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.
Problems associated with the aqua-stop hose
1: Their bulk and relative inflexibility can make them difficult to use depending on the set-up and plumbing
2: 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)
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3: 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
4: 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.
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.
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 you may find very useful to read. Therefore the first dozen or so comments under this article are the comments I’ve transferred across.
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Hi Andy so glad I found you, I have neff slimline dishwasher can’t find a model no. But having looked through your other comments it seems that my aqua pipe is shot, I want to remove and replace with standard washing machine/ dishwasher hose but am concerned about the electric side of it. I haven’t had a look yet as extracting the machine from newly fitted kitchen is going to be mammoth task, could you tell me how the electric wire that runs through the pipe to the box thing at the end is attached to the machine I’m presuming I can’t just snip it off. Thank you very much.
Hi jonathon. If an Aqua stop system has built in wires, then the inlet valve is incorporated inside the device. If the device only lets water in when it’s energised by the appliance then clearly a fault elsewhere on the appliance could also account for it not working. Some Aqua stop hoses let water through all the time unless an internal leak triggers it. These hoses can be replaced with a normal hose if you are prepared to accept a normal hose doesn’t have the protection. However, I wouldn’t try to replace an Aqua stop hose with a normal one if it has wires inside which connect to the appliance.
Thanks Andy, the aqua stop is leaking from the water supply end of things, the machine works fine, but drips, do aqua stop pipes need fitting to water supply a certain way ie: vertically, horizontally, mine is fitted horizontally, could it be the o ring in the brass connector,if not would a new aqua stop cure the problem .
Yes Jonathon, my article lists that as one of the problems with them. They often need to be fitted in ways that some people’s plumbing won’t allow. They normally need to be pointing down like in the photo on the right column of this article. It’s possible that it’s only leaking because of strain.
Okay lovely thanks I’m gonna have a tinker with it tomorrow, and then I’m gonna have listen to your music. Thnks for a brilliant site
Many thanks Jonathon :) Hope you like some of my music.
Hello. This discussion is very illuminating. I have a Bosch dishwasher, model SMS69L12GB23. It has aquastop. I have looked at my installation of the inlet hose, and it is horizontal. Please can you tell me if I should worry about this. I looked at the installation instructions, which are sketchy, and nowhere does it mention that the inlet must be connected with hose pointing downwards. There are sketches of course, where the inlet hose is shown emerging from the floor of the sink upwards.
Hi Martha. The link didn’t work. If the instructions don’t mention orientation we can only assume it’s not a concern.
My experience, admittedly form some years ago, was that if you have the solenoid-type aquastop valve and the manufacturer specifies the orientation, you must observe the instruction and modify the pipework. I didn’t and the machine refused to work, and I had to get an engineer out to fix it.
hi ,Your site is definitely an essential to anyone buying a machine with yet another “safety” feature! Having just bought an AEG integrated washing machine fitted with this aqua stop thing (think you can detect I aint happy), I can find no fitting instructions and am even more confused by the ratchet function.What does it do? what should be its position etc. As no wires seem to be involved and the fitter is arriving on Monday to fit new kitchen I hope I can dispense with it and simply revert to a conventional hose. Will there never be an end to these “improvements” which cost 10 times as much to replace and are of dubious use !) Hope you can clarify and apology if i seem bit miffed .