The Cellar - View Single Post - Help me connect my dishwasher to hot water

glatt · 02-07-2014, 08:00 AM

At the risk of blabbing too much, I'd add that the cold water shutoff may be problematic. You can see the white hard water deposits from an old (or current) weeping leak above the valve. There's a very good chance that those mineral deposits are also located on the valve stem behind the handle. When you go to shut off the water there with that handle, the valve stem will rotate down and back into the valve, and the hard water deposits on that stem will scratch into the inside of the packing material inside the valve stem housing, so that when you open the valve again when you are done doing everything, water will find its way out those little scratch marks and you get a tiny slow dripping leak. It looks like that cabinet is no stranger to tiny dripping leaks, and those tiny dripping leaks are self healing over time because they get stopped up with additional hard water deposits, so you may not care. They sell valve grease, which you can smear all over everything to try to get those tiny weeping leaks to stop, and that sometimes works.

So I'd shut off the water at both valves. Get some towels or rags in there, disconnect the cold water hose from the T. Disconnect the T from the cold water shutoff. Disconnect the hot water supply pipe. Connect the T to the hot water shutoff (hopefully the DW hose will reach.) Connect the hot water supply to the T in its new location. Connect the cold water hose to the cold water shutoff. Turn everything back on and hope nothing leaks. If anything does leak, turn it all off again and replace whatever is leaking. You may find that replacing the hot water rigid copper pipe with a flexible hose is easier than messing with that rigid pipe, but you'll need a basin wrench to disconnect it from where it's attached to the faucet because you'll never get a regular wrench way up in there. Also, clean any crud you find on threads. The crud causes leaks. New hoses are usually a good idea too because the rubber gaskets lose flexibility and are more prone to leaks as they age and are reused, but there's no harm in trying to reuse them and seeing if they leak.

The only thing you may want to consider is if it's better to leave a sleeping dog alone. But you know dogs are fun. So wake him up.

02-07-2014, 08:00 AM	#12
glatt ™ Join Date: Jul 2003 Location: Arlington, VA Posts: 27,717	At the risk of blabbing too much, I'd add that the cold water shutoff may be problematic. You can see the white hard water deposits from an old (or current) weeping leak above the valve. There's a very good chance that those mineral deposits are also located on the valve stem behind the handle. When you go to shut off the water there with that handle, the valve stem will rotate down and back into the valve, and the hard water deposits on that stem will scratch into the inside of the packing material inside the valve stem housing, so that when you open the valve again when you are done doing everything, water will find its way out those little scratch marks and you get a tiny slow dripping leak. It looks like that cabinet is no stranger to tiny dripping leaks, and those tiny dripping leaks are self healing over time because they get stopped up with additional hard water deposits, so you may not care. They sell valve grease, which you can smear all over everything to try to get those tiny weeping leaks to stop, and that sometimes works. So I'd shut off the water at both valves. Get some towels or rags in there, disconnect the cold water hose from the T. Disconnect the T from the cold water shutoff. Disconnect the hot water supply pipe. Connect the T to the hot water shutoff (hopefully the DW hose will reach.) Connect the hot water supply to the T in its new location. Connect the cold water hose to the cold water shutoff. Turn everything back on and hope nothing leaks. If anything does leak, turn it all off again and replace whatever is leaking. You may find that replacing the hot water rigid copper pipe with a flexible hose is easier than messing with that rigid pipe, but you'll need a basin wrench to disconnect it from where it's attached to the faucet because you'll never get a regular wrench way up in there. Also, clean any crud you find on threads. The crud causes leaks. New hoses are usually a good idea too because the rubber gaskets lose flexibility and are more prone to leaks as they age and are reused, but there's no harm in trying to reuse them and seeing if they leak. The only thing you may want to consider is if it's better to leave a sleeping dog alone. But you know dogs are fun. So wake him up.