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Home Signal15 September 2026Water escaping from a hose, a joint or a pipe is one of the most common reasons people claim on home insurance in Europe. Not storms. Things inside the house.
Most of it can be stopped early, and most of the stopping is cheap. Here are five things, from free to fully automatic.
Water escaping from a hose, a joint or a pipe is one of the most common reasons people claim on home insurance in Europe. Not storms. Things inside the house.
Most of it can be stopped early, and most of the stopping is cheap. Here are five things, from free to fully automatic.
Water escaping from a hose, a joint or a pipe is one of the most common reasons people claim on home insurance in Europe. Not storms. Things inside the house.
Most of it can be stopped early, and most of the stopping is cheap. Here are five things, from free to fully automatic.
Find the main water tap before you need it, and turn it off and on once a year so it does not seize. When a pipe goes, every minute spent looking for the tap is more water on the floor.
Cost: nothing. Time: five minutes. Do this one this weekend.
Rubber washing machine and dishwasher hoses go brittle. Look for bulges and cracks, and replace any that are more than about five years old with braided ones.
Cost: about 10 to 20 EUR a hose.
A tray catches a slow drip before it soaks into the floor. It will not stop a burst hose, which can push about ten litres a minute, but it buys time for the small leaks.
Cost: about 20 EUR.
A sensor on the floor under the sink sounds and messages your phone the moment it gets wet. A sensing cable covers the hose run behind the machine, and a humidity sensor spots a wall getting damp.
Cost: 72.60 EUR as a kit, below. The first thing on this list that works when you are not home.
A sensor tells you. A smart shut-off valve on the main supply closes by itself when a sensor gets wet, so the water stops even when nobody is there to reach the stopcock.
Cost: offered straight after the kit. Most people have a plumber fit it.
One to three cost almost nothing. Four and five are the ones that still work when you are at work or away.
Number four, as a kit
A floor sensor for under the sink, a length of sensing cable for the hose run behind the washing machine, and a humidity sensor for the wall that gets damp before it gets wet. The cable bracket comes with it. 72.60 EUR against 82.50 bought separately.
Pick the colour of the humidity sensor above. The shut-off valve is offered on the next page, for when you want the water stopped, not just reported.
"Working wery well. I had some water on the floor and it imidiently started beeping."
"Alles gut"
"Reactivity in the shelly app not so perfect Good via MQTT through a domotic box"
Four stars and below are left in. The cable has the weakest score of the three on the store, and the complaint is the plug where it meets the sensor. Push it home until it clicks and clip the cable so nothing pulls on it. That is what the brackets in the kit are for.