What is an aqua stop hose and do you have to use it?
The words aqua, and stop, are used by a variety of companies covering different products. They all try to “stop” damage from leaking water in various situations. So-called “aqua stop” systems in appliances can combine more than one leak detection system including float switch detectors in the base of the appliance.
However, this article deals with questions about the actual aqua stop fill hose supplied with several brands of washing machines and dishwashers (including AEG, Neff, Bosch & Siemens).
How does the Aqua-stop hose work?
It’s a hose within a hose. The outer hose is made of corrugated plastic designed to contain any water if the inner hose leaks. There is also a plastic housing at the end where it connects to the water tap.
If the inner hose ever leaks, then a device inside this housing is able to detect the incident and prevent further water getting into it. If this happens, the hose will no longer let any water through to the appliance and will commonly indicate it has “tripped” via a red dot in a small window in the housing. If this happens the hose is now useless and cannot be repaired.
What problems are associated with the aqua-stop hose?
- Their bulk and relative inflexibility can make them difficult to use depending on the set-up and plumbing
- They can’t be extended if they are too short. (You can still connect one to a normal hose but that would of course introduce a normal unprotected hose partially defeating the point of using an aqua stop hose)
- The size of the bulky plastic housing at the end connecting to the water tap is especially difficult to accommodate for many people (especially with taps fitted under the sink) where there may not be room for it. So in many situations it can be impossible to connect this hose to existing plumbing
- Many people’s taps point out horizontally and some of these hoses should only be fitted pointing down as shown in the photo below. Check your instruction manual for fitting instructions)
This photo was sent to me by Mark. He had to fit a new cold tap with a 90 degree angle pointing down to accommodate the aqua-stop hose. His original tap had extended horizontally like the (no longer required) hot tap behind it. Before changing the tap there was no room to connect the new aqua stop hose.
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This demonstrates the type of problem many people have when confronted with these larger bulky hoses with specific fitting instructions as described in the main article on the left.
Can you replace an aqua stop hose with a normal fill hose?
Many aqua stop hoses do nothing different except protect against leaks from itself with a mechanical stop mechanism activated by leaking water inside the hose. You can usually replace them with a normal fill hose if you are prepared to remove this flood protection.
However, some aqua stop hoses actually have an electrical solenoid inside them, with wires running through the hose from the washing machine. In this case the aqua stop hose acts like a remote fill valve which would be missing in a normal hose. If the washing machine also has a regular fill solenoid with power running to it, and the aqua stop hose just piggy backs of its electrical power being energised when the main valve is energised, then a normal hose should still work OK.
I’ve seen cases where some manufacturers bizarrely threaten to void your guarantee if you don’t use their hose. This makes no sense at all. The hose protects only against the fill hose bursting or corroding, which is in fact a pretty rare event these days anyway. No one would dispute they have every right to refuse any repairs to the replacement hose you have used instead, and if by any freak chance the split hose sprayed water onto the appliance and caused damage they have no need to fix that either – but it’s not really on to refuse to repair a faulty motor or any other fault on the washing machine unrelated to the fill hose.
Having said that, all guarantees are in addition to our statutory rights, and in law, no one has to provide any guarantee whatsoever. Our rights extend only to the Sale of Goods Act. The only reason they give any guarantee is because everyone does, and it’s an important – nay essential – sales tool. No one is likely to buy any appliance with no guarantee. But as it is an addition they are able to try to impose certain restrictions. If we think the restrictions are unreasonable or restrict our “statutory rights” then we can challenge them, and if necessary seek consumer advice or take them to the small claims court.
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It’s hard to imagine a manufacturer seriously trying to convince a customer with a 3 month old washing machine that they must pay £200 or more to have a new motor fitted simply because the washing machine is connected by a normal fill hose instead of their aqua stop hose, how ridiculous.
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Comments transferred
This article was originally published on Washerhelp.co.uk and had attracted some comments which others may find useful to read. Therefore the first dozen or so comments under this article are the comments I’ve transferred across.
Andy Trigg says
(Comment transferred from original article on Washerhelp)
29th January 2013 09:52:01 AM – Tom
How does the aqua stop valve connect inside the washing machine itself? and by removing the connector in side and changing to a regular hose, does anything need linking out?
Andy Trigg says
(Comment transferred from original article on Washerhelp)
29th January 2013
Most Aqua stop hoses just screw onto the washing machine’s fill valve the same as any other hose. Everything that’s different about it is within the hose itself, which is why many can be replaced with a normal hose – although clearly a normal hose will not have anti flood protection.
Andy Trigg says
(Comment transferred from original article on Washerhelp)
29th January 2013 02:37:46 PM – Tom
The problem i have is the washing machine does not take in any water, and was working before moving house. if you disconnect the ‘aqua stop hose’ from the mains water supply pipe on the wall, and turn the water on, water comes out. so the supply is ok. if you connect the ‘aqua stop hose’ to the mains supply on the wall, and unscrew it at the machine end and turn the washing machine on, and turn the water supply on, no water comes through, so i assume the ‘aqua stop’ is active and not allowing the water through.
I took the shroud off around the water inlet on the washing machine to expose the water pipe inlet which is just a normal screw type washing machine water supply hose within the ‘aqua stop hose’ and there is a cable that runs through pipe down to the valve at the water supply end, the cover on the water supply end is marked ‘240v’ etc. At the machine end the wire goes inside and obviously connects inside the machine to power the ‘aqua stop’.
my question is: if i unplug this wire and remove the ‘aqua stop hose’ completely and replace with a standard washing machine hose will the machine be looking for feedback from the aqua stop?
Siemens WXL147AUK Thanks for the advice Tom
Andy Trigg says
(Comment transferred from original article on Washerhelp)
29th January 2013 03:08:12 PM – Washerhelp
Hello Tom. More common Aqua stop hoses are self contained and need no power to work. They are just a hose within a hose and if the inner hose leaks it stops the hose taking water in (presumably by the water physically operating a mechanism that stops the water going through the hose). When these aqua stop hoses have failed they should show a red dot in the small plastic window on the main section.
The way yours is fitted there’s obviously an electric solenoid in the aqua-hose, which is energised from the machine. If you left the electrical connections on when you unscrewed it from the machine, and no water went into the washing machine when it should have been filling then it would imply the aqua stop hose is faulty. However, it’s theoretically possible some other fault could stop the valve getting power or a neutral return and account for no water going into the machine.
If the valve on the actual washing machine which you screw the hose onto has its own solenoid, and its own power supply (so in effect the aqua stop hose is just piggy-backed onto the regular solenoid) then a normal hose may work ok. I’ll update my article to mention that some of these devices have their own power supply.
Andy Trigg says
(Comment transferred from original article on Washerhelp)
29th January 2013 03:38:11 PM – Tom
Thanks Washerhelp. I will try a standard hose tonight and i will let you know the result. i assume the mechanical type aqua stop hoses use some kind of venturi chamber, and when the water pressure drops (due to a leak), the valve closes.
i am curious how this electrical one works, like you say it may piggy back the main input valve inside the machine and turn on when the input valve is turned on by the machine, but how it knows there is a leak? if it is just a 240v solenoid, then it is simply on or off as it is only a 2 wire connection, or if it is a neutral return then the machine must switch the live on/off to operate the solenoid. i will do some checking with a multimeter and figure it out. Many thanks Tom
Andy Trigg says
(Comment transferred from original article on Washerhelp)
3rd February 2013 01:13:12 AM – Kevin
Hi I’ve just come across your site and hope you may be able to help. I’ve just bought a Hotpoint LFT228 integrated dishwasher – to replace a Hotpoint LFT114 model; the cost of replacing the door seals made a replacement the best option. The new machine has an aqua stop hose (searching for this brought me to your site and the very useful info about these) whereas the previous model had a standard washing machine stle hose.
At the dishwasher end, the hose is built into the machine, making it impossible to replace this with the standard hose – which I had left in place from the old dishwasher, hoping to simply reconnect to the new dishwasher with a minimum of fuss. It looks like I will now need to create a much larger hole in the site of the under sink cupboard for the aqua hose head to be passed through – as well as re-jigging the direction of the source tap to accommodate the plastic box at the end of the aqua stop hose – as in the photo in your article about this. But, is there another way? I’ve managed to buy a plastic screw-thread 3/4″ male-to-male barrel which would allow the existing hose to remain in place, connected to the water supply but allow me to join the new aqua stop hose to this at a convenient point behind the dishwasher.
The question is – would extending the length of hose between the water supply point and the dishwasher in this way have any affect on the filling of the machine – or create any other problems? The length of hose would be over two metres. I spoke to Hotpoint this morning, but their service team weren’t a great help – and suggested the dishwasher “might not fill up and simply not work”. The man was very keen to try and sell me an extended warranty though… I’d really appreciate your thoughts or suggestions as you clearly know a lot about such things.
Thanks in advance. Kevin Wooldridge
Andy Trigg says
(Comment transferred from original article on Washerhelp)
4th February 2013 12:54:24 PM – Richard
We have a new AEG washing machine that has an Aqua-stop fill hose. Two questions: 1. The water supply pipe terminates upwards so the aqua-stop is upside down. Will it still work? 2. It leaks but when I tried to disconnect the hose at the water supply end the aqua-stop and union nut rotate together until the aqua-stop hits the wall, so I can’t disconnect as they two parts will not rotate independently. When connecting it I noticed that there is some sort of ratchet mechanism so is there a way of switching it do rotate anti-clockwise?
Andy Trigg says
(Comment transferred from original article on Washerhelp)
5th February 2013 12:16:53 PM – Washerhelp
Kevin: Are you sure the hose on the new dishwasher is built into the machine? They often disappear inside the machine but can still be screwed onto a valve underneath. Dishwashers can be very awkward to work on though.
Regarding extending the hose, it would depend on the water pressure at your house. If it’s strong enough it would probably work OK if most of the hose was laid on the floor and didn’t go up too high. If not, it’s possible you could get reduced water flow and the dishwasher could time out on fill. In my old house I had my washing machine connected to about 2 metres of extended hose and it worked perfectly.
You could just connect another normal hose to the new one. Using the aqua hose is best, but if connecting to another standard hose it sort of defeats the purpose of having an aqua hose supply the appliance although arguably you still would have half the hose protected .
Andy Trigg says
(Comment transferred from original article on Washerhelp)
5th February 2013 12:20:59 PM – Washerhelp
Richard: These aqua hoses can be a right pain. The one on my father in law’s Siemens washing machine was always leaking from the main part and I had similar problems with the ratchet system and found it very hard to tighten properly. I ended up replacing it with a standard hose after several leaks and “fixes”.
I don’t think they are supposed to be fitted upside down. What does it say in the instruction book? They normally specify exactly how it should be fitted.
Andy Trigg says
(Comment transferred from original article on Washerhelp)
13th March 2013 10:06:02 PM – Patrice
I have a 6-year old Siemens washing machine (model E12-14 in Germany, possibly also known as 12E140 elsewhere). About 3 weeks ago I found water leaking from where the aquastop connects to the water input in the wall. I turned the water input off, and thought nothing of it again. But the next time I tried to use the machine, no water would pour into the machine (I had remembered to turn the tap back on).
The machine now makes a buzzing noise (duration of noise seems to match the time water normally comes in). So I gathered over the web that the aquastop was activated, and I have a new one coming in to replace the old one. However, I was made aware of a reset code for the washing machine itself, and I am drawing a blank here: I cannot find anything about a reset code in the user manual or online, although I find reset codes after aquastop activation mentioned several times… Any ideas on the code? I understand I should press on some buttons on the control panel when turning the machine on, but only found one reset code for a dishwasher…