I've been wanting to get a smart water shut-off valve controller for our main water line coming into our house for a long time now. The house was built back in 2008, so the plumbing is really not that old.
But I noticed the main shut-off valve had a lot of rust build up, so I took a wire brush and remove any rust that would have got in the way of the value moving. But I am finding it takes some good amount of force (torque) to close the value. The first 1/3 of the turn takes some force to turn it, but the other 2/3 takes a lot more.
Not sure if all the smart water shut-off valve controllers use the same amount of torque or if some have more then others. I was wondering if anyone else has dealt with the same issues I'm going through, and what smart water shut-off valve controller did you find that works for you?
I've also been thinking about calling a plumber and have them replace the main value with a newer one, or have a newer one mount above our older value?
To me, it looks like the stem packing is failing and causing that rust. If you don't want to solder (which I would personally recommend where possible) then the sharkbite (push connect style) would be a decent fix. This is out in the open where you could see if the sharkbite fitting ever failed, and not in a wall, so I am OK with these. The funny part is the sharkbites cost more than a solder or threaded style.
Your real issue is going to be turning off the water supply. Hopefully you have a well pump you can turn the power off to, or you are going to have to turn it off at the curb. Either that or do what I did and put a second valve above the first. It looks janky, but whatever...
I had similar problem with my shutoff valve (house built in 2000). It was hard to close and when closed there was still water flow. I had a plumber come and sweat a new valve in. I purchased the valve at Lowes and went through several of them to find the "smoothest" one. When the valve was removed, it had quite a bit of calcification (I have hard water). Even though a high torque shut off is available, it may just be better to get a new valve put in. The valve shouldn't be that hard to turn IMHO. FYI, I use Dome shut off with Samsung leak sensors, they work great together. Good luck!
I second the Ridgid Super Freeze, I’ve had plumbers use this to replace a section of pipe that had no valve on it anywhere at the shop I use to work. They froze the pipe, installed a valve and then changed the section of pipe. Did not have to disrupt the shop operations at all and no need to wait for a shut down.
My Dome stopped responding to my hub for some reason and I cannot seem to get it paired again even after excluding it (via hub, via stick etc) and resetting it multiple times. The "manual" valve control bit still works - pushing the button opens/closes it etc. Feel like I should get it replaced though as this a fairly critical piece of home infrastructure.
The EcoNet is kind of expensive but looks really well built - to me if it holds up it would be well worth it.
Do you still like the device? Any further thoughts?
I can't answer that yet. My friend has only had it for a few months. He hasn't said anything negative about it.
I had a valve like a Dome myself a long time back. It crapped out on me also. So I replaced it with a LeakSmart that has worked flawlessly. But it requires some skills in sweating copper.
Okay great thanks for the info. I am going to go ahead and get it - will post back with my thoughts!
leakSMART looks cool too but rather stick with the valve thing first - this is not the kind of project I want to tackle as my first major plumbing project... I'll stick with toilets for now haha..
How far is your HE away from the Dome valve? When I migrated from Wink to HE, I had to move the HE pretty close to have it pair with the Dome. If you do this, be sure to perform a shutdown first on the HE before unplugging it. You'll also need a long Ethernet cable as well as there is no wifi in HE. Worth a try first before swapping out the Dome.
About 8 feet or so.. It was working a few months ago not sure what or when it happened - maybe a power issue. Not something I use all that frequently. I can still activate it manually so the motor etc is okay. Since this is a "critical" device I am going to replace it - better to be safe.
I may try and pair it with my dev hub for giggles to see if there is a difference with my main hub..
So was able to pair it with my dev hub which is half the distance (maybe 4 ft) and on older firmware. Then excluded and tried again with the main hub. It was found but took a while to initialize then eventually came up and I was able to control via the UI. Will see how it goes from here.
The inconsistency has me a bit worried which is still why I am going to replace the unit with a different one. Will keep monitoring...
That's good to hear. Agree that the shutoff valve is a critical system that MUST work when needed (hopefully never). I do recall seeing that someone created a rule or app that exercises the valve once a month to confirm open/close status. Maybe someone can point us to the posting. I should probably set that exercise routine on my unit.
Instead of another rule, you can place a water sensor under the refrigerator door. Assuming you've got an in-door water/ice dispenser, the sensor will probably get triggered about once a month.
As another testament to the value of these sensors (and Hubitat, and the Dome water valves), I now know that I have a very slight leak from my dishwasher...only about 40ml of water (1.25oz) during a wash cycle, and I know that the water service valve gets shut off within ~30 seconds of the sensor being triggered.
