The best way to test the LeakAlertor™ is to use our Leak Simulator and Technical Reference Guide. It is important to understand how the product works and how it learns its environment. Request your evaluation kit now: www.leakalertor.com/utilites/evaluate-leakalertor

In normal operation, the LeakAlertor™ will operate for more than a year on its internal battery. However, a leaking toilet that is not fixed will cause the unit to constantly beep and flash multiple times at the end of each flush cycle, decreasing the life of the battery.

Pretty cool, eh? The same technology that is used to detect turbulence can also detect the “presence” of someone nearby due to the noise that individual is producing.

-Operating a hair dryer, a nearby noisy shower, singing, loud conversations, can be detected by the LeakAlertor™. The device assumes that someone is in the bathroom, and it will give an indication of the toilet’s status after the noise has ceased. Try this: take a hair dryer, turn it on for about 45 seconds within 5 to 10 feet of the LeakAlertor™, and then turn it off and watch the unit.

-The LeakAlertor™ may occasionally give a status indication before a flush cycle has been completed. This only happens on very quiet toilets, where the device senses that the turbulence has fallen below a given threshold, and therefore it is time to notify the user.

The majority of the time the LeakAlertor™ will give a status indication after every flush. There are a couple of exceptions:

-The LeakAlertor divides the day into a number of cycles, which represent specific periods of time. At the conclusion of each cycle, the device takes several minutes to recalibrate itself. During this recalibration, the LeakAlertor™ is unable to detect flushes and will not respond with any type of indication.

-Some toilets are very quiet. The LeakAlertor™ will adjust its sensitivity over a wide range in order to detect very quiet fill valve actions, and this occurs as a function of a number of different factors. If the toilet is flushed during a time when it has not adjusted its sensitivity low enough, the device may not “see” the flush, and thus will not respond with any type of indication.

Depending upon what data is modeled when the unit is first installed, and given the actual normal use of the toilet and any associated background noise, it can take up to 48 hours to “learn” the toilet and respond accordingly to leaks. However, extensive testing and actual field data has shown that in most instances, the LeakAlertor™ will mathematically model the toilet and detect leaks in just a few hours, or overnight at most.

Because the vibration signature is different from toilet to toilet, the LeakAlertor must first “learn”
its environment. After attaching the product to the toilet and pulling the battery activation tab, the
user is instructed to flush the toilet. The LeakAlertor then mathematically models the toilet as a
function of the vibration due to water turbulence, committing the “flush signature” to memory. The
“flush signature” is used to help determine other toilet characteristics, such as whether or not the
flapper is leaking . The modeled flush signature is also used to determine when an actual flush is taking
place so that upon completion of the entire flush cycle, the user can be alerted.

One of the most critical design objectives for the LeakAlertor was simplicity of installation and use.
Achieving that objective without any user setup or calibration required developing a unique sensor
technology and a correspondingly complex mathematical process that would allow the product to be
placed on virtually any tank and flapper based toilet (there are hundreds of different models),
accounting for dozens of different types of fill valves, flappers, and variations in water pressure
(even on the same toilet), while simultaneously ignoring external noise, incidental bathroom
“disturbances” (use your imagination!), and all kinds of interference.

A leaking flapper will produce a drop in the water level inside the toilet tank, causing the fill valve float (or pressure sensor) to activate, which usually lasts several seconds. This phenomenon is often referred to as a “phantom flush”. As the flapper continues to leak, this process repeats itself. When a fill valve action occurs (phantom flush or actual flush), water is forced into the tank at a rate that is a function of the water pressure, toilet feed-valve, and the ports of the fill valve itself. The pressurized water produces turbulence inside the tank, which in turn produces vibration. The LeakAlertor has been designed to specifically identify and isolate the vibration signature of a fill valve action and qualify it as either a normal flush cycle or a refill action in response to a leaking flapper. Easier said than done!