Flo by Moen is a revolutionary smart home water security system that features a suite of products to protect your home from water damage and leaks, 24/7. The Smart Water Shutoff monitors your entire water supply system for leaks and vulnerabilities, while the Smart Water Detector senses leaks and moisture outside of the pipes, such as overflowing drains, appliance failures, or weather-related issues.
How It Works!
Moen’s Flo detects and eliminates leaks. The smart water security system monitors everything from your toilet, shower, or faucet to the pipes in your foundation and behind your walls, so there are no surprises on your water bill or disasters when you return home from vacation.
Flo by Moen is installed on the home’s main water supply line, allowing the Smart Water Shutoff to monitor all water entering the home. Three sensors on the Smart Water Shutoff actively monitor water flow, pressure, and temperature. These sensors, together with the Smart Water Shutoff’s algorithms, allow Flo by Moen to identify and safeguard the home from issues such as leaks, burst pipes, and more!
Every night, Flo by Moen runs a health test on your system. The Smart Water Shutoff can detect leaks as small as a drop per minute, you’d likely never know these existed until you had a problem such as water damage, mold behind walls, or even an unexplained rising water bill.
Your smartphone is command central. From here you can get alerts and turn your water on or off from anywhere in the world (assuming you’re connected).
Secure Your Home’s Water From Your Phone
See how much water you are consuming with daily trends and set goals to save water and money.
Check your real-time flow rate, pressure and temperature of running water into your home.
Get all of the pending alerts in real-time. Get detailed information, troubleshoot the issue and shut off the water.
See your water usage by fixtures and appliance, track your historical consumption, set goals and more.
A Guarantee Against The Unexpected
While the Flo by Moen Smart Water Shutoff is proven to decrease water damage incidents by 96%, accidents can still happen. And while we can’t always predict these incidents, we can plan for them. And the new FloProtect Plan is designed to do just that.
Flow by Moen will cover up to $5,000 of your insurance deductible so you can focus on what matters most during an emergency.
With a FloProtect Plan, you can extend that warranty to 5-years, the best warranty in the industry.
Save Money On Home Insurance
You may be eligible for a rebate or discount on your homeowner’s insurance policy by having Flo by Moen installed. Confirm with your carrier before purchasing. Incentives vary by state.
Ultima Reverse Osmosis’s produce great tasting water and eliminates the need to keep buying bottled water. This means your reverse osmosis will pay for itself in a short amount of time.
Green Reverse Osmosis:
Newest Green Technology
Use’s only one-third the amount of water that a standard RO would.
Up to 75 gallons per day production
Same great tasting water as a normal RO
Highest Quality Components
Made in the USA
Includes 3.2 Gallon Storage Tank
Pick Your Faucet
How it works!
The Green Reverse Osmosis goes through multiple filters that remove unwanted materials such as Chlorine, Mercury, and Fluoride. The water then goes through a semi-permeable membrane which continues to remove inorganics and heavy metals to create one of the purest forms of water you can have in your home. Pure water is produced as you use it!
Reverse Osmosis is the most effective and economical way to provide your home with high quality drinking water.
This rapid recovery assures that you can have all the pure water your house can use. Some of these uses may be: • Drinking Water • Low Sodium Diet • Pure Ice Cubes • Baby Formulas • Auto Batteries • Cooking Water • Juices, Coffee, Tea • Soups and Sauces • Weight Loss Diets • Pets • Plants • Humidifiers • Aquariums • Steam Irons • Fruits • Vegetables
Five Year Warranty All drinking water systems are warranted for a period of 5 years from the date of purchase. This warranty is offered by the manufacturer and your distributor may offer additional warranties. Any defective parts must be returned to the manufacturer for coverage. This warranty does not cover labor charges incurred outside the factory for removal, installation or repair. This warranty does not include filter replacement
The “GR” in those figures stands for “grains.” This is one of the common metrics water softener manufacturers use to communicate buyers of the system’s capacity.
A key part of learning how to properly size a water softener is knowing what these measurements actually translate to in the real world.
One “grain” equates to 1/7000th of a pound-worth of minerals that the softener is capable of removing from your water. To achieve the full capacity indicated by a softener’s GR figure, you need to use a specific amount of salt per regeneration cycle, which is usually outlined in the owner’s manual.
You can operate the system using lesser amounts of salt but you won’t achieve the capacity denoted by the unit’s GR figure if you do so. This may be completely fine depending on your needs. The key is to strike a balance between saving money (using less salt) and getting adequate amounts of soft water for your home.
As for the size of the tank, units possessing the capacity range mentioned above (32,000 GR – 64,000 GR) typically range in size from 9” in diameter and 48” in height to 12” in diameter and 52” in height.
If you have an existing softener that you’re looking to replace, the unit’s measurements are usually on a sticker fixed to the side.
Customers call CopperStone Plumbing after receiving a high water bill. Sometimes it creeps up a little at a time and sometimes the bill shoots up suddenly
How do you determine what is causing your bill to be high? Is it due to usage or do to a leak? You have two very helpful tools to help you search.
Your meter
Your water bill
1: Meter
Outside Meters
Most meters are located outside of the home. The meter is usually in the yard or close to the curb and has a cover over the meter pit.
The first thing to do is determine if the leak is inside your home or outside. Once the meter is located you need to be able to see and read the meter. If the meter pit is full of standing water, you will need to pump out the water so you can read the meter.
Once you are comfortable reading the meter, shut the water off. Once you have shut the water off to the home, open a faucet inside the home to make sure the shut-off valve is completely holding. There may be some residual water in the pipes and it will come out of the faucet, but that flow should stop in a few minutes. Once no further water is flowing, you have verified your home shut-off valve is working. Now go back to the meter and check to see if it is registering any flow.
If the meter is moving while you have the water shut off at the home, you have a leak on the service line between the street and the shut-off valve for the home. If the meter is not moving when water to the home is shut off, your water usage or leak is inside the home past the shut-off valve. Turn the water back on to the home and begin following the same steps listed for an inside meter:
Make sure no water is being used in the home. If the meter continues to move, or if your meter has a red triangle (flow indicator) that continues to move, there is water flow and something is using water.
Start shutting off water using devices one at a time inside the home. Make sure to include toilets, clothes washers, dishwashers, ice makers/water dispensers, water softeners, irrigation systems, hose bibs, showers and faucets, and hot water heaters. After each water-using appliance or fixture is turned off, check the meter to see if the meter has stopped moving. If it has, you have found the culprit.
If the meter does not stop moving, you likely have a hidden leak under a slab floor or in a wall.
Where do I find shut-off valves for fixtures and appliances?
1. Toilets – Usually at the bottom and back of the toilet.
2. Clothes Washers – There should be two valves. One for hot, one for cold. They could be behind the washer, on the utility sink or in a recessed box in the wall near the washing machine. Turn both valves off.
3. Dishwashers –Normally under the kitchen sink. It may be near the shut-off for the sink faucets.
4. Ice Makers/Water Dispensers –At the back of the refrigerator, the supply tube connecting the water to the refrigerator has a valve that can be used to stop the water supply.
5. Water Softeners –These valves are usually behind the softener. Commonly, there are shut-off valves for cold water, hot water and a main shut-off. Close all three valves for the meter test.
6. Hose Bibs –There are usually outside hose bibs for garden hoses. The shut-off valve can be inside. Sometimes the valve is behind a wall or in an access panel.
7. Irrigation systems – Irrigation systems have a main shut-off valve where water can be shut off to the entire system. It is usually outside in a pit.
8. Sinks – Most sinks contain shut-off valves near the sink or in the cabinet for the sink.
9. Water heaters- The shut-off valve for the water heater is normally on the pipe bringing water to the tank.
I shut everything off. Nothing is using water. But my water bill is still too high!
Before moving on to analyzing the bill itself, there is one more issue to check. Is there any appliance or fixture, such as a water softener or irrigation system that is on a timer and might have been inactive and therefore not using water when you performed your meter tests? If so, either disable the timer and activate the appliance or fixture to use water now, or set the timer to the current time so the appliance or fixture is actively using water. Check your meter to see that usage is registering and then begin to shut off the valves to the appliance or fixture and check the meter again.
2: Water bill
What your water bill looks like varies from City to City. But most have some items in common. Gather together several months’ bills and begin to analyze your bills.
Reading Type
Somewhere on your bill, usually in a chart, the type of reading performed is shown. There are normally two types of readings: Actual and estimates. This may be indicated only by an A or E. If your meter is unable to be read, usage is estimated. Sometimes a huge water bill can happen when your meter is read and the estimated usage is much lower than the actual usage shown on the meter. If your bills contain any estimated usage periods, contact your water provider to see why the meter could not be read.
Unit of Measurement
What unit of measure is used to measure your water consumption? The two most common units of measurement are cubic feet and gallons. One cubic foot of water is equal to 7.48 gallons. Most water providers that measure in gallons set rates based on 1000-gallon units. Your bill will reflect rates per 1000 gallons.
Service Period
Your water bill will show you the calendar period for the bill and the number of days of service. Compare this to previous periods on previous bills. Some bills have a graph showing your water usage history which will aid you in this analysis. Are your water usage patterns consistent? Is there a month where your usage was abnormal? In the time period for your bill, has there been a one time or unusual event that caused water usage to spike? Did you have guests or an increase in occupancy? Did you fill a swimming pool? Has it been extremely dry causing you to water the landscape more frequently? Did you have a leak, such as a running toilet that has now been repaired? Is the service period different in any of the bills? Service periods can fluctuate due to the number of days in the month or if the meter was read at a different time of the month due to a holiday.
Water Base Rate and Charge
Few utilities charge only on consumption. There is usually a base rate or charge for anyone able to receive water from the water provider, regardless of the amount of water used. Sometimes this charge includes a certain amount of usage and any additional usage is charged separately. Sometimes the base rate includes no usage and all usage is charged separately. Check with the water provider if this is not clear on your bill. Compare this rate with previous bills. Has there been a change in the base rate?
Sewer Base Rates and Charges
Most cities charge for sewer on the same bill as water and the sewer charges are based on water usage. There is usually a base rate for sewer just as there is for water regardless of usage. The base rate may or may not include a certain amount of usage. What is your base rate for sewer? Compare this rate with previous bills. Has there been a change in the sewer base rate?
If after performing the meter tests and analyzing your water bill, you find nothing to explain the high water bill, you will want to continue to monitor the incoming bills to understand your usage patterns. If your usage drops back to normal, there must have been a one-time event, such as a faucet being left on or more than normal laundry. If the usage continues to be higher than normal, you should check anything you have on a timer, such as water softeners or irrigation systems that might be cycling longer than you set them for originally. If the home is unoccupied during the day, you might want to cut off the water supply to outside hose bibs in case of unauthorized usage during your absence.
If you are concerned that your water bill is too high simply because you just can’t believe you used the amount of water the meter indicates, you may want your city to test or replace your meter. But, be aware. Meters normally slow down with age (register less water passing through). Rarely do they speed up with age (register more water passing through).
The average American uses around 88 gallons per day per person in the household. That means a family of four would use around 352 gallons per day or 10,560 gallons in a 30-day period. Roughly 70 percent of this usage occurs indoors.
Toilets are by far the main source of water use in the home, accounting for nearly 30 percent of an average home’s indoor water consumption. Older, inefficient toilets that use as much as 6 gallons per flush also happen to be a major source of wasted water in many homes.
Nationally, outdoor water use accounts for 30 percent of household use but can be much higher in drier parts of the country.
Have you identified a probable hidden leak after performing the meter test yourself? The professional technicians at CopperStone Plumbing can find that hidden leak for you.
Has your water bill risen despite you trying to reduce water usage? Or can you hear water running when you know for sure all the taps are off in the house? You might have a leak hidden somewhere within your house. If these leaks are not taken care of they can eventually lead to foundational damage, mildew growth and much more. The positive side of things is that finding these leaks have never been easier, with Electronic Leak Detection, CopperStone Plumbing, LLC. can find exactly where the leak is coming from without being intrusive or destructive.
What Causes Water Leaks
Water leaks can appear from a variety of different causes, normally it comes from poor workmanship when the house was built. Leaks can also be caused when the pipes rust, erode, or break down from wear and tear, and occasionally from abrasive chemicals. Electronic leak detection helps us find exactly where the leak is without having to tear down the walls or foundation to pinpoint the location of the leak.
What Kind of Damage Leaks Can Cause
Water damage from leaky pipes can cause huge problems for you and your home, not only does it affect the structural integrity of your home, but it can also affect your health. Water from leaky pipes promotes mold and fungal growth, and this can lead to some serious health issues. For most people mold and fungal spores will cause nasal congestion, difficulty breathing, coughing, and sneezing fits, however if you have a weak immune system it will cause even further issues for you.
Now if knowing that health issues aren’t a good enough reason to check for leaky pipes, then damage to the structural integrity of the house might be a reason. Water damage can cause walls and ceilings to sag, discolored walls and if left long enough the support beams on the house will start to become compromised. And of course, with all of this, the property value of the house will fall drastically. Check your pipes today with Electronic Leak Detection by calling CopperStone Plumbing, LLC.
Why You Should Have Your Pipes Checked in your home:
In the 1980’s litigations over leaking plumbing due to polybutylene pipes began in California and Texas. The eventual Class Action settlement of $1 billion (Cox v. Shell Oil) in 1995 was enough to ensure that polybutylene water pipes were no longer acceptable by U.S. building codes. From the years between the late 1970’s till the mid-1990’s polybutylene was being used widely through houses. It is estimated that at least 6 million homes were built using this material. The material was being used throughout the sunbelt, meaning Arizona is one of the states being hugely affected by this. Now what is the problem with this? Well Polybutylene has an unusually high failure rate since it is broken down easily by chlorine and mineral levels within the water. When polybutylene comes in contact with oxidants in tap water it becomes brittle and fragile. This causes the pipes to break from the inside, cracking and eventually leading to leaks, causing massive damage. Further reasons for poor quality piping:
Water quality
Pipe fittings degenerating
Chlorine and mineral levels
Age of piping and fittings
Poor installation by the previous plumbers
The piping will eventually start leaking, usually within 10-15 years after installation. When a pipe begins leaking without the homeowner’s knowledge the damage can become very extensive. For this reason, it is very important to know the dangers of polybutylene piping and eventually re-piping your house.
Where you’ll find polybutylene piping in the home:
Polybutylene piping is used to supply water from the main city water line into a home. Polybutylene piping is typically found in the following locations:
Interior
Entering the water heater
Feeding sinks, toilets, and bathtubs
Exterior
Attached to the home’s main water shutoff valve
Attached to the home’s water meter
Cost of Damage:
If polybutylene is left inside of a house and is allowed to cause damage, the cost will be huge. Insurance coverage sometimes will cancel or even refuse give policies to homes with polybutylene piping. Making it very difficult to market the homes or even to fix a leak or flood caused by plumbing. The damage that a ruptured pipe line can incur is between $40,000-$120,000 depending on how bad of a rupture it is. However, re-piping a house is much cheaper than this, for a 1500 square feet home with 2 bedrooms, the average cost would be around $5,000-$7,000.
CopperStone Plumbing, LLC. will be happy to help you determine if your home has polybutylene piping, and beyond that we will help you re-pipe your home. Save yourself from having a flood destroy the equity of your home.
With the Green Reverse Osmosis system you get the same high-quality water and you save water. The Green Reverse Osmosis System uses only 25-35% of the water used by a conventional reverse osmosis system. This is a completely new technology offered by Pentair. This system is designed to give you high-quality water and a worry-free purified water for drinking and cooking. The system is available with a 36, 50 and 75 gallon per day production option. This high quality system will provide outstanding water from private wells or municipal supplies. We may not save the world, but we will be helping and
so will you with this reverse osmosis system.
