Plumbing and HVAC/R contractors can now install a property-saving solution that proactively shuts off a supply water valve when piping or appliances leaks occur.
RectorSeal® LLC, Houston, a leading manufacturer of quality plumbing and HVAC/R products, introduces TripleGuard™, a smart, electronic water leak monitoring, detection and prevention system product line that guards against property damaging, infrastructure water source leaks in residential and commercial real estate.
Available through North American plumbing and HVAC/R wholesalers, TripleGuard is ideal for any real estate owner or manager overseeing property with dish washers, clothes washers, sinks, hot water heaters, hydronic/plumbing piping and other potential water leak sources.
TripleGuard consists of two products that are maintenance-free and installable in less than an hour: 1) the TripleGuard Smart for Cloud-based monitored facility leak protection; and 2) the TripleGuard Active appliance lead shutoff, designed mainly for single source protection such as water heaters.
While the plumbing industry currently has many leak detectors, few brands actually proactively stop water flow and subsequent property damage while also enabling the user with cloud-based control remotely or onsite via smartphones or the Internet. “Statistics reveal North American water damage insurance claims total billions of dollars annually and 250-gallons (946-liters) of water can potentially leak daily from just an 1/8-inch (3-mm) crack in a pipe,” said Brian Ilagan, TripleGuard senior product manager.
The TripleGuard Smart system includes:
• Actuator shutoff unit for the supply water line. The actuator is a high-torque design that fits over a 3/4, 1, or 1-1/4-inch (228, 305, 381-mm) ball valve (sold separately) on a building or zone’s primary water supply piping. It operates wireless with 4 AA batteries. The actuator is designed to withstand fully-submersed natural flooding situations and in temperature extremes from -4°F to 124°F (-20°C to 51°C) temperatures The actuator automatically closes and opens the ball valve monthly to proactively prevent scale buildup, thus requiring no maintenance other than battery replacement every four years;
• Two water leak detectors. The sensors require two AA-batteries and placement under a potential water leak source. Maintenance requires battery change out every two years;
• A Cloud-connected HUB. A 915-Mhz wireless device connects to the Cloud via Wi-Fi or a hard-wired modem Ethernet connection. The smart device accepts wireless communications from the sensors, and then monitors sensor status (scalable up to 30 sensors/HUB). When a sensor detects water, the HUB receives the communication and then wirelessly signals the actuator to close. HUB maintains a historical record of sensors for troubleshooting and status reports.
• A smartphone app. The app allows remote access to the HUB for monitoring and controlling operation. The app can also be used to manually shutdown the building or HUB zone water supply remotely when unoccupied.
The TripleGuard Active is a one-piece actuator valve that monitors and detects water heater leaks. Its single 10-foot-long (3-meter), umbilical cord-connected sensor placed in the water heater pan automatically deactivates the cold water shutoff valve when detecting a water leak presence. “Statistics reports that 75-percent of water heaters fail within 12 years and cause property damage,” added Ilagan.
The TripleGuard product line’s other features include:
• One-year product warranty;
• Valve is NSF/ANSI Standard 61 (NSF-61) and NSF-372 certified for potable water;
• Multiple kits can be observed simultaneously on a manifest monitoring system for Home Owner Associations (HOA), multi-family housing management departments, and other overseers of large facilities with multiple units:
• Potential for reducing property insurance premiums and satisfying insurers’ water leak policy provisions;
• Future generations will integrate with Internet of Things (IoT) platforms;
For more information on TripleGuard, please visit the RectorSeal webpage www.rectorseal.com/tripleguard