Unbelievable

[menzies]

Originally Posted by JohnEasley

What a way to start a trip. Your neighbors saved the day. Might not be a bad idea to bring them a plate of cookies or something to say thanks. Sounds like you've got a good attitude about the whole thing. Accidents happen. You'll get it under control.

More like a quality steak dinner!

[sunchaser]

Had a neighbor a few years ago who took off for Vegas with his new girlfriend. The old girlfriend got wind of this and with her still active house key entered and torched the place. By the time the fire was quelled serious water and smoke damage had occurred. We had no easy way to contact him as he enjoyed his time away. He was very surprised when he returned home, but we did save his Harley and Corvette.

No matter the trip purpose, $$it happens it seems. We’ve had all sorts of oddball water and electrical hiccups as related to us by our house watchers. One of them has contractors on his call list who can address any issue as well as our insurer information.

Point being, capable house watchers who can do it all can allow us frequent travelers to sleep better when the seemingly inevitable occurs.

[Maerin]

Originally Posted by menzies

The house valve is in the garage and just for the house. My concern is the gas water heaters. Do I cause issues by turning off the water and heating those dry. Or can I turn off the gas without issue or are they designed to handle going dry?

Why would they go dry? Where's the water going to go if the faucets are all closed? Even if the faucets are open, likely the water heaters are low in the system, and unless there's pressure in, no flow out. The tank only stores a volume of water, it relies on system pressure to move water through the tank. The thermostat keeps the water at temperature, it doesn't know if the water is shut off. It may call for heat, so if you're gone for a long period of time, you may save a buck or two if you set the heaters to "vacation" or "pilot" if they have that setting. Heaters with electronic ignition can simply be switched off. If they're electric, you can shut the breaker off, you just may have to wait a bit for the water to heat upon your return.

So, short answer is you don't have to do anything special to the water heaters.

Same goes for the areas with hydronic heat. They're closed systems, and in normal operation, they don't actually require a constant source of pressure, they'll operate fine with the water shut off.

[mahal]

Originally Posted by menzies

Unfortunately that means we now rely on the neighbors again to turn it on and off to keep the pool level right.

If the house water shut-off is just for the house as you mentioned earlier, the pool's auto water-fill may still be functional as that normally is plumbed to the same source line as your lawn sprinkler system.

[Codger2]

Originally Posted by menzies

We have two large gas powered hot water tank heaters.

If you turn the water heater control to "Vacation" nothing will happen to the WH. We always turn the water off at either of our homes and set the WH to vacation. Works well for months at a time.

[menzies]

The pool is filled from a patio faucet on a timer that the pool guy turns on when needed.

[DMartin]

I feel your pain. The last 2 times heading down to the boat I have wrecked my vehicle. The first one I got into a 4 car pile-up in Atlanta. Motorhome rear-ended me causing the accident. Last trip hit something in roadway taking out radiator and AC condenser along with front bumper. I told my wife moral of the story is for me to just stay on the boat and not travel back and forth.