Do you have a hot and cold fill washing machine, but only have a cold water supply available to connect it to? Well, you can still connect it up and use it, but you will need a y-piece connector. If you just connect the cold water hose to the cold water tap and leave the hot water hose unconnected, then some wash cycles may not work.
The y-piece connector is a plastic connector shaped like a Y. It splits a single water supply into two. You may be able to buy this part from a DIY store like B&Q, or Amazon – y-piece connectors (affiliate link).
This photo shows two washing machine hoses connected to a single tap using a y-piece connector. The tap shown is hot (red), but ignore that. You need to connect to the cold (blue) tap. Connect the single section of the y-piece to the cold water supply tap. Now connect the hot and cold water hose pipes to it and your washing machine will work on all wash cycles.
What if you just leave the hot fill hose unconnected?
You could just connect the cold water fill hose directly to the cold water tap, and leave the hot fill hose unconnected. But without a water supply to the hot valve, some wash programs may not work. This is because on a hot and cold fill washing machine, some wash cycles may only fill with hot water. So with no hose connected to the hot water valve, the cycle will fail, or produce an error code.
Some cycles will work without a water supply to the hot valve
Some washing machines may work OK with only the cold fill hose connected. You could always try it and see. It may be that some programs work, but others don’t. The worse that will happen is the washer could either stick on the odd wash programme or may abort with an error on some. This would happen if you select a cycle that only fills up with hot water. But if you only use one or two wash cycles, and not the 60 or 90 degree cycles, they may work OK.
The washing machine may now use slightly more electricity, but it shouldn’t be significant unless you use a lot of 60 or 90 degree washes. This is because modern washing machines use very little water on wash.
Try to use a y-piece connector
It is better to use a y-piece if possible so that water is supplied to both valves as designed. The washing machine will not know the difference between hot and cold water. It won’t know there’s no hot water coming in. But as long as water is coming in, it will just heat up the cold water to the correct temperature.
Cold fill washing is usually better
Manufacturers argue it’s more efficient to fill with cold water only, and to slowly heat up the water. Especially on the most common wash cycles at 40 and 30 degrees. You can see a detailed explanation of this in my cold v hot water article below –
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Is there something in reverse, as it were? So that I can take a hot and cold feed into a Y connector onto a cold-fill only machine?
In theory you could connect it in reverse although I can’t see any point to doing it. It’s possible to connect a hot and cold supply to the y end of the y-piece, and then attach a single hose to the other end of the connector – and fix that to the cold valve on a cold fill only washer.
That would result in the washing machine getting a mix of hot and cold water each time it fills. Because the cold is usually at a much higher pressure the chances are that very little hot water would get into the machine on wash. On the rinses more would get in but washing machines only need cold water to rinse so it would waste hot water.
I have a Bosch WFB 2004 washing machine. Both hot and cold supply pipes are connected to the cold water supply via a Y connector i.e. cold water to both inlets.
However, I want to instal a dishwasher but space at the pipes is at a premium. Does the hot water supply pipe to the washing machine need to be connected at all? If not then I could utilise that side of the Y connector for the dishwasher.
Steve: If your washing machine is a cold fill only then the hot water shouldn’t be connected to the washing machine at all. If it’s a hot and cold fill machine it should of course be connected to both supplies, but can be connected just to the cold to free up the hot supply if you wanted to. The y-piece can connect a hot and cold fill washing machine to a cold water supply by connecting the two washing machine hoses to the y bit and the other end connects to the cold water supply so both valves use cold water.
Your hot water supply can be used for the dishwasher if the dishwasher manufacturer says it’s OK to connect it to a hot supply and the hot water temperature doesn’t exceed 60 degrees. It should be mentioned in the instruction book if it is.
Sorry for the confusion. The washing machine is hot and cold fill, but both hoses are connected to the cold supply i.e. cold water going into both inlets on the machine. So. does the hot hose from the machine need connecting at all?
A hot and cold fill washing machine can be connected like yours, with both valves supplied with cold water via a y-piece and it will still work fine. It may take slightly longer on hot washes but it could wash better especially if using biological detergent.
If it’s a hot and cold fill machine it’s designed to have the hot valve connected to the hot supply and the cold valve to the cold supply. However, if it’s a recent machine it’s very unusual to be hot and cold fill. If they supplied a y-piece connector it could be like the Hotpoint machines that have two valves but both need connecting to the cold. The instruction book should make it clear how it should be connected.
Managed to find the manual for the washing machine, which made things even easier. Manual says if using cold supply only, don’t even connect the hot fill hose. Might cause a problem if doing a 90 degree wash, but we don’t do that anyway.
I disconncted the hot supply hose altogther and utilised the spare connector on the y-piece for the new dishwasher and all works great.
May not work for all washing machines though.
Main advice is, hang on to the manuals. You never know when they might be handy!
Steve: Normally a hot and cold fill washing machine needs water to both valves even if both are fed cold water using a y-piece. Otherwise some programmes such as whites may not work. If the instruction book said you can just connect to the cold valve, and leave the hot valve unconnected without mentioning that then I would assume it will work OK on all programmes.
Quite a few modern machines (at least on Australian one I have read about on a board on this site lately and my own new LG) are hot and cold fill but can happily be connected to cold only on just the cold valve. HOwever, beware! The LG and teh Australian one I have read about warn you to cap off the hot valve (the LG don’t supply the cap but you can buy them at any plumbers’ merchant on DIY chain – it’s a 3/4 inch iron threaded blank plug that you buy). On certain cycles that take in both ot and cold water together it is apparently possible for cold water to leak out of the open hot valve if there is no hose and no blank plug.
Thanks Dave: It’s a new thing being able to just leave the hot fill hose disconnected and have no problems. In the past it would cause problems as some machines filled with hot water only on some programmes and specifically on whites. With no hot supply the washer just used to sit there humming for ever.