My neighbor had an issue this year while in Florida his main shut off leaked in his basement and caused 10k in damage...
I had my main replaced a few years ago with a brass Mueller ball valve...but,,,is there any reason not to shut my water off at the curb ?

Then even IF my inside valve leaked well... it coudnt...

That's going the extra mile but if you're inclined to do that, go for it. Some of the jurisdictions around here don't want anyone touching their curb stops. If that's your case, just have them turn it off.

yea they don't seem to mind, ive done it before...im surprised it only turn like 1/4 turn and its off

most of those around here are self draining.
so, the water heater may empty into the ground if it pulls a syphon..

There had to be some issue besides a "main valve leaking" to cause ANY damage.

Do you have a separate meter for Fire Protection? I would check on that prior to leaving the property completely without water service.

???? Not sure how the water heater can empty into the ground if you shut the main water shut off in your basement off????

Hj...the main shut off inside his basement coming off the public supply line was leaking, running on his basement floor, the entire time he was gone, why don't you think he would have water damage?

Nope no seperate meter,,just incoming water line...fire house is 1/4 mile away and hydrant is on the corner...they would never draw water off my 3/4" incoming line

Maybe I'm not explaining it correctly,my neighbor left for vacation,he shut his main shut off in his basement off..but did NOT shut off the curb stop shut off in his yard off.
His main in the basement developed a major leak and flooded his entire basement..
So IF he had the village shut off the curb stop in at the road in his yard this wouldn't have happened.
So that's why I'm thinking of shutting off my shutoff in my basement AND also shutting off the curbstop in my yard..this way unless both my shut off AND the village shut off failed, I'm not going to have a problem

The village dpw told me these are Mueller shutoffs,,there is a 1" pipe down about 4ft in the ground,the shut off is down at the bottom of the pipe, it's a 1/4 turn tab basically..
I made a tool to shut it off..
Again if I shut mine off in my basement AND shut the one off in my yard there should be no way for me to have any leaks of drain my water heater,,,right??

I'd think that if you shut off your home's water shutoff valve and also the city shutoff valve out by the meter you'd be doubly certain of no flooding in your home. I don't see a way for your water heater to siphon out if you close your home's water shutoff valve. If this was a concern you could also shutoff the cold water valve that supplies the water heater.



Edited 1 times.

Agree,the meter iss in my basement,all that comes in from the street is 3/4" copper from the shut off in the yard.
I don't see anyway for the water heater to drain if my inside basement main is shut off

I think what packy meant was if you shut off the city's water valve in the yard/street but you did not shut off the shutoff valve in the house (or if it didn't close completely) you could get a spihon going. Some city's use a shutoff valve that has a drain port to let water out from your home's service line. So water would drain from your home's water supply line that runs from the city shutoff valve to your house. This could pull water from the other water pipes in your home, including the water heater, depending on how things are setup. If this happened and the water level in your water heater tank dropped that could cause damage to the water heater when it came on to heat the water inside, especially if the water heater is electric type.

As long as you close the main shutoff valve in your home this can't happen. If you have ball valves for the inside main water shutoff and the water heater shutoff they are easy to open and close. So if leaving for extended time you can close them to eliminate worries. When I leave for an extended time I not only shutoff the water but I also turn off circuit breaker to the elec water heater. Easy to do, no need to keep heating water while I'm away and when I return it only takes about 15 min to have some hot water.



Edited 2 times.

I always shut the breaker off to my water heater when we leave..i don't think these aare self draining shutoffs in the yard..but even so I'm covered by turning off the ball valve in my basement and killing the e breaker...seems like overkill but I like to not worry while on vaca.
I also have a water alarm that calls my cell ph at the lowest point in my basement
Ocd kicking in

Cvc, it's not OCD when you are concerned about protecting your property; it's common sense, and you are taking appropriate measures to do so.

Tell my wife that
I just like to put possible problems out of my mind when taking a vacation..
This way I figure it would take a perfect storm to cause any issues

When you have a 2nd shutoff valve installed on the same pipe immediately after the 1st main shutoff, just in case one of them goes bad, then that is getting into OCD territory.

Ha, yea I haven't done that....yet...but not a bad idea



Edited 1 times.