How to connect washing machine under kitchen sink?

victoriacalhoun

Morning

I have a tiny granny flat at my house and the tenant kindly let me know that there was water leaking from the kitchen tap underneath the sink. And there was a LOT.

When I went in to check, ran the tap etc, it wasn't leaking at all from the faucet, which is newly installed anyway as the old one with the pull down veggie washer thing was a bad idea and did leak water everywhere. Hence why the photos of the MDF look like that and I do need to replace that backing.

There is a washing machine connected next to the tiny kitchen and under the sink. The washing machine was slightly full of water which I knew wouldn't be from her, but long story short, when I pulled the washing machine out I decided it was definitely the washing machine and probably a valve thing. So I undid one of the inlet hoses from the back of the washing machine and then I suddenly became a firefighter the water pressure was that strong. Despite trying to turn the taps off underneath the sink. My water meter is about 20m away and buried in grass outside my wall so no idea how watercorp read the meter (side point) so I had to race out there to turn it off as I was home alone.

So I disconnected everything washing machine related from underneath the sink too and then if I turned the tap on and the bottom, threaded valves flowed crazily. As a fix, I used one washing machine hose figured it's 20mm so might work temporarily so she could still use the kitchen sink last night and attached them to the hot and cold valves and that has worked for last night. I imagine you can get 20mm stoppers? 

But, I am going to replace the washing machine but is there an option for a tap where you can decide kitchen sink and have washing machine closed off? Because I'm guessing the one I have controls both? Or is that not worth it because I will get a new washing machine and you'd have to clamber under the sink to use the washing machine? Also, this washing machine has hot and cold outlet / inlet wheras I think most new ones just have the one hose that can convert to hot water?   

Love some thoughts and no idea if I am using the right terminology.

Victoria 🙂 

JacobZ

Hi @victoriacalhoun,

Considering you are planning on replacing the washing machine, it's probably not worth replacing the taps; however, if you'd like to, you could replace the valve with one of these Brasshards 20mm Dual Hose Taps, which would allow you to leave the basin tap open and close the washing machine tap when this situation is required. I suppose it could be handy to have it in the event of another issue with the washing machine. 

If you wanted to do this, you would need to turn off the water at the meter, remove the tap, install a Brasshards 20mm Brass Threaded Hexagon Socket, then install your new tap, ensuring every threaded connection has a few layers of thread seal tape to make sure there is a watertight connection.

To remove and tighten the taps, you would need to use a pipe wrench or multigrip pliers.

Let me know what you think and if you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to ask.

Jacob