I’ve used the Dome for years as well, and have had nothing but problems. I even replaced my quarter-turn valve (which was either dumb or fun, depending on your perspective). No joy. Caution here.
I do not use mine all that often but every now and again test to be safe - has worked for me for 5 years so far. Am going to test again today just to be sure.
Similar experience. I've used something like the Dome (made by EcoNet controls - same motor). It was not a good install - the motor didn't have enough torque. However the new high-torque motor in EcoNet's bulldog valve is made for sticky ball valves like the one I had.
The Waxman Leaksmart was much more work to install. I had to shut off the city supply, cut copper and sweat the valve on. But it has worked flawlessly.
Here is a neat alternative to the water valves. You can connect a 12vdc, 2A wall transformer to it and plug that into any power plug of your choice. This is a unique device in that when power is applied it opens it and then the solenoid de-energizes itself so it is not constantly pulling current. When power is removed it automatically closes the valve. Pretty nice.
Nice find. I've been thinking about cannibalizing a motorized ball valve to get a rotary actuator in order to cobble together a surface mount deadbolt.
Yes, to add, I had a new valve installed prior to my Dome installation. My old valve had too much calcification and was harder to turn and didn't shut off all the way. When I got the new valve at Lowes for the plumber, I went through multiple valves to find the smoothest feeling shut off. From time of water detection to complete flow stop during a test is less than 10 seconds.
I have the Watercop/Fortrezz Z-Wave valve and am only moderately satisfied with it. What it does well is open and close its valve. I don't trust something like Dome to work with my existing valve.
What it doesn't do well is stay online, and is Z-Wave, not Z-Wave Plus. I have it plugged into a smart plug so I can power cycle it to put it back online if necessary. And I put a Wyze camera on it so I can see what it is doing remotely. I've given some thought to putting relays wired into the open/closed buttons on it and take its Z-Wave radio out of the equation.
You don't necessarily need a camera.
There is an unused contact group inside the valve control box. I've hooked up a contact sensor for verification purposes.
And I vaguely remember seeing contacts on the PCB that (I believe) can also be used. This may be more reliable but there will be soldering involved.
It's a cheap Wyze pan camera so I also use it to make sure the sump pump isn't overflowing and other things in the crawl space.
Did you happen to take a picture of the PCB? As I said, I'm very tempted to put relay closures across the Open/Close buttons and control it with Konnected instead of depending on the Z-Wave (it happens to be in a place I can run thermostat wire to it fairly easily.
I picked up one of the on ebay and was so put off at how gi-frigging-normous the thing was that I ended up not using it and re-sold it on ebay. The thing is build like a tank but it's HUGE.