So the dehumidifier wasn't keeping up...

[Bob Hammond]

Hi, I thought this might give you a chuckle.

On a Sunday evening, I noticed that the dehumidifier wasn't keeping the RH down in the shop, and so when I looked around I saw that the hotwater tank was dripping. Since my X-ray vision has declined with advancing age, I couldn't tell how soon the leak might become much bigger. This would not be a good thing. There was also the problem of waiting a few days until I could get things cleared away and recruit some help, and it would be convenient to have hot water until then.

So I came up with this gizmo on Sunday night. The white object is an aspirin tablet, and the wires were run to the doorbell circuit (could go to the house alarm, too). Then I put the gizmo on the floor in the potential floodplain. So if the leak suddenly got bigger, then the aspiring tablet would melt, and .... ding dong!. Btw, it's important to place the wires on the jaws perpendicular to each other so that contact is assured.

Of course, someone needs to be around to hear it, and so when I left to go to the job, then I shut off the gas & water. But it worked for me, and probably could work indefinitely.

[Jason Rodgers]

Neat trick. I suppose if one couldn't tap into the doorbell, any other low voltage gadget - like flashlight or a noisy toy - could do the trick. Pretty sure I saw something like this in a movie for a time-delayed house bomb!

[Steve Senseney]

Neat trick!

Would you get a quicker result with some of the candies which fizz when they are wet?

[Bob Hammond]

Hmm, it's the Unibomber in me, I guess. Re the fizzy stuff, that would make for a neat special effect, but I wonder if it would degrade over time or be eaten by something. Hmm, for that matter, it might be best to use uncoated aspirin -- the enteric tablets might take too long a time to dissolve.

Oh, this could be fun: run the wires outside to ball of steel wool touching a D-cell battery electrode. When the circuit is completed, the battery discharges through the steel wool that gets red hot, when then ignites a fuse to a Roman candle or skyrocket.

[Jason Rodgers]

I think we just unleashed Bob's inner Rube Goldberg!

[Mario Proulx]

Quite brilliant, actually! A sugar cube, or anything else that will remain solid while dry, yet melt when wet, would work, also. I'd look at wiring it into a alarm of sorts. Using a relay would get around the voltage issue...

I've been wanting something like this for my well/pump room, my laundry room, as well as my shop. The ultimate solution would be to have it all wired to a relay that would kill the power to the well pump(for me) or to a shut-off valve for y'all on city water.

[Bob Hammond]

There are many electronic water sensors on the market; this was an expedient solution for a situation that developed on a Sunday night and that would be resolved within a week. I'm sure that there are also low-voltage relay-contactors that could handle the power requirements of a pump or solenoid water valve (e.g. a lawn sprinkler valve?). One important issue with a hotwater tank would be to also cut off the heating electric/gas supply, otherwise a lot fuel could be burned quickly.

[Mario Proulx]

There are many electronic water sensors on the market

Yeah, but free is always better, especially when one needs many.... <g>