My sister had a washing machine hose burst. This was a very expensive disaster – her washer/dryer was in her kitchen. I had been paranoid about the same thing happening in my basement, but still couldn’t remember to shut off the water. I looked into a few of the automatic valves, these worked by sensing when the machine is turned on and opening the valves. Unfortunately, none of them would would work with an electronic machine that’s always drawing some current. Then I spotted this valve in a catalog. It’s a simple mechanical clockwork timer that controls the water shutoff valves. All you have to do is flip the lever to turn on the water, it shuts off automatically after 180 minutes. I had a plumber install it because my soldering skills are on circuit boards, not pipes. It took him about twenty minutes. I’ve had this three years without a problem, it’s nice to not worry about bursting hoses!

-- Mark Phillips 08/5/16