Water Leak Detection

I'm a relatively new Alarm Installer but have many years in Home Automation.   
 
In a few weeks I'm going to install my first Elk M1 Gold and want use Water Leak Detection in about 22 locations (Sinks, Toilets, Ice Makers, Dishwasher etc).  The  sensors like the GRI 2500/2600 series use some power.  The other product I'm looking at is the United Security Products WLS (Water Leak Sensor) that appears to be just an NO/NC unpowered sensor.
 
Does anyone have experience with either product?-advantages, cost, reliability, power needs etc?
 
Planning on putting each detector on its own zone to have the ability to pinpoint leak.
 
Thank You in advance
 
David Groves
High IQ Homes of Texas, LLC

My guess is that product you are asking about is designed for a specific 'panel' zone interface.  Perhaps a 'current threshold' zone.  The M1G zones would need to use something more like the GRI water sensors.

I have the GRI2600 sensors and can say they work very well. 
I had a leak in my laundry room that was detected and the house water valve secured rapidly. 
In the end approximately 1 cup of water leaked before it was detected and secured.
 
They only pull 20mW each (1.67 mA at 12VDC each)
That's only ~36 mA for 22 sensors.

:hesaid:
 
I also have the GRI 2600's and they saved my bacon on a first floor kitchen drain pipe connection to the sewer stack in the boiler room in the basement.  Funny thing is the sensors had originally been placed to detect leakage from the boiler and/or hot water heater.
 
I also like GRI's water moccasins for perimeter coverage in the basement (think:  clogged downspouts or gutters).

I'm another person on the GRI 2600 train. The best selling and most dependable water sensor we carry. Plus never had any returns on them either. 
 
Here's the spec sheet.

Those of you who use the GRI 2600, do you have each on its own zone?

What type of water shutoff valve do you use?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You can use the 2600s with multiples on a single zone, or each on its own zone.  For things like my basement, I place multiple 2600s in various locations.  It's enough to know the leak is in the basement.  I can narrow it down from there.  For things like the kitchen sink, bathrooms and clothes washer, I use one per zone. 
 
For shutoff valves, the Elk WSV2 or the Greenfield ASV are the gold standards.  But they're not cheap.  The Elk is essentially a re-branded Greenfield valve. You need to shop around to see which will be lower priced.
 
There are other valves that are less expensive, but lack some features of the Elk/Greenfield.
 
These Chinese made BacoEng valves on Amazon are 1/10 the cost of the Elk/Greenfield.  One thing to watch out for with some of the BacoEng models is that the 3/4" valve may have only a 1/2" opening through the ball mechanism.  Similarly, the 1" valve may be only 3/4" through the ball.  And although they claim to cut off power to the motor when fully opened or closed, they don't.  So you need to rig up a power cut-off method.   Some feedback on Amazon from buyers indicates early failure problems.  I'd rather not trust a cheap valve to protect my house from a flood.  I bought one just to see how well it was made and after testing it out, I returned it.

Thank You all for the assistance. GRI2600's it is.  Do most of you just tie the Red and Black in a wire nut or does some one have a suggestion for a screw down strip or junction where all of he power can connect and look good on the can.

Since pulling cable is a challenge in an old house, I ran two Cat5s from my Elk can to the basement, and used one of the four pairs on each Cat5 for power to the 2600's and the other three pairs in the Cat5 for an individual sensor on a separate zone.  
 
I needed a bit more granularity about what the problem was, and that way I was able to get six zones covered with a little bit of splicing in the basement (two water moccasins, two 2600's, one 2600T with multiple sensors, and one currently unused) . 

DavidGroves said:

Thank You all for the assistance. GRI2600's it is.  Do most of you just tie the Red and Black in a wire nut or does some one have a suggestion for a screw down strip or junction where all of he power can connect and look good on the can.

Click to expand...

 
On the pig tail from the 2600, I solder the connections and use heat shrink tubing to insulate the joint.  You could also use B-connectors. 
 
Where all the cables come back to the panel, wire nuts are often used.  Some folks use terminal strips, but the argument against them is that they require more space.

How are folks wiring toilet locations?  I have cat5 run to sinks, toilets, etc.  Sinks that are in cabinets are easy
as I'll just use standard RJ45 jack and plug the sensor into that and everything is hidden away.
 
For toilets I would like a solution that isn't so noticeable.  I've toyed with the idea of a small headphone jack in
the baseboard behind the toilet.  Might look nice but hard to modify in the future.  Other thought was a small
RJ45 jack behind the toilet tank.  In the RJ45 case, would like something smaller than standard single gang
plate with keystone jack.
 
Any ideas on how to wire these sensors in locations that are visible?  Thanks..

TurboSam said:

:hesaid:
 
I also have the GRI 2600's and they saved my bacon on a first floor kitchen drain pipe connection to the sewer stack in the boiler room in the basement.  Funny thing is the sensors had originally been placed to detect leakage from the boiler and/or hot water heater.
 
I also like GRI's water moccasins for perimeter coverage in the basement (think:  clogged downspouts or gutters).

Click to expand...

 
Holy smokes - I was wondering about how I could possibly immitate the Honeywell lyric water leak sensors (which can monitor a large area for water) - thanks for pointing out that GRI has these water moccasins!  I'm going to pick some up asap to get them installed for more robust leak detection 

jon102034050 said:

...thanks for pointing out that GRI has these water moccasins!  I'm going to pick some up asap to get them installed for more robust leak detection 

Click to expand...

 
You're welcome.  I strung two together to protect a basement den...

TurboSam said:

You're welcome.  I strung two together to protect a basement den...

Click to expand...

 
Can you explain to me how the install works?  Im a little confused with the it really...  I've already got a few GRI 2600T's, but I cant figure out how the WM2600-10 and the WM10-P fit into the scene.  If I want to wire the WM2600-10 to my 2600T, do I need WM10-p's?  

I am away from my house, but I believe i connected the two wires from the water moccasin to the two screws on a 2600T (four wire to the panel) closed loop relay sensor.  I am pretty sure the water moccasin itself has only two wires.
 
The four wires from the relay sensor were then connected to the Elk both for power and for water detection in a supervised situation.  
 
What I can't remember is whether the 2600T (or a similar device) came with the water moccasin came or whether I bought it separately.  
 
And, again from memory, I wired one WM10-P in series at the end of one of my WM2600-10's to get a twenty foot snake.  I think you can have up to five.
 
I can provide more details when I am back in my house.