I stumbled onto a leak detector that has some real potential.
As background, I have a rainwater collection system that provides all the potable water for my house, and the water filtration and serilization system is in the garage. Works well, and has done for a decade. But on two occasions, a broken or cracked pipe has flooded the garage. Once is an accident, twice needs an active countermeasure. My solution is to leak detect below the plumbing, but disable the pressurizing pump when a leak is detected, as well as sounding an alarm. Minimizes the cleanup.
There are water leak detection gadgets in profusion, but the cheap ones are single point detectors. I want to detect over an area. There exist water detection tapes, two wires separated by a woven cloth that only conduct when water bridges them. But these tapes are very expensive, and very difficult to source.
I realized that the poly-woven tapes used for farm and ranch electric fences have several parallel stainless steel wires running down them. A quick check shows that the individual wires do not cross, so a 1" wide tape gives about 8 parallel, insulated stainless wires in a woven plastic carrier. Just about perfect for laying or sticking to a floor or pipe to catch the first bit of wetting. A popular brand of this tape costs about $30 for a half ***mile*** of tape in ranch supply places.
Connector-izing the ends and making a water conduction short remains, but the rest of the world makes cheap alarms, and connector-izing just needs some tinkering.
