Re: Emergency Water Turn-Off?

["Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1963@xxxxxxxxx>]

"wkearney99" <wkearney99@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

> I'd wonder, besides issues with lawn and plant irrigation what
> negative impact would a shut-off have on the typical residence?

I've been doing a lot of plumbing work and in my house, killing main water
causes the water heater really shake rattle and roll.  Depending on whether
someone opens up a valve or flushes a toilet, and where, you'll have a lot
of effects.  You'll have faucets spitting rusty water HARD if the water
drained out of those lines.  I've had a massage showerhead in a clip holder
blow off the wall in one case and go flying around the room soaking the
place before I caught it.  Probably something to consider in the overall
plan of a water killer - the cure being worse than the disease!

> Granted, beyond the tedium of having to go manually turn it back
> on again.  I'd much rather have something that just cut it off,
> sounded some sort of alert (to a security console, PC or
> whatever) and left it off.

I guess that's the best solution.  But I worry about false alarms inducing
air into the system.  It's never happened to me, but I'll bet you could get
an icemaker into trouble with too much cycling.  De/Repressurizing is a
fairly serious event for a plumbing system.  I think if you have a shutoff
without *serious* warning capabilities, people will turn on the water and
discover it's shut off that way.  And if they open up the right valves,
you'll get a lot of air in the pipes with the very MIL-unfriendly start-up
spitting.  It's very startlingly.

We probably should crosspost this thread to alt.home.repair, as that's where
I found a wealth of useful plumbing data.  There ARE legitimate uses of
crossposting.  It's just too bad we haven't been seeing them lately.  )-:

--
Bobby G.