5 ms·

It appears these are all battery powered and wireless. Probably also means they're quite easy to jam with a low powered transmitter. Still are likely useful to

It appears these are all battery powered and wireless. Probably also means they're quite easy to jam with a low powered transmitter. Still are likely useful to protect against the impulsive crimes of opportunity. It's also a bit weird that washing machines don't come with water leak sensors but I guess manufacturers don't want to highlight the possibility of their products causing water damage.

forward1 3y ago
More bizarre to me still is the fact laundry rooms are built without a drain at the lowest point of the floor. That's in fact a feature I would desire in every room of a custom home.
- marcinzm 3y ago
  >That's in fact a feature I would desire in every room of a custom home. Some reasons I would not want this is: need to pour water in periodically to keep the trap from drying out and the risk of a sewage backup covering every room in literal shit.
  - oldpersonintx 3y ago
    [dead]
  - mritun 3y ago
    “literal shit”? Check the code in your area. The toilet outlet goes into 4” pipe straight to septic, not the 2” drain pipe.
    - marcinzm 3y ago
      The vast majority of homes in the US use a public sewer versus a septic tank.
- ziptron 3y ago
  What's even more problematic is that new North American homes are often constructed with a washer/dryer "conveniently" placed near a bedroom, typically on the upper level, and yet, they are still installed without a drain.
  - beart 3y ago
    I have a laundry up stairs. However a drain must be installed in my area to meet code.
  - oldpersonintx 3y ago
    [dead]
  - EvanAnderson 3y ago
    Drain aside (which, AFAIK, would be required by code where I live) I'd love to have the washer/dryer located near bedrooms. Having the laundry off the kitchen, garage, or in the basement creates needless make-work transporting clothes across the house. I don't ever disrobe or dress outside my kitchen, garage, or in my basement. (It would make more sense if the laundry backed-up to the bedroom closets.)
    - solardev 3y ago
      Wouldn't the noise and vibration get tiresome quickly? Or are new machines quiet and stable enough that it's not an issue?
      - EvanAnderson 3y ago
        I've got a 12+ hour window every day in which nobody is in the bedrooms.
      - cornstalks 3y ago
        I’m relatively sensitive to noises (analog clocks are a hard no-go because of their soft ticking; it’s infuriating trying to sleep somewhere that has them). But I barely hear our dryer when it’s running at night, and it’s just on the other side of our bedroom wall. As long as we aren’t doing a load with lots of hard buttons and things (which make a louder clinking sound when tumbling) the dryer is totally fine at night. The washing machine, not so much. The water lines and spin cycle aren’t particularly loud, but they’re loud and distinct enough that it’s too loud for me at night.
- toast0 3y ago
  The downside of floor drains is that drains are bidirectional and drain backups come out of the lowest point. That's probably ok in a laundry room or bathroom, but wouldn't be nice in other rooms.
  - QuarterReptile 3y ago
    Could you route the drains to plumbing lower down in the system? I'm picturing all wet rooms draining to a funnel in the basement via a dedicated gravity drain system. He did say 'custom home'....
    - Kirby64 3y ago
      Many parts of the US don't have basements. The lowest point is inside the slab, so drains are relatively constrained.
      - thedaly 3y ago
        Even if there is a basement, a lot of homes will have a gravity sewer line that is above the level of the basement floor, and utilize ejector/sump pumps for water below the elevation of the sewer.
    - toast0 3y ago
      Unless you're running a pumped drain system, all of your drains must route to plumbing lower down. If upper floors' floor drains route to lower floors before joining with other plumbing on the lower floor, that would prevent backups from rising to the upper floor drains (unless their particular pipe was clogged, which should be unusual in a residential floor drain). But you'll have this issue at least at the lowest level of the dwelling. Basements are not common where I've lived, but where present in custom houses, they tend to be fully finished and plumbed and then they'd have floor drains too. In some buildings elsewhere, I have seen a less finished basement, with only laundry and a slop sink... That slop sink may be where a backup from the lateral to the utility sewer (or septic system) would come out. But that's not a common look for a fully custom home.
- mrweasel 3y ago
  I believe there's a regulation here that requires a drain in the floor of laundry room here in Denmark, but the same isn't the case for kitchens, so a dishwasher can still do a lot of damage. It is really weird that for all the smart crap manufactures want to stuff into appliances, leak detection isn't particularly high up on the list. It can't really be because it's hard to do, leak detectors are often one of the earliest sensor types available for new smart home kits.
  - pixl97 3y ago
    The question I guess is reliability of the leak detectors themselves. Will the detector fail more often than the actual unit leaks?
- alistairSH 3y ago
  TIL: A secondary drain often isn't required by code (in the US). I'm also shocked by this, seems obvious, especially for a machine that's above ground-level.
- shiroiuma 3y ago
  Laundry rooms here in Japan (or rather, bathrooms that have a space for a laundry machine, usually next to the sink) are built exactly that way: the drain is in the floor, under the machine. It's honestly bizarre that this is not normal in the US.
some_random 3y ago
If a burglar is sophisticated enough to identify intrusion sensors and deploy countermeasures, they're typically not going to be targeting residential homes.
almostnormal 3y ago
> It's also a bit weird that washing machines don't come with water leak sensors but I guess manufacturers don't want to highlight the possibility of their products causing water damage. A sensor can alert someone but doesn't stop the water. There are alternatives: 1) An electric valve directly at the tap that the machine actuates when it needs water. Usually comes with hose-in-hose to capture water from a ruptured line and detect and stop releasing water. 2) Quantity limiting devices to limit the quantity that can be used contiguously, and reset when the flow stops. Set to the maximum needed by the machine. Should there be any leak, the possible damage is limited. No electricity needed.

forward1 3y ago

More bizarre to me still is the fact laundry rooms are built without a drain at the lowest point of the floor. That's in fact a feature I would desire in every room of a custom home.

marcinzm 3y ago
>That's in fact a feature I would desire in every room of a custom home. Some reasons I would not want this is: need to pour water in periodically to keep the trap from drying out and the risk of a sewage backup covering every room in literal shit.
- oldpersonintx 3y ago
  [dead]
- mritun 3y ago
  “literal shit”? Check the code in your area. The toilet outlet goes into 4” pipe straight to septic, not the 2” drain pipe.
  - marcinzm 3y ago
    The vast majority of homes in the US use a public sewer versus a septic tank.
ziptron 3y ago
What's even more problematic is that new North American homes are often constructed with a washer/dryer "conveniently" placed near a bedroom, typically on the upper level, and yet, they are still installed without a drain.
- beart 3y ago
  I have a laundry up stairs. However a drain must be installed in my area to meet code.
- oldpersonintx 3y ago
  [dead]
- EvanAnderson 3y ago
  Drain aside (which, AFAIK, would be required by code where I live) I'd love to have the washer/dryer located near bedrooms. Having the laundry off the kitchen, garage, or in the basement creates needless make-work transporting clothes across the house. I don't ever disrobe or dress outside my kitchen, garage, or in my basement. (It would make more sense if the laundry backed-up to the bedroom closets.)
  - solardev 3y ago
    Wouldn't the noise and vibration get tiresome quickly? Or are new machines quiet and stable enough that it's not an issue?
    - EvanAnderson 3y ago
      I've got a 12+ hour window every day in which nobody is in the bedrooms.
    - cornstalks 3y ago
      I’m relatively sensitive to noises (analog clocks are a hard no-go because of their soft ticking; it’s infuriating trying to sleep somewhere that has them). But I barely hear our dryer when it’s running at night, and it’s just on the other side of our bedroom wall. As long as we aren’t doing a load with lots of hard buttons and things (which make a louder clinking sound when tumbling) the dryer is totally fine at night. The washing machine, not so much. The water lines and spin cycle aren’t particularly loud, but they’re loud and distinct enough that it’s too loud for me at night.
toast0 3y ago
The downside of floor drains is that drains are bidirectional and drain backups come out of the lowest point. That's probably ok in a laundry room or bathroom, but wouldn't be nice in other rooms.
- QuarterReptile 3y ago
  Could you route the drains to plumbing lower down in the system? I'm picturing all wet rooms draining to a funnel in the basement via a dedicated gravity drain system. He did say 'custom home'....
  - Kirby64 3y ago
    Many parts of the US don't have basements. The lowest point is inside the slab, so drains are relatively constrained.
    - thedaly 3y ago
      Even if there is a basement, a lot of homes will have a gravity sewer line that is above the level of the basement floor, and utilize ejector/sump pumps for water below the elevation of the sewer.
  - toast0 3y ago
    Unless you're running a pumped drain system, all of your drains must route to plumbing lower down. If upper floors' floor drains route to lower floors before joining with other plumbing on the lower floor, that would prevent backups from rising to the upper floor drains (unless their particular pipe was clogged, which should be unusual in a residential floor drain). But you'll have this issue at least at the lowest level of the dwelling. Basements are not common where I've lived, but where present in custom houses, they tend to be fully finished and plumbed and then they'd have floor drains too. In some buildings elsewhere, I have seen a less finished basement, with only laundry and a slop sink... That slop sink may be where a backup from the lateral to the utility sewer (or septic system) would come out. But that's not a common look for a fully custom home.
mrweasel 3y ago
I believe there's a regulation here that requires a drain in the floor of laundry room here in Denmark, but the same isn't the case for kitchens, so a dishwasher can still do a lot of damage. It is really weird that for all the smart crap manufactures want to stuff into appliances, leak detection isn't particularly high up on the list. It can't really be because it's hard to do, leak detectors are often one of the earliest sensor types available for new smart home kits.
- pixl97 3y ago
  The question I guess is reliability of the leak detectors themselves. Will the detector fail more often than the actual unit leaks?
alistairSH 3y ago
TIL: A secondary drain often isn't required by code (in the US). I'm also shocked by this, seems obvious, especially for a machine that's above ground-level.
shiroiuma 3y ago
Laundry rooms here in Japan (or rather, bathrooms that have a space for a laundry machine, usually next to the sink) are built exactly that way: the drain is in the floor, under the machine. It's honestly bizarre that this is not normal in the US.

some_random 3y ago

If a burglar is sophisticated enough to identify intrusion sensors and deploy countermeasures, they're typically not going to be targeting residential homes.

almostnormal 3y ago

> It's also a bit weird that washing machines don't come with water leak sensors but I guess manufacturers don't want to highlight the possibility of their products causing water damage. A sensor can alert someone but doesn't stop the water. There are alternatives: 1) An electric valve directly at the tap that the machine actuates when it needs water. Usually comes with hose-in-hose to capture water from a ruptured line and detect and stop releasing water. 2) Quantity limiting devices to limit the quantity that can be used contiguously, and reset when the flow stops. Set to the maximum needed by the machine. Should there be any leak, the possible damage is limited. No electricity needed.