Ask the Expert | Keep your washing machine from washing out your house

With the exception of fire, there are few home disasters that rival the damage caused by a burst washing-machine hose. When turned loose, 600 gallons of water per hour can enter a house. That can fill a basement, raining down from a floor above, doing unthinkable damage in a short amount of time.

And it's all preventable, if not predictable.

Being as guilty as the next person, I don't turn off my water to the washing machine when I'm not using it, and I don't turn off water to the house when I leave for vacation. I leave everything on and pressurized 24/7, because, well, it's more convenient. Yet I do this knowing the risks.

I have been present during and witnessed the aftermath of washer, dishwasher, freeze break, hose clamp and valve-failure flooding of all stripes.

"These things happen to other people" is my attitude, I guess, thinking that "burst-proof" steel-braided washer hoses will protect me. They won't. They fail, just like the plain rubber hoses. Maybe not as often, and maybe not as catastrophically, but they will fail.

Connections to washing machines and sinks are the only nonhard, piped sections of pressurized plumbing inside the home. Washing-machine hoses are out of sight and out of mind, yet get absolutely thrashed during the spin cycle, chafed, kinked and twisted, and must endure this under the same internal pressures as the rest of the plumbing system.

And we ask all this of rubber. Steel-braided washer hoses help that horrible bulging, but they still aren't much different from a garden hose at the gaskets and connections. Recommended replacement time, rubber or steel-braided, is every five years. I am thinking of a bumper sticker here: Got new hoses?

But the washer hose isn't the only risk on the pressurized side of a water system. Internal connections and switches inside washing machines and dishwashers fail. If the simple fill valve malfunctions on a washing machine, water will continue to enter. So if you put in a load and go to dinner, it will continue to fill. And overfill.

Solenoid valves routinely fail and crack on dishwashers, dripping water — although with less drama than a burst washer hose.

Toilet tanks have gaskets that can leak and allow water to drain onto the floor, to be continually refreshed.

Icemakers are notoriously leaky, and generally installed by amateurs. Fill valves inside freezers fail. Sink faucet supply hoses are essentially the same braided material as washer hoses, and can leak, although they tend to last longer since they are not abused.

The best defense is turning off water to the house when you leave for more than a day. Since we cannot be expected to turn off water to the entire house every time we go to work or to go to the movies, there are other devices that can help reduce flood risk:

• The valves on the wall at most washing machines are gate valves, notoriously leaky, and require turning (and turning and turning) off both hot and cold separately. A single-handled quarter-turn ball valve will allow the person doing laundry to simply turn the valve on and off before and after, shutting off all water to the hoses and machine and reducing arthritic inflammation all in one fell swoop.

• Watts makes a high-tech water-damage prevention system called Intelli-Flow. It plugs in ahead of the hoses and physically cuts off water if it detects a leak on the floor. It can utilize floor water sensors, determine washer electrical current flow and can be programmed to allow water flow under certain time parameters. Requires electrical power and can be spendy. See www.watts.com/pro/divisions/watersafety_flowcontrol/learnabout/learnabout_intelliflow.asp.

• Flood-Safe brand hoses have valves inside that sense leakage problems. There have been reports of usability problems with some washers, especially with newer electronically controlled machines. Steep learning curve.

• Flood-Stop is a water-leakage sensor and physical shut-off system somewhat similar to Intelli-Flow. It is available also for icemakers, toilets, sinks, dishwashers and water heaters. Battery power is optional.

• Numerous manufacturers produce water alarms that sound when contacted by water. Relatively cheap, but will not physically cut off water flow.

Darrell Hay is a local home inspector and manages rental properties. Send e-mail to dhay@seattletimes.com. Sorry, no personal replies.