We live in an older (1974) house that has a 50 gallon water heater in the hall closet. House is all electric.

I live in constant fear that the water heater will fail and that I will wake up doing the back stroke.


Google tells me that you can buy an alarm/shutoff sensor that will keep the heater from flooding the house.

Anyone have any experience with any of these sensors? Are they pretty much plug and play? See the link below for what I am talking about. Looks like it would be simple to install.

https://www.zoro.com/floodmaster-water-heater-leak-detection-system-34in-rs-094-34/i/G4359083/?gclid=CNXloPuOps8CFUc8gQodfoMCYg&gclsrc=aw.ds


On a related note, are electric tankless waterheaters any good? The plumber I spoke with about all of this said that they don't like electric tankless heaters because they always break. He loves the gas ones, though.

He wanted $400+ labor to install an alarm/shutoff.

More than $400 to install that, not including the device itself? Doesn't sound worth it to me, unless this factors in running wire to add an outlet there.

FWIW what I've read about electric tankless water heaters is that they really aren't worth it compared to a regular one. Gas tankless vs. gas regular heater is a different story.

Yeah I'm not paying that guy to do it. But I may install it myself. It looks pretty simple.

How old is the heater ?

Heater is 10 yrs old. Probably needs to be replaced either way. But even if it were new I think it might be good to have this sensor on it wouldn't it?

I can for sure replace the heater. I've done it before in other houses. Very simple.

New tanks don't seem to last as long. Anything over 6 years is on borrowed time. Is there a pan underneath that drains to outside of the house ?

No pan or drain. That's what has me worried and looking at this shut off sensor

Nothing to add other than my parents have woken up to their hallway flooded because of the hot water heater before. It's not fun

Electric tankless are caca. You also need considerably more power to run a tankless than a tank type, in the neighborhood of 15-20KW versus 3-4.

In terms of recovery and efficiency, gas tankless > gas tank >>> electric tank >>>>>>> climbing in the dishwasher to shower >> electric tankless

That shut off will just stop more water from flowing into the heater. You will still have about 50 gallons of water in your house.

Yes, true. But 50 gallons is a lot better than 500 or more.

Also, if the tank is no longer under pressure there is a chance that the leak won't be as bad/fast.

Bare minimum:
1Put a pan under it
2Shutoff sensor
3Most important- leak frog

The kit I am looking at getting has a shutoff sensor as well as an alarm.

I would submit that if you're losing sleep over water heater possibly failing - you should replace it now, and add valves, pans, drains, whatever. It's 10 years old. It's not if, but when it's going to crap out.

I have the same setup, when we moved in a couple years ago we had the previous owner put in a new tank with remote shutoff as a part of the contract. Other than that, hoping for the best.

I've got these things all over my house after having several issues soon after buying it.
They come up on woot fairly often for half the price.

https://www.amazon.com/Leak-Frog-LF001-Water-Alarm/dp/B000WMSTUO