During the Sunday cold snap, one bathroom supply line blew at 2:13 a.m., and the inline valve shut that stack in 45 seconds; zero unit-to-unit spread and an $800 dry-out instead of a $30k claim. Anyone else pairing leak puck sensors with centralized shutoffs, and what inspection cadence are you using for battery swaps?
But we pair puck sensors to stack zone valves and do an annual battery swap in October with lithium AAs… We also run a quarterly “wet test” (shot glass) on one puck per stack to confirm the valve closes inside 60 seconds — belt-and-suspenders, but it saves headaches. Moving pucks a few inches off tubs and adding a 30–45s debounce cut our false trips.
Building on @alex6127’s testing idea, we added a monthly ‘valve exercise’ in the BMS: close each stack for about 10 seconds at 3 a.m., log travel time, and alarm if a motor doesn’t hit its stops — keeps them from seizing like an old truck you never start. In buildings with recirc or tankless we whitelist those loops during the window; are your actuators fail-closed or fail-open? It’s been cheap insurance and surfaces sticky stems before a storm.
We moved to 24‑hour heartbeat pings on each puck — auto work order if a device misses two — and swap when reported voltage drops under 2.8V instead of by calendar; the date method’s fine, but this caught two weak cells right before a freeze. @alex6127, are you trending valve motor current to flag sticky actuators?