I'm paranoid too! Our level switch failed on our washer, which is on the second floor, causing $20,000 worth of damage. Our insurance adjuster said most of his calls are because of washer, DW, or ice maker hose failures.

Now, how do you prevent other appliances from causing water damage, because you know it won't be the DW next time! Did you replace your old DW yet? The Miele has a built-in water detection system that will shut off the water. I'm sure a few others do too.

Our plumber told us about the WaterCop, which turns off the main water valve when it detects a leak. You have to put sensors under all your appliances and toilets.

We just installed pipe burst pro for the same reasons. Similar to watercop. Sensors and whole house shut off valve

No, it was a slab leak that destroyed the kitchen.

If most of the damage is caused by washing machine, dishwasher, and icemaker for fridge, why get a system that will monitor the whole house and not something for just those three appliances? Doesn't that increase chance of false alarms and make it more difficult to detect what was leaking if the alarm went off?

Otherwise, I'll just worry about the three things you mentioned and specifically focus on the dishwasher because the dishwasher seems like it has the greatest chance of causing the most damage.

If a washer goes bad, it can flood the room but that since we're talking about the washing room it doesn't seem like the damage would be too expensive unless the washer was located on the second floor.

Did the adjuster breakdown specifically what went wrong with those washers? Thanks to those Farmer's commercials, I'm planning on replacing the washing machine hoses every five years. But, now I'm worried if that's not enough and if level switches are common problems.

Whereas, with a dishwasher and icemaker, the damage will be for the kitchen, which is the most expensive room in the house. And, for the icemaker, it doesn't seem like it would flood the kitchen like how a dishwasher could.

This post was edited by marvelousmarvin on Tue, Jul 23, 13 at 20:59

You don't want to hear the toilet overflow horror stories we heard from our plumber. One of his customers flushed a clogged toilet as they were leaving for vacation and came home to a flooded house. If you have hardwood floors, an ice maker hose leak will ruin them.

The Sears repairman discovered that the level switch failed. The washer continued to fill on the rinse cycle. It only took 20 minutes to destroy sheetrock, ceiling, and all the carpet on the second floor. The washer was 15 years old. We had replaced the hoses last year. Now we turn off the valves when we're done washing.

BTW, we have Farmer's Insurance and they have been wonderful. They even paid us for three hours to clean up the water!

Some dishwashers, like our Bosch have a built-in leak detector that will shut off the water.

I came home from a business trip to warped floors. The washing machine hoses leaked because dumb and dumber installed them without all the parts. The water damage extended to the lower level that is fully finished. Still I firm cost because our contractor cannot come until September. Insurance company has been superb and know there will be add ons.

I've been wondering about these as well - since we will have hardwood in the kitchen, I'm concerned about potential leaks from the DW and the water line to the fridge. I have no idea on what is the best ones to use - I'm just starting to research them a bit, so I welcome any info that can be passed along.

A number of years ago, our Bosch washer malfunctioned during the night and we woke to a sopping carpet and flooded kitchen. The dishwasher was supposed to be leaf proof, but an outlet in it seized in the open position and water flooded out the door. It was a mess--carpet was new and we were leaving the next day for a graduation ceremony up north. We cleaned it up and gave a neighbor a key so they could check. The water shut-off valve in the garage didn't work right so water kept leaking into the dishwasher and it filled again. Called another friend who shut the water off at the street and that ended the dishwasher leak. All has been fixed and repaired as necessary, now we have a leak alarm under the dish drawers and the refrigerator.

I don't have any experience with floodstop devices but I do take a couple of simple precautions. I have water alarms in the laundry room and inside my main sink cabinet. I also turn off water at the main entry point into the house whenever we're away for more than a day.

Great topic, although sorry for eveyone's disasters. What's a water alarm? I'm paranoid that one of our under sink devices (hot water, filtered water, chiller or pipes etc) will leak and I won't find out until it's too late!

A water alarm is a alarm that you place on the floor which will emit a loud noise if it detects any water. And, you can find them at Home Depot or Lowe's.

They're best used as a precaution against a slow leak that might not get noticed until its too late to notice like in the base cabinet for the sink or behind the fridge.

But, they're of limited use if they go off when you're not home to hear it or if the water is from a burst pipe or hose instead of a slow leak.

If a water alarm goes off and nobody is around to hears it...

may_flowers,

If the washing machine hadn't been on the second floor, would it still have caused $20,000 worth of damage? I'm still trying to wrap my head around how it could cause so much damage in 20 minutes.

My insurance is Farmer's too, and my experience hasn't been as great as yours. Farmer's was very prompt and all that, but they initially tried to lowball me with a ridiculous offer- they were saying they'd pay $10,000 for an entire kitchen when I had to replace the kitchen cabinets, flooring, and countertops.

Eventually, they did increase their offer to something more reasonable but I don't understand why they couldn't have offered me something reasonable from the very beginning. Its not like anything changed, where they got some new information that changed their estimate.

Even though I'm thankful that Farmer's eventually improved their offer, that initial estimate kind of hamstrung me to making some mistakes that I'm already regretting.

Our insurance adjuster brought a restoration company GC along with him, and he estimated the cost to repair/replace the damaged areas. Only one bedroom and the hall got soaked, but the water went in a foot to the other bedrooms and stairway, so that was enough to pull all the carpet.

They removed the kitchen ceiling. Because our ceiling is textured and our downstairs rooms open to each other, they had to mud, texture, and paint the entire ceiling on the first floor. Then there was sheetrock, molding, paint, new laundry closet flooring, and hardwood floor refinishing in the downstairs hallway. The dry-out/rip-out company's bill was close to $5000.

How did they determine the value of your cabinets? For our carpet, they sent a sample to a lab to determine fiber content, weight, etc. to come up with the replacement value. We paid the difference for a better quality carpet than the one that was damaged.

It was a 7 week ordeal. They just finished all the work yesterday.

I knew my cabinets weren't the best, most expensive cabinets but they were clearly plywood cabinets which is why I thought their estimate was so clearly off if they expected me to replace a kitchen with plywood cabinets for only 10K.

I honestly thought Farmers threw out a ridiculously low offer because they knew from past experience that a lot of homeowners were going to accept that offer.

Some owners try to push back against low offers from their insurance by hiring public adjusters. But, you might not end up getting that much more money because you have to share a portion of the total settlement with the public adjuster.

I think I need to get these - we managed to leak a leak proof Miele - a piece of grit caught in the valve and then we had the door open so the secondary system failed. All has been fine since them and not too much damage as it went right to the basement (not a recent event - and we have a newer Miele now)
I want to see if we can get the alarms tied into our security system - noise won't help if not around.
A friend went for a bike ride and the washing machine hose ruptured while gone - it was pretty ugly....

They don't pay replacement value, marvin. They pay to bring you to where you were before the water damage. Our carpet was 13 years old and next to be replaced in our remodel. They gave us $2700 for it. We paid close to $5000 for the new carpet.

It's scary to think we put our trust in cheap made-in-China hoses!

May-flowers - I think that you can have two different types of homeowners insurance usually...one being replacement value, the other is not. Replacement value coverage is usually a bit more expensive.

When we were insurance shopping, this was a concern of ours because we have plaster walls, etc. and wanted to make sure that if something happened, we would get plaster wall replacement, not drywall replacement.

My niece had an upstairs toilet flood almost the entire house. Wood floors, cabinets, carpet, ceiling, walls, wood stairs, etc. Nine rooms flooded while they were sleeping. One of the kids used the toilet at night. It was still pouring out water the next morning. Five year old house.

Does anyone know if there is an alarm that can send a message to your phone? I know you can close your garage door or turn off lights with your phone.
Peke

Have you all heard about these? I saw these recommended in the plumbing forum, and bought some. They haven't had a failure in over 20 yrs on the market...

Here is a link that might be useful: floodchek hoses for laundry machines

If you are not afraid of going "techie" way you can install wireless zWave water sensors.

Sensors will report water leaks to the zWave controller connected to your network and controller will send text message to your smartphone and also will activate whole house shutt-off valve.

Not a real leak, just a test:

From: noreply3@micasaverde.com
Date: November 5, 2012, 15:49:52 EST
Subject: Vera Notification for Event-Water Leak Detected in the Guest Bathroom 1 Device-Water Alarm - Guest Bathroom Room-Guest Bedroom Date-2012-11-05 15:49:36 #10757

Event-Water Leak Detected in the Guest Bathroom 1 Device-Water Alarm - Guest Bathroom Room-Guest Bedroom Date-2012-11-05 15:49:36 #10757

It's not a rocket science but assumes some learning curve.

You will find more information here:

http://www.micasaverde.com/

This forum can be also useful:

http://forum.micasaverde.com/