Spring flood checklist
Snowmelt and spring rain find the lowest point in a building first. Put a flood cable there before the water does.
Tip: print this page and tick the boxes as you go.
The checklist
1. Find the low points
Lay the flood cable where water collects first: the floor around the sump pit, under and around the water heater, beside the washing machine and laundry sink, near the floor drain, and along any wall that has leaked before.
2. Lay the cable flat on the floor
The leak-sensing cable is sensitive along its whole length, so lay it flat on the floor where water would spread, not coiled up or hung on a wall. The Flood Detector Kit comes with 3 m (10 ft) of cable; each Flood Sensor Extension adds another 3 m (10 ft), and one run can reach 100 m (330 ft).
3. Connect it to your EDGE
The kit plugs into the dry-contact input that every EDGE has except EDGE Essential PLUS, or into the flood-detector port of a BLOCK model that has one. EDGE checks the input once a minute.
4. Check who gets the alarm
A flood alarm reaches everyone the device is shared with at the same time, by phone call, text, email and push notification. Check the names and numbers before the thaw.
5. Test it once
Touch a damp cloth to the cable and check that the alarm arrives on every phone on the list, then dry the cable.
6. Keep an eye on humidity afterwards
A wet spring leaves basements damp. Every EDGE with a humidity sensor shows a mold index and can send a mold pre-alarm, so you hear about it before it shows on the walls.