Broken Isolation Tap for Washing Machine Confusion
Posted: Tue Jun 16, 2020 2:50 pm
Thoroughly hacked off woman in need of advice please!
Yesterday I got rid of the dishwasher ahead of getting a new one. It had been plumbed into the undersink cold fill along with my washing machine, by means of a plastic Y shaped splitter.
Never had any problems until now.
I'd isolated the water supply from the stopcock, removed the splitter, attached the washing machine pipe to the metal isolation valve. All fine. Then before turning the stopcock back on I turned the valve lever (standard blue plastic one) a little in the hope that if the connection wasn't water tight I'd be able to turn it off quickly.
The lever snapped (no surprise), and now nothing I've tried will shift the cut off in either direction. I can hear a small amount of water in the pipe but clearly not enough water or pressure to enable the washing machine to fill.
I'm left with no water getting to the washing machine, no idea why the screw which was in the isolation valve spins aimlessly, no patience, and no clue if replacing the isolation valve is going to be possible for a complete novice/idiot like me.
The valve joins plastic to plastic but all I can find online is advice on fitting to copper pipes. Google has caused the optimist in me to say that a Speedfix push on valve should do the job easily, but the realist in me is cracking up laughing at that hope.
Please can anyone advise before I lob the entire sink unit out of the window?!
Thank you.
Yesterday I got rid of the dishwasher ahead of getting a new one. It had been plumbed into the undersink cold fill along with my washing machine, by means of a plastic Y shaped splitter.
Never had any problems until now.
I'd isolated the water supply from the stopcock, removed the splitter, attached the washing machine pipe to the metal isolation valve. All fine. Then before turning the stopcock back on I turned the valve lever (standard blue plastic one) a little in the hope that if the connection wasn't water tight I'd be able to turn it off quickly.
The lever snapped (no surprise), and now nothing I've tried will shift the cut off in either direction. I can hear a small amount of water in the pipe but clearly not enough water or pressure to enable the washing machine to fill.
I'm left with no water getting to the washing machine, no idea why the screw which was in the isolation valve spins aimlessly, no patience, and no clue if replacing the isolation valve is going to be possible for a complete novice/idiot like me.
The valve joins plastic to plastic but all I can find online is advice on fitting to copper pipes. Google has caused the optimist in me to say that a Speedfix push on valve should do the job easily, but the realist in me is cracking up laughing at that hope.
Please can anyone advise before I lob the entire sink unit out of the window?!
Thank you.