Leaving home...

[gearhead]

We're taking a weekend trip to a nearby state park. I thought I would turn the water off to the toilets at a minimum. Maybe just turn the water off to the entire house. I guess I'm just paranoid about a water leak.
What do y'all do when you're leaving?

[JRTJH]

We live WAAAYYYY out in the country, about 20 miles from the nearest law enforcement, 10 miles from the nearest volunteer fire department and 30 miles from the nearest hospital. Obviously we have a well and septic system.

When we leave, I turn off the water heater, well pump and set the heating thermostat at 40*. All our freezers have "high/low" temperature monitors and we set a water bottle half full on its bottom, freeze it, then lay it down on a shelf. So, if the refrigerator/freezer temp goes up, the ice in that bottle will change position.

We do have a security system, and it is monitored by a company "somewhere", but I wouldn't rely on them to call 911 in the event of an emergency and I doubt if 911 responders could find our house without someone at the corner to flag them down.... As I said, WAAAYYYY out in the country.

The last time we had a "true emergency" it took the Sheriff's deputy more than 2 hours to respond, and he couldn't find the house when he did get into the neighborhood, so we've come to realize that if we have any emergency, it's up to us to "fix it"......

[GaryWT]

I never turn water off in the house. I leave a light or two on and if we are gone longer than a weekend I turn the heat off as there is no need for hot water.

[gearhead]

John we live "in town" and the police chief is 4 houses down. We have a security system that so far works OK. The wife discovered it when she left the front door unlocked overnight and the wind blew the door open. The police were on the front porch pronto. I was Laredo, so no help from me!
I just remember my plumber telling me those Flowmaster toilet valves have flooded as many homes as any! LOL

[chuckster57]

We set timers for a couple of lights, and set the alarm. Other than that we don't do anything special. Since we use a pellet stove in the winter we turn it off, doesn't get that cold. In the summer we turn off the A/C, doesn't get that hot. The pets go with us so no worries.

[MIKEPATC]

We too turn on lights and set timers and turn the water OFF where it comes into the house.
My big phobia is having an bored youngster turn on a faucet outside and leave it running.

[koko]

Water is definitely an issue. The only water we turn off is our faucets to the washing machine, but we've had friends whose houses have been devastated because they had a leak at the dishwasher and another with the ice maker (and they were only at the movie theatre for three hours and it ruined their kitchen and basement). I guess you just can't avoid everything. We do leave a couple of lights on, turn the furnace down to 60, and we always give our neighbor a key and give them permission to do frequent walk-throughs if we're gone for a few weeks.

[GaryWT]

About the water, I guess I know some that do but out lever has not been operated in 19 years and I am think that would cause more problems. Suddenly using it 14 or so times over 5 months might not happen.

[Javi]

If we're going for more than a weekend I will usually put the water heater on vacation mode, and turn off the water to the washer in the garage. The neighbors will pick up the mail and newspapers.

[hankpage]

We set timers for lights and turn off the water main and WH. Set heat on 50°. We leave two 5 gal jugs of water for a neighbor to water the DW's indoor jungle once a week.

I hope we don't run out of neighbors.

[sourdough]

For a weekend we just turn on some hallway and lamp lights. Sometimes we use timers sometimes not. If it's longer than that I turn my water off at the meter. There was a period of time that our water lines developed pinholes in the copper just above the foundation. Happened 4 different times. Had to replace house carpeting/1 dresser/one desk and refinish baseboards due to water damage. Plumber said the plumber that plumbed the house when we built it must have gotten a bad batch of copper pipe. Needless to say, I am very leery about leaving my water on. We also either put the hotwater heater on pilot or turn it off depending on situation, put thermostat on 82 summer/50 winter, stop our mail and notify our neighbors we are leaving (which is much of the time). Neighbors are a pretty good security system here; we all watch out for each other. We left once and the front door was not closed good and the wind blew it open a bit (common for WTX). The neighbors called the PD as soon as it happened, they came out and did a walkthru, closed it up and we didn't know about it until we got home. Good folks.

[Desert185]

Winter: unplug flat screens, pop breaker on HW heater and well pump. No heat.

Summer: unplug flat screens, leave water on for irrigation, turn water off at toilets and washer, pop breaker on HW heater. No heat. No cool.

Always: unplug kitchen appliances, lock safe, enjoy.