Flooded basement...almost

[SAnd]

A few years back I picked up a water alarm that would detect water on my basement floor. Well last week it paid off. I had just sat down to eat supper when I started to hear an ear piercing squeal. It was loud enough I couldn't ignore so I went to check it out. I found water dripping from my water heater. The puddle was about a foot across. I shut off the gas and water supply to it. 15 minutes later no more dripping.

I had read a thread on this forum about how you should replace your water heater about every ten years before they surprise you with a flood. Some body mentioned about the alarms. I'm too cheap to replace a perfectly good heater so I bought one. Not being connected to a smart phone I got a simple squealer and hoped I would be home soon enough after it started alarming. I don't go down to the basement very often any more so without the alarm it could have been really bad.

I also have a super duper high efficiency house heater that puts out a lot of water so this alarm would also let me know if the condensate pump died and it started dumping water on the floor.

It was $20 I am very glad I spent.

Oh and the old water heater was installed about 1988.