send alerts to your smartphone so you can know exactly when a leak was detected. Automatic water shutoff valves are also designed to be compatible with various FNTP sizes to accommodate the various plumbing pipes in your home. 

Sump Bobber Water Level Sensor:

In smart homes with basements, this device provides remote monitoring of water levels of a sump basin or sump pump and sends alerts to a connected alarm, receiver, or security controller when water is absent, when it comes into contact with the sensor, and when the sensor is fully submerged. Just make sure this device is connected to a receiver, security hub, or alarm system for a low cost sump pump alarm system.

Smart Devices to Limit Water Damage from the Weather

Beside preventing water damage from occurring inside your home, there are other types of smart devices that can minimize or prevent water damage from excess rain or extreme weather.

Winland EnviroAlert Professional EAPro Gateway:

If you live or have a property in an area where rain tends to cause flooding, this system could help you know which parts of your property are about to be flooded. The EAPro Gateway provides a wide range of environmental notifications and works with sensors to monitor up to 34 zones (30 wireless, 4 wired) of your property. The sensors can be managed remotely using Winland's INSIGHT, which is a cloud-based critical monitoring service that can also provide email or text message alerts and reporting.

Window/Awning Motors:

Window/awning motor systems feature a motorized actuator that works on windows, skylights, and awnings. The motorized actuators are typically controlled via a remote control or wall switch, allowing you to easily close your windows or awnings when it starts to rain. There are also Rain Detectors that can be installed and connected to the system to automatically close the windows/awnings whenever rain is detected.

Control Modules:

These modules fit behind a wall switch to add remote control over motors that control powered shutters, awnings, and other devices. They are typically used to automatically open/close when targeted temperatures are reached to make your indoor living space more comfortable. But they can also be used to close your powered shutters or awnings as soon as rain or extreme weather conditions are detected.

For more questions about preventing water damage from occurring using smart devices, or any other home automation or home security topics, talk to our team over the phone at (858)-693-8887 or email us at service@homecontrols.com. You can also check out other entries in our blog for more insights about smart home automation and security devices.