Add me to the braided pipe water leak club

**DECelt** · 04-03-2022, 05:57 AM

In the middle of the night, my basement water alarm went off. I had been planning to replace the braided pipe to the hot water heater with PEX.

BUT....I guess that I sat on my butt too long. It blew right off of the brass barb on the top of the water heater.

Minor flood that would have been a major flood without a basement water alarm.

Word to the wise! Replace that crap as soon as you can! I had the pex and tools to replace it first thing this am.....back on the road!

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**Steven@147** · 04-03-2022, 06:46 AM

I am a club member also. Glad you got it fixed with just minor flood

**Dakota** · 04-03-2022, 07:43 AM

I had a leak from the pex going into the water heater. Fortunately, I found it right away as water was leaking out the side immediately after setting up camp. Can you tell me what type of sensors you use and where exactly you place them? Sounds like cheap insurance against water damage. Thanks.

**traveldawg** · 04-03-2022, 07:52 AM

I use these. I probably have 4 throughout the rig with 3 being behind the basement panel in water connection locations. They work well (when I tested them; so far no leaks) and the give off a chirp when the battery is low.

**Dakota** · 04-03-2022, 07:55 AM

Originally Posted by traveldawg

I use these. I probably have 4 throughout the rig with 3 being behind the basement panel in water connection locations. They work well (when I tested them; so far no leaks) and the give off a chirp when the battery is low.

Thank you very much!

**Steven@147** · 04-03-2022, 08:32 AM

We use the same detectors with the sensor placed behind the nautilus panel. They seem to last a good while on the 9v batteries. Of course we had a leak behind the water heater where we had no detector sensor, figures.

**FlyStar** · 04-03-2022, 03:24 PM

Great advice. Thanks forum! Ordered a 3 pack of alarms. Cheap insurance. Thinking Nautilus panel, water heater, and not sure where to put the 3 rd one. Maybe under one of the sinks.

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**traveldawg** · 04-03-2022, 07:10 PM

Originally Posted by FlyStar

Great advice. Thanks forum! Ordered a 3 pack of alarms. Cheap insurance. Thinking Nautilus panel, water heater, and not sure where to put the 3 rd one. Maybe under one of the sinks.

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I put mine: 1) near the water pump behind the Nautilus panel; 2) at the base of the water heater; 3) behind the basement wall where there are some Pex connections (I saw a drip from one once but have re-crimped and all OK now... but); 4) behind the toilet (I saw an RV flood once because the toilet water didn't shut off); 5)in the washer/dryer closet.

For the ones behind basement panels I put the actual device (electronics & battery box) velcro'ed to one of the aluminum floor supports on the top of the basement storage area so I could replace the batteries when necessary.

**DECelt** · 04-04-2022, 06:41 AM

Originally Posted by Dakota

I had a leak from the pex going into the water heater. Fortunately, I found it right away as water was leaking out the side immediately after setting up camp. Can you tell me what type of sensors you use and where exactly you place them? Sounds like cheap insurance against water damage. Thanks.

I went simple for the rv... Basement watchdog at Amazon. I placed the sensor under the back of the nautilus. So far, it has detected a small leak that would have been unnoticed for a while... And, of course, the major flood. It is loud enough to even wake me up [emoji38]

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**timlisajax** · 04-14-2022, 09:29 AM

Ditto on all the comments that the leak alarms are a good idea. I placed an aluminum baking pan at the bottom of the Nautilus panel and you can see the sensor taped inside the pan. My thought is that any leak will drip into the pan instead of going all over the place. One other thing I did was replace the carpeted wall piece with plexiglass. It isn't pretty but I can easily see whats going on in there. Lastly, when we leave the camper, I try to remember to turn off the water at the spigot.