Zircon64003 Leak Alert Electronic Water Detector, 1-Pack

UPDATE - Feb. 2010Still working and alerted me to a water spill I made when pouring a pail of water into our basement utility sink.Having experienced a time or two when rinse water from our washing machine drain spilled over, I eagerly bought two of the Zircon Water Detector Alarms when I saw them. My advice to you is buy one - NOW! - before the same thing happens to you! The alarm is loud enough to alert you at the start of any water emergency. While an ounce of protection is said to be worth a pound of cure, in my book an ounce of protection is worth ten buckets of cure! Even though we were wading through clean rinse water, it was no picnic, and since we usually rinse our clothes twice, we had twice the amount of water to deal with!Now, unless you are the rare bird who keeps only your laundry appliances in your basement and nothing else, you know it's not a fun task to pick up and dry all of the things you store there! Believe me, I would have paid somebody twice the price of the alarm to clean up the soggy aftermath! Soaking up water is no picnic! I gratefully used my wet/dry to suck up the water, went to empty it out and spilled some right back on the floor! At that point I wondered what made me think I needed such a big vac! Keep that in mind for future reference should you need to purchase one! I have since purchased the Shop-Vac Hang Up Pro 5-Gallon 4.5 HP Wet/Dry Wall Mounted Vac and recommend it as being much easier to handle. I wish I would have bought these water alarms sooner. Now I keep one by the drain and one by the hot water tank. I am also going to buy these alerts as Christmas gifts for those who have sump pumps. If I can save someone else from having to deal with the mess of water cleanup then my mess will have been worth it. Well, almost!Of course, it was 5 in the morning and I was still half asleep when I innocently stepped into our basement wading pool! I remember the moment well, bare feet, cold water, eyes snapping open and then the sound of my groan! After that, well, it's probably best I stop there! ~ The Boss

I have three of these, one for my reef aquarium, another for the pool equipment room, and another by the water heater. It has already allowed me to respond to flooding before any damage was done. On rare occassion the protein skimmer in my aquarium cabinet overflows, and the Zircon Water Detector is on the floor of the cabinet and detects the moisture right away. I can hear the piercing alarm from the next room with the cabinet door closed and also with the room door closed. It sounds somewhat like a smoke detector. It is very sensitive because the alarm will continue until the contacts are completely dry (even if you lift it off the surface, the alarm may continue until you wipe it with a towel and allow the metal to fully dry). I've never had a false alarm so far, which is important. The alarm has only sounded when wet. The batteries seem to last a long time, haven't had to change any yet.

Simple and effective for monitoring for water leaks if you don't require electronic notification alerts. These emit a piercing alarm when they detect water so there is no "smart" functionality with these but they do work well. Overall they seem pretty cheaply made but they are effective and cheap enough to put one at every source of potential leak (water heater, dishwasher, under sinks, etc.)

I bought one of these 5 years ago for our water heater closet -- got it after our water header sprung a leak and I didn't notice until I saw water pooling on the garage floor. Fortunately, the damage was minimal and that hasn't happened again.After another close call with the drainpipe pipe coming loose under the kitchen sink (fortunately, we noticed before water was able to escape the cabinet), I picked up a another one-pack and later a three pack of these sensors. I put them around the house in little-used or inaccessible areas where a slow leak might not be detected for a while and cause a disaster.One of those places is behind the refrigerator to help protect new wood floors in the kitchen from the icemaker and water dispenser lines. Last week, that one started beeping (it took us a while to figure out what was making the beeping noise, of course) and sure enough, when I pulled out the refrigerator, there was a small puddle of water on the floor. I sopped it up (fortunately, it didn't have time to soak in)m and the next morning, it happened again. This time, I took the back of the refrigerator apart and tightened some nuts on the waterlines that felt loose (there was no clue as to where the little puddle had come from). Since then, it hasn't happened again, but I'll sleep better with this leak detector standing guard.Anyway, this is a fine, pretty much indispensible product. The 3-pack also includes the 9V batteries, so that's a better deal even though it's about 3x the price of the single pack.

This little device saved me from a flooded house! Worth every penny!