“Alright Mr. McCormack, we need you and your wife to sign just a few forms for us and before you know it, you’ll be first time homeowners,” the lawyer sarcastically said. He opened his folder and started to take out what looked like a thousand stacks of legal material for us to sign. 

“Wow! Just a few, huh?” I asked. 

“Yeah, just a few,” he responded. So, make yourself cozy in that chair.” 

I cleared my throat, grabbed a pen from a pile of pens that were on the large conference table, and began to sign away on each form that was in front of me. In what seemed like an eternity, we finally came to the last form. “Alright, my last signature of the day,” I said. “I’m done with signing my name for a while now.” 

“Not quite yet, Mr. McCormack,” my lawyer cautioned. “There’s one more very important signature that we need from you. We need you to sign that very important check, too.” 

“Ah, yes! That’s right,” I replied. “How could I forget?”  

I then took out my checkbook and began to fill out one of the largest checks I’ve ever had to write in my life. My palms were sweating, and my hand was shaking. I needed to make sure not to fill out the check incorrectly. 

“Okay, now this is the last signature we need from you, Sean,” he assured me. 

I laughed and then signed the bottom of the check. 

“Congratulations, to the both of you. Here are your keys, she’s all yours! You are now officially homeowners!” he proclaimed. 

Settled in

A few weeks had passed, and we were finally all moved in. The moving boxes were starting to dwindle down a bit. 

“What a weird feeling this is,” I said to my wife. “I can’t believe we actually own this house. I can actually do work to this place and install anything we’d like without having to first run it by a landlord. I think we should turn this place into a smart home.”

She repeated, “A smart home?”  

“Yeah, I can get one of those camera doorbells and even change out all these light bulbs and install all new smart bulbs,” I replied. “I can even then link each light fixture to our Amazon Alexa so we can control our lights via voice activation.” 

My wife looked at me as if I had two heads. “Okay, if that makes you happy, then go for it,” she replied. 

So, the next day I went into my Amazon app and began to order smart bulbs, a video doorbell, and even a smart lock for our front door. Within one week, I had our new home transformed into a smart home. During the installation process, I started to think what I could do to enhance the plumbing in our house. I wondered what kind of smart technology is out there, so I grabbed my iPhone and started a Google search for smart plumbing technology. As I began to scroll down the page, there was this one product that caught my eye right away—Flo by Moen. I thought it sounded interesting, so I clicked on the link and a video popped up onto my screen. I was sold.

After about a week, I saw a box sitting on my front porch as I arrived home after a long day at work. “Yes, I think my Flo by Moen package has arrived,” I thought to myself. I hopped out of the truck and went up the front steps and picked up the package. Just at that moment, I heard the smart lock to my front door unlock. “Man, I’m really getting used to this smart technology,” I thought. “I can’t wait to open this box and get this product installed.” 

By the feel of the box, I knew right away that this was a great quality product. I opened it and flipped the front cover up to find a colorful display on the underside of the flap. My first impression was that this was very nice because the cardboard wasn’t flimsy, and the bright designs were very eye-catching. I continued to dig further and there she was, the Flo valve. I grabbed the valve out from the packaging and held it in my hands. I could tell right away that it was made to last, as it had some weight to it and didn’t seem like it would break during the installation period. As I dug a bit further the rest of the materials—which included a pair of extra o-rings, female brass adaptors, and a power cord that plugs into the Flo—were nicely packaged in the bottom of the box. I was very impressed with the packaging and presentation of this product and couldn’t wait to get this valve installed. 

Installation: step by step 

So, I grabbed the box and went downstairs to the utility room. Moen recommends that you install the valve after your water meter and PRV valve at the main water inlet to your household. With my water main setup, I had to install my Flo valve in the vertical position, which is allowed by Moen. I set up all my tools and decided to install this valve by using two pro-press male adaptors that thread into each side of the valve. No joke, I had this valve installed in under 20 minutes tops. I was super impressed with the ease of installation and I must say, it really looks neat when it’s installed on the main line. I turned the water back on to the house, plugged the valve in, and now I was ready to download the application on my smart phone. 

I download the Flo by Moen application on my iPhone. The sign-up process was easy and pain-free. I had to answer less than 10 questions relating to my house. I completed this process in under five minutes, which I really like. Then the app gives you step-by-step visual instructions on how to pair your Flo device with your app and your home’s WiFi connection. The entire set up and pairing process took less than 10 minutes. After the set up was completed, I was ready to dive into the app and explore this new device. 

Plug and play

Everything has been a breeze up until this point. There were no hiccups with installation and pairing the device was a piece of cake. Now, it was time to dive in and see how this valve operated. I clicked on the button that read, “The Control Panel.” Up pops a display screen that shows three gauges that read, “Water Pressure; Water GPM; and Water Temperature.” 

I thought it was neat that I can see exactly what my incoming water pressure is to my house. I was super impressed with all three gauges. Just below the gauges was an “On/Off” switch that when pushed, opens or closes your main water Flo valve from anywhere. Then at the bottom of the screen there is a button that read, “Run Health Test.” This feature is neat because at any time during the day I can simply click that button and it will run a test to ensure there are no leaks in the house. In fact, the app runs a health test every night to ensure no leaks are occurring. Now that’s cool! 

The application is filled with many other great features such as having the ability to contact your plumbing professionals; setting a daily limit of how many gallons of water a day you want to use; charts with when you use water, as well as how much and at what time; and up-to-date alerts sent directly to you cell phone if any problems occur. 

I’ve been using this product now for several weeks and I already had one of the alerts notify me when my wife and I were out to dinner. When we arrived home, sure enough the toilet flapper was seeping water very slightly into the kid’s bedroom bathroom. I strongly encourage all of you out there to research this product further and install this valve in your own home. It’s a great sell to your customers and if any problems occur that they wouldn’t normally know, they’ll be alerted right away, and you get a phone call to fix it. Nine times out of ten, homeowners are unaware of their water pressure in the house. We make them aware of this when the water heater is leaking and it’s too late. If they had this valve installed, as soon as the water pressure reaches unsafe limits, they will be notified, and you have yourself a PRV installation. 

Take my word for it and get one of these Flo by Moen valves today! Great job Moen! Happy plumbing!