Shut off water at home???

You're assuming that you will have more of a chance that a pipe will break while on vacation than away at work or asleep at home. This is not the case (at least time wise) because I have shown the math. In my case it's around 18 times more probable that it will happen when I'm NOT on vacation.

I'll ask you one more time, do you have any evidence that pipes break more when on vacation then when a work or asleep? If so, post it up so we all can see.

You are right to a point. In the example I cited earlier the leak was in a vacation rental and was a washing machine hose spraying a fine stream out, not a major break. In 8 hours it would make a mess by the time you got off work, maybe a few days to clean up. In my example it had been spraying for several weeks. Water was 2 inches deep in the house and literally running down the block foundation on the outside. They had to replace ALL of the floors in the house.

Although it would likely be covered by my HO insurance I don't want to take a chance on going through that hell of a repair. The house would never be the same. I'll take the five minutes it takes to turn the valve off / on.