Burglar Alarm Alerts to Reduce Water Damage

Oct 28, 2005 19 Replies
Burglar Alarm Alerts to Reduce Water Damage open original image

Had a client call this morning because the keypads in his house were beepoing and showign a trouble. Turns out a water line had burst in the garage and soaked a keypad in the garage shorting it out and knocking out the onboard zone expander.



Hmmm.... Maybe Napco should market that as a feature. LOL.


I saved a lady's house from total disaster with under carpet traps (in the olden days)...toilet supply line burst and shorted out the carpet mat...she was out of town. We dispatched PD, PD called back and said there was water running out from under the front door...coulda been much worse.

Hey there, Bob...

This reminds me of a story we ran on our

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news archival web site a month or so ago. Lucky for a commercial business that one of their burglar alarm motion detectors detected hot, rolling smoke from a dumpster fire outside an overhead door. I believe it was an Ademco detector:

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It's amazing how one thing will lead to another :-), like your keypad or the floor pads with the water deluge. Perhaps they could sell that old rolled under-the-carpet, snip-it-where-you-need-it burglar detection product as a water detection system?

Al

Hey Bob! Had that many years ago- customer called ranting about his alarm going off at 2 in the morning-"I hate this @#$%%@ Take it out" Check it 1st thing in the AM - sure enough- H20 roof leak into Heat detector- Tell the customer- "This is anew feature by Napco- a nd your the first one to have it- a combination Heat/Water detector! Customer looks at us and goes- "Thank You, what agreat idea!" Mike S

Bob La L> Had a client call this morning because the keypads in his house were

Another...........

Many years ago when I was service manager for Rollins the company used a lot of double stick on wireless transmitters. We had one that fell off from heat in the top of a room from a fire. It set of the burg and saved the rest of the house.

BobbyD

Bob La L>Had a client call this morning because the keypads in his house were

Had a house with a DSC 2530 I reprogrammed, kitchen caught fire and the panel sent fire alarm and trouble signals which prevented the rest of the house from going up. System had no smoke detector but the panel was mounted in a closet close to the kitchen and when it got hot sent the signals

Smoke detector in a finised basement. Homeowner awakened in the middle of the night by alarm system fire alarm. Opening the basement door, discovered that the hot water hose to the washing machine had broken and steam set off the smoke detector. Would have run all night.

almost same t hing...washer hose broke while client was outta town only it sprayed water on a supervised keypad which sent a panic alarm.

Gotta watch those washer hoses...after that happened I replaced mine with metal braid clad ones!

| > Many years ago when I was service manager for Rollins the company used | > a lot of double stick on wireless transmitters. We had one that fell | > off from heat in the top of a room from a fire. It set of the burg and | > saved the rest of the house. | >

| > BobbyD | >

| | | Smoke detector in a finised basement. Homeowner awakened in the middle | of the night by alarm system fire alarm. Opening the basement door, | discovered that the hot water hose to the washing machine had broken | and steam set off the smoke detector. Would have run all night. |

Washing machine hoses are certainly a problem in this regard. After seeing a few flooded homes, and hearing about many more, I always suggested that my clients turn the water supply off to their clothswasher before they go on vacation. The metal-clad hose is a good idea.

Al

Yep me too. Also toilet supply lines should be turned off, but someone should check the house ocassionally so the trap water doesn't evap. if people will be oot for long time.

I think there's been some pretty good preventative ideas presented in this thread. Do you think there's any way to turn all of this into extra dollars when selling to new prospects or perhaps upselling to existing clients?

Al

Central Air Conditioning overflow drip pans. Sheesh I have a running battle with one of my air units the condensation overflow line gets clogged with slime if I forget to flush it out 2x a year. The overflow ends up running out in the family room, I put a secondary drip pan under the built in one but the only way I can tell if its getting too full without crawling under the staircase is if someone in the family hears dripping water. Then I realized I have a spare pair of conductors under that staircase...gonna install a moisture detector in that pan...real soon...yep real soon.

Then there's Crane Toilets... Some of the tanks are sorta prone to crack... Something about problems with the kilns on certain batch numbers. Can't recall what year they were, but I do remember hearing about a number of floods.

I'm preparing to think about doing it right now too :-)

| LOL. | js | | |

You know that old saying..something about the shoemakers kids shoes always have holes in them?

No it's not just you...I have 3 cameras on the outside of my house that I installed when I built the house 11 years ago...I have all the parts to finish the system, modulator, powersupplies etc...are they working yet? uhhhhh, well I am thinking about preparing to make them work...tomorrow.

The alarm system is working, but I never connected my lawn sprinklers to the relay board...oh come to think of it the waterflow is STILL not connected either...s*it....I better get back to thinking about finishing this damn house before I sell it.

DAng then there those 30 Omega sprinkler heads that were recalled...s*it I was supposed to replace them too...YOU HAD TO BRING THIS UP DINT YA! Now I feel really guilty.

| >

| > | LOL. | > | js | > | | > | | > | | >

| >

| |

Is it just me, or does it always seem to take longer to do something for yourself?

staircase...gonna

Same here, in my case it 's not only longer, but probably closer to forever.

I replace batteries for others' system everyday but I yet have to replace the backup battery in my very own system.

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