I am looking for a water shutoff valve that will work in Europe. I am located in EU and I have an EU version of Hubitate. I am considering an Econet Bulldog or Sednaa Sinope. The first one is available with EU frequencies. The other one is using Zigbee. However, I am not sure if all the rest will be compatible, because on the Web site it says the North America version.
Has anyone ever used Sedna Sinope in Europe? Does it work?
Are there any other decent options?
What else I am concerned about is that there are people who do not trust motors that are attached to existing valves (Bulldog), but rather choose inline versions (Sinope). As for me it looks much more flexible to have a motor attached to the existing valve. It can be replaced at any moment, which will not be the case with an inline type of device. Could someone, who had used both types, comment on this?
The main difference would be in the power supply. The LeakSmart valve I am using has batteries for back up to the mains power. The mains power is a typical wall-wart. Substitute an equivalent one for 220V, and it should work.
I have a Watercop shutoff valve. While it has its own valve the valve it has is very robust.
The valve has not plastic parts in the operating path (I do believe like any ball valve the seals are teflon).
Its threaded to the main pipe with no crimp or sharkbite connections.
I verify it is connected every day and Operate it once a week.
Econet Bulldog is really powerful if you can get it and assuming that is compatible with Hubitat. Alternatively, Dome is quite good. I’ve attached a photo with my Dome valve where I have modified the bracket to be similarly as sturdy as Econet and it is working great but the original mounting bracket should be fine.
What bothers me the most with the add-on type of valves (Bulldog, Dome) is that it may fail to shut off. Integrated (Sinope, LekSmart) ones can be set to periodically shut off and on. Also, integrated ones have batteries and do not have additional external block (relay).
Integrated ones could also fail to shut?
With a bolt on one you could always add a contact sensor to have a secondary confirmation, which you cant do with Integrated one.
Im sure u could if needed add a small UPS to the power supply, but you need to think of the system as a whole for power cuts no point having a valve that can shut in a power cut if the controller cant send the shut signal as its not on due to no power.
In-line ball valves can also fail. These valves are also controlled by motors with step-down gearing. Giving at least two points of failure.
How do I know? I've had a LeakSmart valve for about 7 years. That was tested weekly. And I had a gear fail abruptly, as described in this post.
Hence, in my opinion, anyone who installs an automated in-line valve needs to install it in a bypass loop with two manual ball-valves. The first to turn water back on if the automated valve fails in the closed position, and the second to turn water off if the automated valve fails in the open position.
This bypass loop is not required when using a ball-valve controller like those made by Econet and Dome.
I am thinking out loud on my own question. An integrated valve is normally installed AFTER the main valve, water meter, potentially some more joints, and also a bypass must be done. So all the way before the integrated valve may fail. Automatically shutting down water will be of no help. At the same time, a add-on type of motor is installed at the very beginning of all of this.
I have also noticed that high torque motors close the valve slower approx. two times. At least Econet Bulldog does close it slower.
But you should have a gate vale as you main isolation due to there superior isolation then u can fit your ball valve for your motorized isolation. Unless u fit a motorized valve outside of your property you will always have the possibility of a failure that u cant protect against.
Also if the failure is after you motorized valve you will still have the inventory of what's in the pipes coming out of the failure.
Guys, what's the advantage of these motorized shut off valves compared to pure mechanical one?
I'm guessing some also measure flow and maybe temperature. Fun data to have but other than that I would prefer the redundancy of pure mechanical.
for example;
envirotechalarms com /shop/buy-a-water-leak-prevention-device/
Im still looking for a somewhat cheaper EU equivalent
I bought the this belgian design mechanical valve that shuts of directly on big leak and if you have a small leak (15l/h) it will close after 15 minutes or more depending on the setting.
