Shutting off water….
 

Say you’re away from the house 7-10 days …. Good idea to shut off the water supply to the house usually in the garage.

Is it advisable to relieve the water pressure in the house by opening the faucets ???

Or , just leave it be after shutting off the valve ??

We always throw the value when not there but have never opened faucets to relieve the pressure. Never had a problem not relieving the pressure and knowing the water is off gives us piece of mind.

Thanks , I’ve done it both ways with no issues either way .

Just curious as to what others do….

Thanks

It really doesn't matter if you relieve the pressure, but it won't hurt to open the faucet at the far end of the house for a few seconds
This will also confirm that the water is off.

I'm in the 'relieve' camp.

You should turn a faucet on when you turn water back on so as not to blow pressure tank. You have 60-70 lbs of pressure coming on all at once.

Thanks, will do, never thought about that.

Me too.................more than I use to unfortunately.

Unless there is a forecast for extended below freezing temps while you're gone, IMHO there is no reason to turn off the water to the house. We turn off the water to the clothes washer if we're going out of town for two-three weeks.

Leaky toilet, leaky valve, a worker or mower gets a drink from your outside faucet and does not get it totally shut off.

(Know someone with the toilet issue............big water bill)

:)

Is there that much pressure here? Everywhere in The Villages? I don’t feel that I have that much.

I turn off the water and the hot water heater. Why heat water and I you a have a leak it will drain the tank and you will be heating an empty tank
Possible fire threat

Water shut off
 

Plumbers told us to turn the water back on very slowly. Maybe 1/4 turn at a time. Wait 30 seconds for each turn. This alleviates the pressure. Otherwise, the first stream of water at an elbow joint (usually utility sink) is like hitting a brick wall, which can damage the joint and cause a leak.

Turn off water, water heater and icemaker and relieve some pressure
 

10 year old house - I always turn off the water at the main garage valve if leaving for extended period. Have a fear of returning home to find water running down the driveway...

Also relieve "a little" pressure.
And if turning off the water, I also always turn off the electric water heater in garage along with the refrigerator ice maker. NOT the refrigerator itself.
(new houses have gas water heaters I understand, so likely different)

Upon returning, VERY slowly turn valve in garage back on.

I have personally seen two houses that were totally destroyed by a water leak that occurred while the owners were on vacation. In one case, a home watch person turned on the water, flushed the toilets, and then forgot to turn the water back on. A toilet on the top floor overflowed and ran for 3 weeks and destroyed almost everything in the house, which took a year to rebuild. By the way, I don't see any reason to have a home watch company turn on the water to flush the toilets.

You’ve never had an ice-maker line blow, have you? Toilet line? They all go unexpectedly…at THE worst times. Shut it off when gone…even for a long day at Disney or whatever.

Just open the sinks before turning it back on.

Your plumbing is under pressure all the time. Leaving it under pressure when the source is turned off will make no difference whatsoever.

The bigger issue is that cheap plastic shut-off valve. It's there for emergency use only, and is not designed to me messed with all the time. You're liable to cause the leak you're trying to avoid by using it regularly.

The first thing I did when I bought this house was replace that valve (which was already leaking, I might add), along with all those stupid plastic pop-off valves in the house. It cost me about $300 to save tens of thousands. I still get a shiver down my back every time I look at all those plastic stub-outs I couldn't afford to replace. It boggles the mind that those are legal in Florida. All it would take is someone bumping that toilet stub-out while mopping to have a disaster. CPVC becomes as brittle as glass as it ages.

And, yes -- do relieve the pressure when you turn the water back on, by opening a faucet at the far end of the house.

I agree about the main shutoff valve. That is why you don't want a home watch company turning your water on and off every 2 weeks or so to flush the toilets, even if you have a metal valve.

I'm a home inspector. I measure water pressure on every inspection. The lowest I've ever found in The Villages was 61psi. The highest was 81. I've inspected homes right off 42, all the way down to Middleton. The average is 67.

If you're pressure is somewhere south of 61, verify with your neighbors. Maybe you're at the end of a line somewhere, possibly elevated.

I've seen pressure on the downstream side of a whole house filtration system well below 61 though. I recommended a filter change on that one.

Above 80 is an issue as standard valves like toilets and such are designed to a max nominal pressure of 80. In those cases a pressure reducing valve might be something to consider as it won't blow past your toilet filler and run it when you're away.

I always shut the water off to my house when gone for extended periods of time. If you don’t you may come home to a house full of water with everything ruined. I do bleed the pressure only to make sure the the main shut off valve isn’t leaking past the seat when shut. When I do shut the water off I always shut the hot water heater and the ice maker off. I have never came home to a problem. I would definitely recommend it.

Open
 

Just open a house faucet before opening the shut off valve.

For about 10 dollars on Amazon, you can buy a pressure gauge that will screw onto an outside hose bibb and measure your house water pressure in less than a minute.

Note that, if the expansion tank on your water heater fails, the pressure in the water tank and the entire house can increase significantly due to thermal expansion.

Sadly, I learned the hard way to turn the water off when gone for more than a couple of days. Twice. Years ago, we had a house in the DC area and a beach house in Virginia Beach. Came to the beach house one Friday evening for the weekend to find the water heater had ruptured. Restoration company found asbestos holding down the wood parquet flooring so the entire house had to be cleared out and asbestos remediated. Several weeks after everything was fixed, we arrived to find a coupling for the new water heater had failed and all the flooring had to be stripped out again. After that, I turned the water off every time we left for more than a couple of hours.

water
 

Our friend left for a few months and the house flooded when on of those plastic shutoffs by a toilet leaked - turn off in the garage

You can replace the plastic main shutoff valve and the plastic push-pull valves with metal valves. But, you will still have a metal valve attached to a plastic pipe. Often, leaks that occur will be at the connection between the valve and the pipe, not within the valve itself. So, good luck.

Faucet relief when turning back on
 

Good tip.
Also I have a recirculating pump on mine. You have make sure it is off too. That was an expensive lesson. I needed a new pump when I returned. I also plugged it into a wireless plug that I can control from anywhere.

Gas Instant Water Heater?
 

So, what is recommended for the gas instant HWH? Do I need to shut off gas supply too? And electric supply?

I keep forgetting to ask the plumber.

Tankless Water Heater
 

Most tankless water heaters have a built-in vacation mode. You may want to read the user manual to see what this setting provides. The instant, or tankless, water heater runs on demand and while you are away, the demand is zero.

My advice is to shut off the drinking (potable) water when away for an extended time, open a faucet to relieve the pressure, and then close the faucet. Turn off the electric or gas to your water heater. Homes in The Villages have many features to consider when away for an extended time. I provide an economical, thorough, and customizable weekly home-check service for villagers who are away. If interested, call Dave at (513) 257-1247.

Water Shutoff
 

I always turn our water off whenever we leave for an extended period. I also shut off the water heater and ice maker.

I do have my home watch guy turn the water back on each visit and run water in all the sinks with drains. This keeps the bugs from coming up.

If we are gone more then 5 days I turn it of and relieve the water pressurre at any available faucet. Since the water runs for about 15-20 seconds after it is shut off , Im thinking that is a lot of water still in the system if you have something leak. Turn on of system is done by just cracking the main shut off untill sysytem is full back up to pressure and then open it up all the way. Very easy to hear when it is back to full pressure because you will not hear any water running at the main valve.

It's more common sense than asking for others opinion.
Who will you blame should you not shut off water and have a major leak if you are away?

After purchasing our home,, we found out from the homeowner insurance company that the cold-water hose for the washer ruptured, and the water ran for several days. There was no declaration by the previous owner. All the carpeting and flooring had to be ripped out and replaced. Molding, drywall and trim had to be replaced also. Fortunately, we have not experienced any residual mold. Thus, we always turn off the water and relieve the pressure when we leave the area.

I always shut off the water heater also

A leak is no more likely on a connection to a metal valve than a plastic one. In fact, the connection itself is plastic -- it's exactly the same, because the plastic connection is molded onto the metal valve, and that gets glued to the the pipe. Go look at one at Lowes, if you don't believe me. However, a leak is almost guaranteed on a plastic valve that's used all the time. And there's a very good chance that if you don't use it regularly, it will break when you actually do need to shut it off in an emergency. They're just junk, and need to be replaced.

Don't tell your insurance company. Half the sink hole problems in Florida are related to undetected water leaks.

I don't disagree that the plastic push-pull Accor valves are cheap. But, there are tens of millions of them being installed around the country and they do comply with the National plumbing code. They are even installed in multimillion dollar houses. I have had 12 of them in my house for 8 years, and have had no leaks or other issues. I only use them occasionally when I need to fix a toilet. If it isn't broken, I probably won't fix it. But, I don't fault someone who wants to replace them. But, any valve you install can fail.

Precisely!

Anytime we we leave town we shut off the water, the water heater, raise the temp of the AC to 80 and lock the garage door. Never open a faucet after shutting it off.