Flo by Moen - Home Water Shutoff
Flo by Moen - Home Water Shutoff
🚰 Embracing Smarter Water Control: The Revolutionary Flo by Moen 💧🔍
When we built our Cabin a few years back we decided to install a Flo by Moen automatic water monitoring system. It’s a really good idea to have one of these installed in your homes as it helps you monitor usage but more importantly turn the water on or off when you are away. Further these devices will automatically turn the water off if there is a leak or anomaly.
In fact, I’m such a believer in whole house water shutoff systems. I promise you that this is one of the best things you can install to product your home from damage and have peace of mind when you travel.
About Flo by Moen
What sets the Flo by Moen apart from other water monitoring is that it uses machine learning to learn your usage and then turns off water when it thinks there is a leak. In addition, it turns the water off every night for a minute to conduct a self test and detect if there are any pressure changes in your pipes that could indicate a leak. Very clever.
Key Features
Real-time Monitoring: Using state-of-the-art sensors, Flow continuously monitors water pressure, temperature, and flow rate. This vigilance allows the system to detect even tiny leaks that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Automatic Shutoff: In the event of a significant anomaly or a detected leak, Flow will shut off the home's water supply, ensuring immediate action to prevent large-scale damage.
Remote Control: Via the Moen smartphone app, homeowners can control their water from anywhere. Whether you're in Seattle or halfway around the world, you can monitor and manage your home's water system with a touch.
Daily Diagnostics: Flow runs a system-wide check every day, ensuring all parts of the plumbing system are functioning correctly.
Conservation Insights: Beyond safety, Flow offers homeowners insights into their water consumption habits, helping to reduce wastage and potentially lowering monthly bills.
The entire system is controlled by their iOS app which you can see here
When I leave my home, I set it to “Away” mode and that tells the system that it should not expect any water usage till you put it back in “Home” mode.
In my experience the system works well. There have been a few false positives such as when someone takes a long shower, or when I use the garden hose for a long time. In these cases, it will give you a warning and shut off the water unless you intervene. After a while it learns your usage and then can fine tune the protection it provides.
When setting up the Flo you answer some basic questions about what fixtures you have in your home, and you can see what fixtures it assigns in the app also allowing you to correct any mistakes.
The Hardware
The hardware is specific to the size of your pipes but consists of a power supply and valve. You will need to install the unit where your cold water enters your home. If this is in the ground, you will want to make sure you pick a location that is insulated so your pipes don’t freeze.
The valve has a manual shutoff as well.
There are also sensors you can purchase to place them near appliances.
I have three sensors:
In the Laundry room
Under the Kitchen sink
Below the toilet
Those three locations are the most familiar places where you’ll have a leak because laundry hoses fail, toilet hoses fail, and sink hoses fail.
How to get Flow by Moen?
Flow by Moen is compatible with most homes with 3/4-inch to 1 1/4-inch pipe sizes. You can install it yourself or hire a professional plumber to do it for you. You will need a power outlet and a Wi-Fi connection near the device. You can order Flow by Moen online or find it at select retailers. You can also get a subscription plan that includes a lifetime warranty, proactive monitoring, and insurance deductible reimbursement.
Saving on Insurance
It should be no surprise that water leaks and damage are one of the leading issues of damage in a home, and many insurance companies will be happy to give you a discount or even pay for a portion of the hardware and installation of a water shutoff system.
In addition to this system, you could also get local water shutoff detectors for your washing machines.
The Flo app will produce an insurance letter for you that you can give to your insurance carrier.
Flo by Moen - Home Water Shutoff
Having suffered a fairly disastrous home renovation last year with two floods, I really wish we'd had this product!
Timely - we are on day 6 of a whole house repipe - definitely I will be looking into this more! The one thing I worry about things like this though is whether the app will outlast the physical parts given software has such a short lifespan (similar concern I had with the rachio automated sprinkler system we installed a few years back).