Washing machine water supply

[EwanWhoseArmy]

Hi, I've been staying at a friend's house recently and noticed that clothes would always come out of the washing machine hot, no matter what temperature you set it to. I checked under the sink and discovered the hot water supply has been connected to the washing machine.

1 - would it be alright to just use the current (plastic) cold water supply valve and just connect the washing machine to it? Or is it advisable to fit a washing machine compression valve like this one so that there are two distinctly-coloured valves for the future? Are there other benefits of a 'proper' compression valve?

2 - Either way, am I right in thinking that whichever water supply is left disconnected, it should be capped off with something like this to prevent the risk of flooding?

*Additional note - I should say my friend tends to go away for months at a time, hence why I am concerned about avoiding any potential risk of flooding.

 

[Madrab]

I would suggest that it's been put on the hot for a reason, the plastic cold JG valve threads may be knackered and it's just been swapped about. New cold valve would be preferred and the hot removed and the tee replaced with an elbow.

 

[monkeysballs]

just move it to the cold thats push fit washing machine connector

then if you want fit a cap to the other isolator

https://www.screwfix.com/p/flomasta-push-fit-washing-machine-valve-15mm-x-3-4-/717kr or swap the cold valve too as above

 

[Madrab]

Given the little thread of PTFE tape on the plastic cold valve I'd suspect there may have been an issue with it and may have been leaking, easy enough to change it for a brass appliance valve though. No other reason for it to be on the hot if there is a perfectly good the cold valve there unless there was a issue with it.

That being said I guess the person fitting it could just have been as thick as mince.

 

[EwanWhoseArmy]

@Madrab ah ok, thanks for the advice. So you think it may have been connected to hot not for any practical reason to do with the supply, but simply because it's likely the plastic cold valve doesn't have a good seal? I could always try to fix the seal with some fresh PTFE tape, but probably a brass valve is the way to go to do a 'proper' job

That being said I guess the person fitting it could just have been as thick as mince.

Haha possibly, or maybe it was just a temporary fix that became less temporary

 

[monkeysballs]

shouldnt need tape as the o ring should seal

they can thank you for drasticly reducing their heating bill

or it could be the heater in the washer is bust

 

[EwanWhoseArmy]

or it could be the heater in the washer is bust

That's a point, I've already used the washing machine a few times with the boiler turned off and my clothes came out reasonably cool, but I assume there's a cold rinse at the end of the cycle. So before I switch supplies, it's probably worth me doing a hot wash as a test and see if clothes still come out hot even with the boiler turned off, just to be 100% sure the heater in the washing machine is functional

 

[Madrab]

The washing machine (WM) should always run a cold rinse if it's on normal type washes. So if the water input is hot then it's always going to leave the clothes hot. If it's a single inlet WM then it should be run from cold. There is a school of thought that a cold fill machine plumbed to the hot is cheaper to run as it cost less to heat the water in a gas boiler than it is to use the electrical element in the WM but if everything is washed on a cool/cold (30deg) setting then that defeats the purpose.

I'd just change the cold to a normal brass appliance valve, never trusted plastic valves, and that's it done and dusted and no risk taking or farfing about.

 

[EwanWhoseArmy]

In case it's useful for any future DIY-ers out there, I'm adding a pic of the finished job

After adding the blue valve, it was dripping every so slightly from the right side. I nipped it up a bit but it still had a small drip, so I added some PTFE tape to the olive and put it all together again, which has sorted it. Maybe the PTFE tape was a sort of 'belt & braces' approach, but I couldn't be bothered messing around.
*Additional note - I didn't bother with a check/non-return valve as I'd read other posts about it causing issues, so I thought it would've been unnecessary, more money and more hassle than it's worth.

As for the hot water valve - I'm glad I added the blank nut to it as the valve is very difficult to turn off, so it's nice to have the end nut for peace of mind. By the way, the 3/4" blank nut that I linked fit perfectly, however a word of warning - you need an adjustable wrench with jaws that can go to 28mm (my Wilko adjustable wrench was a couple of millimetres shy of that, so I had to quickly pop out to buy one with bigger jaws)

All-in-all a successful fix, so thanks for the advice @Madrab and @monkeysballs

 

[CBW]

Check valves aren’t always required as the hose could be wras approved not needing any additional fittings and machines tend to have an air gap. The Tee before the hot valve should be swapped for an elbow as pointed out by @Madrab

 

[EwanWhoseArmy]

Thanks for your advice about check valves!

Yeah I suppose the elbow would be a more sensible long-term solution, but the blank nut is a more straightforward and lower-risk solution for me personally (as I'm not a professional). Plus it's easily undoable in case that hot water supply is ever needed in the future for some reason.

That said, I'll certainly let my friend know that it would be advisable to add an elbow when he next gets a plumber round, so thanks!