Shut the water off in seconds, from anywhere.
WaterHandler puts a motorised valve in a property's main water line and a button and an app in the owner's hand. The control electronics come off the HCS bench in Lusaka and ship to Texas every month — our first export product.
A burst pipe floods a house before anyone can reach the meter.
Frozen and ruptured pipes are the second-largest source of property insurance claims in the United States after hurricanes. Burst washing-machine hoses alone cause more than half a billion dollars of damage a year, and a leaking ice-maker line can release 250 gallons in a day.
Many US municipalities now lock the water-meter box, so a homeowner has to phone the city and wait while the house floods. WaterHandler was born when its inventor's own kitchen leak turned into a $25,000 claim — and the city held the only key.
After a system is installed, at least one Texas homeowner has had a $700-a-year reduction in home insurance.
Four parts. One button.
Motorised stainless-steel ball valve
Mounted directly in the property's main water line. WH-1 with a 1-inch NPT valve, WH-2 with 2-inch. Patent pending; tested fully submerged in flood water for weeks. Manual override with a 4 mm hex key if power is lost.
Smart Control Box
Wall-mounted, Wi-Fi connected, with a single push button that cycles the water off or on — no phone needed. Runs on 12 V DC at 2 A over 100 ft of buried control cable. The board inside is designed and built by HCS in Lusaka.
WaterHandler app
Android and iPhone. Turn the water off from the car as you leave and back on when you return. Name and control up to 36 systems from one app.
Leak sensors (in development)
Up to 36 battery-powered sensors per system — behind the fridge, the toilets, the water heater, the washing machine. A sensor in 1/16 inch of water tells the box to shut the main and notifies your phone.
The board says it on the silkscreen.
Travis Labs designed the Smart Control Box electronics — power stage, valve driver, Wi-Fi control and the push-button logic — and builds and tests every board in Lusaka. They are exported to HCS Smart Devices, LLC in Azle, Texas, which assembles the kits, installs them through plumbers and dealers, and sells to homeowners, landlords and a North Texas winery running four irrigation lines from a rainwater tank.
- Electronics: designed, built and tested by HCS, Lusaka.
- Assembly, installation, sales and warranty: HCS Smart Devices, LLC, Texas.
- Self-designed electronics shipped monthly since the product went to market.
The same box, other jobs.
Rental and lakeside properties that sit empty for weeks. Vineyard irrigation lines on a timer. And RiverSense — the WaterHandler platform fitted with calibrated probes for public river water-quality monitoring, with the electronics, probe calibration and software all done by HCS.
Interested in WaterHandler for utilities, estates or irrigation in Zambia and the region? Talk to us.
Want WaterHandler in your market?
US customers and dealers: waterhandler.com. Everyone else — write to the people who designed it.