Plumbing advice
Posted by jimNov 24
Update:A commenter has made some significant points about this product family. It may not be as wonderful as I hoped (and isn’t that always how it goes?) Steve Vargo, the owner of a company called Floodchek, wandered by. His company’s website claims that they have never had a failure in one of their washing machine hoses in 20 years of business simply by making a high quality hose. Check it out.
I’m a do-it-yourself kinda guy. I’ve always hated plumbing repairs because I always seem to end up needing a different fitting than whatever one I actually have and ‘ve never been really happy with what’s available as options in the big box stores (or smaller hardware stores). Plumbers do things differently than I would. As an example, if I need to work on a faucet (like one of the outside ones) I have to shut off the water to the entire house. WTF? Hello? Why not add a few cutoff valves so I can isolate parts of the system when I need to work on things without shutting the rest of the house off from being able to use the toilet?
These days box stores sell three types of connectors that go from the valve on the wall where the faucet or toilet gets its water to the actual faucet or toilet. They sell a hose made of some sort of plastic that has an exterior white braided covering in amongst the plastic and they sell a plastic or rubber hose that’s covered with a shiny steel braid. Both of these are reasonably cheap (and there’s undoubtedly a reason for that and I’m sure it is that they’re cheap quality.) Floodsave is the third option – they’re the people I originally blogged about below. I wasn’t real happy with options one and two. Time will tell how I feel about option 3. Consider me more cautious in my recommendation. Original post below:
This is free plumbing advice day and it’s actually worth a lot more than you’re going to pay for. You should seriously think about replacing the connectors to your water-using stuff. Exciting stuff? Maybe not, but it’s better than coming home to floors covered in water and rugs and drywall soaking up the water as fast as it can. It’s not like Katrina, but it’s a major pain.
There is a company called Watts that makes a product called Floodsafe. I saw it mentioned in Fine Homebuildingand thought it was a cool idea. So what’s Floodsafe? It’s one of those shiny stainless steel braided connector thingies that runs from the shut-off valve on the wall to your toilet or faucet or washing machine or icemaker or dishwasher. It’s got this little safety valve in it that shuts off water flow if it senses excessive water flow. So if you take a trip somewhere and a toilet connector starts to leak or that washing machine hose finally gives up, the connector senses what’s going on and shuts the water off.
I’m in the process of doing that sort of renovation at home now and that’s what made me think of this. Two weeks ago we hauled out the washer & dryer, second refrigerator, a deep freezer and a utility sink out of the utility room so I could swap out the carpet flooring for tile. Now I’m doing the same in the master bath. In the process, I’ve connected and disconnected a lot of plumbing stuff.
When I took out the washing machine, the first thing I did was disconnect the hoses. Most people don’t do what experts recommend, and if they did, less flood damage would occur. They recommend replacing your hoses every five years – they wear out. If you replace them you have less chance of a catastrophic failure.
(Aside: I have no clue why some people put carpeting in rooms like utility rooms and bathrooms. It must be a woman’s idea because men know they’ll miss the toilet on occasion. That’s just life. Makes no sense to me.)
I’ve got friends who had a second floor toilet that sprung a leak while they took the baby girl to see family. It ruined floors on the second floor, walls and ceilings on the first floor, basement carpeting, first and second floor carpeting and hardwood – it was a nightmare for them and cost them and their insurance company lots of money. Watts makes these for washing machines, ice makers, dishwashers, toilets, kitchen & bath faucets, all the usual subjects.
Home Depot sells Floodsafe, Lowe’s does not. They’re a little over $7-8 compared to the cheapest white braided poly connectors for toilets ($3 or 4) and faucets and the protection is worth the difference.
Issues? Sure, it senses excess flow of water. If you remove the aerator or flow restrictor from your faucet, it may cause the gadget to think there’s a problem, but there is. You’re wasting water anyway. Put that aerator back on. Also, they may not work as desired and may be a pain in the ass. If they end up being a pain, rest assured I will tell you.
6 comments
Comment by Steve on November 25, 2009 at 12:08 am
Jim,
With my experience and technical knowledge, if I were write about flexible connectors and washing machine inlet hoses with your enthusiasm, it would definitely be “tongue in cheek”. My comments would be considered laughable by those few experts that know the reality of the products you endorse with such good intentions. Simply, Jim, you believed what you heard, and were so enamored with with the specious claims made by manufacturers, you became a wide eyed, flag waving, true believer. Oops, Jim! Not to worry, though, I have one hellava an epiphany for you.
Read my white paper at floodchek.com. Do you know how those shiny stainless steel connectors came into existence? Do you think it was some altruistic engineer looking to protect American hearths and homes from the soggy heartache of hoseburst that causes more than 200 million dollars annually in property damage, or will you come to the realization that American consumers are being figuratively and literally hosed big time?
Planned obsolescence strikes again, Jim. You might think at first read that, goodness me, hundreds of millions of dollars are being lost! Consider this. Isn’t one man’s loss another’s gain? Those hundreds of millions of dollars really DO go into someone’s pockets, don’t they? After all, they’re not really “lost”, are they?
You know of those companies that have prefixes like “service”, “flood”, “dry”, and, “mold”, in combination with suffixes like “master”, “pro”, “tech” in various combinations? A not to be mentioned national executive of one of the field’s leaders recently purchased 57 pairs of Floodchek. Did I mention Floodchek? Anyway, when he was asked why he was purchasing an odd amount like that, he replied “I’m buying them for everyone in my office and members of my family.” But, since his company profits so handily from cheap washing machine hoses, he wasn’t going to shoot himself in the wallet by offering them to his clients.
There you have the start of those at interest in sharing those “lost” hundreds of millions of dollars. appliance parts sellers, big box stores (one of your favorites, not to mention carpet and flooring companies, drywallers, general contractors, and well, the list goes on and on. Hell, even municipal water utility companies get a piece of the action, even if reluctantly so.
If you still believe stainless steel mesh connectors (“the emperor’s new hose”) are the only way to go, dontcha know! If I my information doesn’t convince you of the calculated corporate self interest and naked profiteering at the expense of you, your readers, and the American consumer in general, I won’t take it personally. I just take no pleasure in watching anyone opening their mouth and inserting foot if I can prevent it. There’s good out there, you just need a tad more skepticism.
Stay dry and don’t believe everything you read,
Steve
Comment by Steve on November 25, 2009 at 12:23 am
P.S.
I almost forgot to ask the last time vandals tried to cut your washer hoses, or why Watts named their product “Floodsafe”? or why they cunningly had one of their people pretend to need a pair of Floodchek and paid with a watts corporate check? Veddy intellesting! We get calls meant for them from people who can’t get Floodsafes to work. The spirit of Rube Goldberg is with us.
Sorry, Jim, your advice is exactly what your readers are paying for it, in this case, anyway.
Speaking of which, check out Cold Water Aqua Secure Hose Bosch-Thermador BT-646221. Wow!!
S
Comment by democommie on November 25, 2009 at 9:11 am
jim:
I’m with ya on carpeting in bathrooms (and kitchens, utility rooms, garages, etc.,.) . My laundry equipment is in my basement and I have a stone foundation, partially paved cellar. Any water that finds its way in, finds its way out. I’m with you on the rest, but I’m not sure I’ll get there soon.
Comment by jim on November 25, 2009 at 9:59 am
Well, shit, Steve. I hate it when I get scammed. But on the other hand, I only bought one of their connectors for a toilet.
I’ve never put any of those cheap-looking white braided plastic connectors on plumbing – they do look cheap. Last time I built a house (my own) it was the days of those solid wall, flexible plastic hoses that are no longer recommended for use inside walls (I sold that house though). The house we bought also had them in it and until I redid the bathroom I hadn’t had to replace any connectors.
The only thing you can find these days are either the white braided plastic connectors or the stainless braided ones. I was an electrician in the Navy so I’ve experienced the issues with metal braid (and I’ve bought cheap garden hoses so I also understand bad connector ends on hoses as well).
But for do-it-yourselfers like me, the options are damned limited. Sure, I could buy a complete flair tool kit and copper tubing to run my own, but that is a real pain in the ass and, for amateurs without the right tools and enough experience, prone to kinking and problems.
So, Steve, have you given any consideration to making connectors for toilets and faucets too? Your washer hoses look good. I didn’t replace the hoses when I reinstalled the washer – they’re three years old and still looked OK on the inside of the connectors at both ends (yes, I checked that). Your information sounds completely reasonable (and 20 years of no failure is really impressive). So can I have the discount? (And give some thought to applying what you’ve done for washing machiines to other water-using appliances. If Floodchek can hold up to the vibration of washing machines for twenty years, you could make a big dent in this issue.
Comment by democommie on November 25, 2009 at 10:54 pm
jim:
Why flare? I know it’s probably the best thing to ensure a good joint, but compression fittings, properly used also work quite well. I’ll probably run pex when I put in my water system, because it’s pretty durable and it’s relativeley easy to run. The fittings are expensive but the “pipe” is cheap. I tend to go a little overboard on shutoffs and Iusually use ball valves because they are so positive and, with stainless steel and nylon guts, tend to last a while.
Comment by jim on November 25, 2009 at 11:12 pm
I’m talking from the valve on the wall to the fixture, be it a faucet or toilet. You can run pex up to the valves (though mice do eat it- it sharpens their teeth) and if I was ever in search of more frustration and decided to replumb, I’d go pex. The idea of running up to a manifold and then parallel supply lines from there appeals to me. But I’m not a plumber. I plumbed our last house Litzz11 with a propane torch in one hand and the Time-Life Book of Plumbing in the other.