As you plan to leave for your summer vacation, you probably have a checklist of things to do before you leave Check to see if the post office will take your mail, change the settings on your thermostat, or make sure you have someone to take care of your pets [With a smart thermostat, you can control the temperature remotely, and with a home security camera, you can monitor the indoors and outdoors But there are devices that can save you headaches and huge bills

No matter where you are, a smart water leak detector will let you know when a pipe or water heater bursts or a heavy rain floods your basement These devices, which connect to a home's Wi-Fi, have metal contacts on the bottom, and when water touches both of them, a circuit is completed and an alert is sent to your smartphone

Winter is a distant memory now, but the best smart water leak detectors can also monitor humidity and temperature, making them ideal for installation near pipes in unheated crawl spaces So if it gets close to or below freezing, they can send you an alert so you can take precautions to prevent the pipe from bursting

Most smart water leak detectors are fairly inexpensive, costing around $30-$50 each Some also come with a sensor wire, so the leak detector will not break if the basement floods

The only real drawback to this type of smart water leak detector is that it can alert you to a problem, but it cannot do anything about it

However, the second type of water leak detector can help mitigate potential damage However, there is an initial cost

Although not common, some companies manufacture smart water detectors with shut-off valves so that if a leak occurs, it can automatically turn off the water coming into your home It can't do anything about water already in the pipes, but it can prevent more water from coming in, so you don't have thousands of gallons of water pouring into your home while you're out

Smart water detectors of this kind work by analyzing the flow of water through the pipes, so in addition to large leaks, they can also identify other places in the house where water may be being wasted

Not surprisingly, these water leak detectors cost much more They usually cost around $400 to $500, plus the need to hire a plumber to install them in the home's water pipes Many insurance companies will deduct the premium for installing them in your home

No matter which type you choose, a smart water leak detector will at least give you peace of mind during your vacation this summer