water alarm without siren?

[kgingerich]

I have a bunch of water sensors and want them set as "Water Alarm" but I don't want my siren to go off when a water sensor detects water.

Can I keep them assigned as water alarm but keep the siren silent?

 

[GraysonPeddie]

There's a feature called "Non-Alarm" in Zone Definitions. Have you looked in through?

 

[tmbrown97]

This has come up before. You can't call it a Water alarm and have it not siren. You have to set it up as a non-alarm and use the rules to decide what to do with it.

Seems like total oversight - who would want siren on a water alarm? Either way - that seems to be the workaround.

 

[kgingerich]

I knew I could set it up as "non alarm" but I have some outside motion sensors setup as "non alarm" as well. The problem comes in when I want to create a rule so that whenever any water sensors become not ready that the elk water shutoff valve gets turned on. I'm not sure how to group the water sensors under non alarm for the rule without causing the rule to run when my outside motion sensors activate.

I guess i could write individual rules for each water sensor zone but I have about 40 sensors throughout the house and it would eat up my available memory in the M1G.

I wonder if I could assign all the water sensors to another area and say when that area is not ready, turn on water shutoff valve.

 

[Spanky]

Set up a water sense zone as non-alarm. Write a Rule Whenever zone X becomes not secure, Then ...do something. No other zones will be affected.

 

[kgingerich]

Set up a water sense zone as non-alarm. Write a Rule Whenever zone X becomes not secure, Then ...do something. No other zones will be affected.

The only caveat is that I have 40+ water sense zones so that would mean 40 individual rules written into the M1G vs. 1 single rule if I can combine all water zones.

Can you think of a way to group them without assigning them to water alarm?

Thanks,
Kyle

 

[AnotherOne]

This is one of the lacking things on the M1. What is needed is a way to assign some value to zones that can be compared in rules. So a user could assign a "0" to all zones that are windows, a "1" to all zones that are doors, a "2" to all zones that are water, etc.

The you could have a rule like
WHENEVER A ZONE WITH ID EQUALS 2 IS VIOLATED
THEN...

 

[Lagerhead]

Can you think of a way to group them without assigning them to water alarm?

Kyle, use Aux1 or Aux2. Be aware that this has some other complications, but it should get you started.

I am very happy with my M1 but I remain annoyed with Elk on the very point you raise. Your problem was discussed here a month or two ago, and I and others have wasted innumerable hours looking for a decent solution.

Dave

 

[kgingerich]

Kyle, use Aux1 or Aux2. Be aware that this has some other complications, but it should get you started.

I am very happy with my M1 but I remain annoyed with Elk on the very point you raise. Your problem was discussed here a month or two ago, and I and others have wasted innumerable hours looking for a decent solution.

Dave

Thanks for the info,

I think I found your prior post about this issue. Would you mind sharing your automation rules for your water sensors? I'd be interested to see how you're handling the alarm. Do you use cutoff timer=0? Do you need to enter your code to deactivate the water alarm? Are you using a water shutoff valve?

 

[Lagerhead]

There is no breakthrough here. It is very straightforward, except that I am using a sounder in the basement (I have dogs in the main house to consider) which has rules to toggle at one-second intervals for one-half minute, repeating every 15 minutes until reset. This sounder has multiple uses. It supplements the voice announcement and is more attention-getting.

No shutoff valve. I use cutoff timer=0, but I don't recall whether this was a deliberate decision or leftover from testing. I had planned to investigate the behavior of the M1 alarms more thoroughly but frankly I got tired of doing experiments. I got to a point of "good enough." With this approach I reluctantly accepted that you have to enter a user code to acknowledge and reset the alarm - reluctantly, because doing so will change the armed state of the system.

[codebox]
WHENEVER ANY AUX2 24 HR, ANY AREA TURNS ON
THEN ACTIVATE Water Alm Steps (Task 25)
THEN SEND EMAIL MESSAGE 5 TO [elided] (Email 5)

WHENEVER Water Alm Steps (Task 25) IS ACTIVATED
AND ANY AUX2 24 HR, ANY AREA IS ACTIVE
THEN ANNOUNCE Water Monitor (Out 39)
THEN ANNOUNCE Water Monitor (Out 39)
THEN DISPLAY "Bsmt Water Alarm" IN Residence (Area 1) INDEFINITELY, [*] CLEARS
THEN TURN Water Monitor (Out 39) ON FOR 15 MINS
THEN SET SounderCount (Counter 7) TO 30
THEN TURN Basement Sounder (Out 3) ON FOR 1 SEC

WHENEVER Water Monitor (Out 39) STATE IS TURNED OFF
AND ANY AUX2 24 HR, ANY AREA IS ACTIVE
THEN ACTIVATE Water Alm Steps (Task 25)

WHENEVER Basement Sounder (Out 3) STATE IS TURNED OFF
AND SounderCount (Counter 7) IS GREATER THAN 0
THEN TURN Output 004 (Out 4) ON FOR 1 SEC
THEN SUBTRACT 1 FROM SounderCount (Counter 7)

WHENEVER Output 004 (Out 4) STATE IS TURNED OFF
AND SounderCount (Counter 7) IS GREATER THAN 0
THEN TURN Basement Sounder (Out 3) ON FOR 1 SEC
[/codebox]

 

[kwschumm]

This issue was brought up here 12 years ago but I'm wondering if there have been improvements.
 
We also have 40+ hardwired water sensor zones. Each one is set up as Water Alarm. When a water alarm goes off it sets off the siren.
 
I'd like the water alarm to chime an audible message and notify the alarm monitoring station but not sound the siren.
 
Looks like the Silent setting almost works but it won't chime.
 
With the current firmware is there a better way to handle this without writing 40+ separate rules?
 
TIA

 

[samm1988]

Have you tried setting the water duration Cutoff timer to 1 second? The keypads will make a sound and display the Water Alarm but I don't get the siren sounds.