Leaking washing machine hose

[Ian Harding]

About three months ago I walked into my kitchen one morning and trod in a puddle of freezing cold water! Investigation revealed a leak from the connection of the cold water inlet hose on my washing machine, where it is attached to the fixed pipe.

I bought a new hose (the old one came with the machine and was only 3

1/2 years old), and left a bowl under the connection just in case.

Now the leak is intermittent, never in the day time, but sometimes with no apparent pattern the bowl can have anything from a couple of drops to a couple of pints of water in the morning even though I checked it was dry before going to bed. The machine never runs overnight so I am at a loss to explain what's going on.

Can anyone suggest a way of making the connection more water-tight? At the moment I am leaving the tap on the end of the cold pipe turned off except when I want to use the machine but I don't know if the tap is designed to be turned on and off so frequently and I don't want to make things worse in the long run.

Thanks

[Andy Hall]

Are you sure that it is still leaking from the same place and not from somewhere on the machine?

If it is definitely at the tap, it could be a leak from the compression fitting nut on the fixed pipe side. You could try tightening that using a wrench on the tap and another on the nut.

The only explanation I think of for its nocturnal incontinence is that the water pressure may be increasing.

If this fix doesn't address the issue, then I would replace the tap. It may simply be that there is some manufacturing defect where either the hose or the fixed pipe connect. These taps are very cheap.

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Lurch]

Which side of the tap is it dripping from? Quite often a leak can drip in anyplace around a joint. It could be the tap that has started leaking, or there may have been a dodgy connection on the supply side of it, or it could just be the hose not tightened properly. Although they are meant to be hand tightened, a little nipping up with tools is sometimes required. ..

SJW A.C.S. Ltd.

[Lee]

What the others said, but did you use new washers inside the hose connectors as well?

Lee

[Ian Harding]

Thanks for all the replies.

The new hose included washers, so I used them. The leak is still definitely coming from the hose/tap joint, as the hose is routed up through the side of a cupboard so it can't be water from the machine running back down the hose.

The hose was done up as hard as I could by hand, but I've just tightened it up by another 1/4 turn with a spanner so we'll see if that helps. If not then I'll make a trip to my local plumbing shop to get a new tap.