Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

A year ago I got into a bit of a "emergency preparedness" mode, and among other things, bought one of these devices, installed it in my water heater pan and then forgot all about it. At 12:30 a.m. a couple of nights ago, an alarm began ringing. I had no idea what it was, except that it wasn't a smoke detector (not as loud as that) but after wandering around the house for a bit, I followed the sound to the basement and found a small amount of water in the water heater pan. The alarm turned off as soon as I pulled the sensors out of the water. It was soon obvious this was no small leak. Over the next 12 hours until we got the water heater replaced, we easily bailed 30 or more gallons of water out of the bin we placed to catch the overflow from the pan. Had the alarm not sounded, it could have been 24 hours or more before the leak was noticed. The basement storage room where the water heater is located, and the adjoining (carpeted) rec room would have been flooded, requiring a major effort to dry them out and damage/destruction of a number of items. Drying out the basement to prevent mold would have required the rental of some high-powered dehumidifiers (been there, done that). This item did exactly what it was supposed to do. After reading some of the reviews indicating some lack of reliability, I may well install a couple of extras in the basement as backup, and putting some in other locations, such as under/near the washing machine, under sinks, and under the dishwasher, seems like a good idea. Important tip learned during the water heater replacement: The expansion tank intalled with the water heater has a shorter life span than the heater itself, and when it fails, the pressure from expansion of heating water then causes damage to the water heater tank itself, shortening its life. To test whether the expansion tank has failed, tap along the side of the tank starting from the bottom. There should be a noticeable change of pitch between the bottom (which contains the bladder full of water) and the top, which should contain air. If it sounds the same all the way up, the bladder has failed and the entire expansion tank has filled with water, preventing it from doing its job of relieving pressure in the water heater tank. Replacing the expansion tank is much cheaper than replacing both it and the heater, and may keep your heater going for years longer.