Imagine a situation like this: you go on vacation for two weeks on the other side of the Atlantic, you grab your suitcases and, with all the enthusiasm in the world, you turn the key to the door of your house for the last time. However, 15 days later, when you return, things are not as you left them.
As you turn the key several times to open, a suspicious musty smell invades you. Upon entering home, your worst fears are confirmed:A pipe has broken and the whole house is flooded.. What are you doing? Flooding inside a home can cause extensive damage and can happen when you least expect it.
A broken pipe, a mistake (you leave the faucet running, for example) or many other accidents can happen over years in a home. Therefore, the most effective thing is to get aflood detector: an element of low price and simple operationthat can save you from a good scare.
A flood can have irreversible consequences on a home., and the time and bill to fix it after a flood at home will be much greater than what it costs to install a sensor. Do you know how a flood detector works? They are simple and effective, a perfect complement to a home alarm system.
What is a flood detector?
A flood sensor is a device capable ofdetect and alert of rising humidity levels or impending flooding. That is, the sensor detects that a flood may occur due to a sudden increase in humidity or by exceeding a limit and warns of a possible flood.
So,a flood detector allows you to react in timeand avoid countless damage to the home. Let us not forget that theleaks in kitchens and bathrooms are usually frequentand they can end up causing a larger problem if we do not realize and act early enough.
Just as a fire is easily detectable (your sense of smell quickly helps you and the smoke detector always helps), floodsThey are not so easy to guess at first.At first they do not smell and in many cases they are not visible either (since it is a pipe or any other element out of our sight).
Therefore,flood detectors are elementsincreasingly common in a home's alarm system. Thanks to technology, theseSensors are able to detect a leak quicklyand precisely even though it is not visible to us.
Types of flood detectors
TheFlood detectors can be of various types. Depending on the use you want to give it, you can choose one or the other.
On the one hand, one can differentiate betweenwireless and wired flood detectors. The wireless ones are more comfortable, both in theirinstallation, which is simplerand allows placement anywhere in the home or business, as well as in its maintenance.
Wired detectors, for their part, must necessarily be installed in places with easy access to the control panel and away from areas with strong temperature variations, hot, very humid or refrigerated. Therefore,wireless flood sensors make it easierfor installation.
Furthermore, we candifferentiate flood sensorsdepending on whether they are connected to an alarm, to a ARC, connected to a mobile device or offline, but with the ability to emit an audible signal. In the latter case, they have the disadvantage that they will not notify you of the flood if you are outside the home.
Finally we have to differentiate between water and humidity detectors (although they are normally integrated into the same system).
- water detector: to detect flooding and are therefore placed in basements or garages
- Humidity sensor : They can be used exclusively in places that require a certain humidity in the environment.
How does a flood sensor work?
Theflood detectors, if they are connected to an alarm system, they serve to alert that there has been a spill of water sufficient to put furniture and belongings at risk or to cause a short circuit. When the alert is received, the alarm center notifies the client and they can act quickly.
Therefore, the most effective thing is to have a sensor connected to the home's alarm system. TheFlood detectors typically consist of two parts:
- Detector , usually in the electrical panel
- Sensor or probe , in the points with the greatest risk of flooding: basements, garages, kitchens, bathrooms, etc.
Thus, when the sensor is wet by water,the alarm is activated immediatelyand the detector allows the necessary alerts to be given to the rest of the system. When the detector trips, it can directly cut off the water supply and even the electrical supply to avoid short circuits.
In case it is connected to the mobile,the operation of the flood detector would be the same, but the moment the sensor detects water, instead of sending the alert to the alarm center, an alert would be activated on yoursmartphone.
What happens if the sensors are not connected? Its operation is similar. In this case, contact with water activates an acoustic signal. These are very useful detectors to placeunder the washing machine, sinks or places where there is a risk of flooding, but not so much for an unexpected flood.
The price of these detectors is not very high, so, if you are hesitating, we recommend using them:For little money you can gain a lot of peace of mind. Furthermore, the service could last for years, and you already know that sometimes when houses gain in age they also gain in problems of this type.
