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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got a new indesit washing machine with just cold feed our old one run of hot & cold i have capped the hot feed but since i did it makes a clunking noise can you help me please
Anonymous: If the noise occurs during filling or just when the washer stops filling it could be air in the cold water supply or too high water pressure. I would remove the cold fill hose and run it into a bucket or the sink a little to ensure it’s running smoothly. Then reconnect it and turn the tap on a little at a time until you get a good flow of water into the machine rather than turn it on full straight away. If you have low water pressure though it may need to be on full anyway.
Make sure you watch out for leaks though over the next few days if you disturb the fill hose and don’t over-tighten the hose which can cut into the rubber seal and damage it. (Tips for installing a washing machine: How tight should I tighten the fill hose?)
I have a washing machine that has 2 feeds hot and cold im moving shortly and the new home only has one supply supply can this work what should i do thanks
Jasonthomas: You just need to read this article, it describes exactly your issue.
Got 2 blue taps but one is delivering hot water! Need one cold for bosch wm + one cold for bosch dishwash. Can we use a y thingy to run both appliances off same pipe?
Yes jen: I would just make sure you don’t run them at the same time. Another alternative could be to connect the dishwasher to the hot tap if it says you can in the instruction book and you think it might be a good idea – Can you connect a dishwasher to the hot water supply?
Hi I have had a washing machine for two or three years from new cold feed only to find that we have never had hot water working.
The reason for this is when we discovered lots of hard lime scale stuck to the clothes & a nasty ordour we could put the machine on a 90 wash with a cup of bleach would solve the problem , so this we did but found it was not getting hot. Time to call the engineer.
The engineer came to fix the element as this is what he thought what the problem was & then he found that the front main board had never functioned properly thus this not ever powering up the element when needed.
My question is that as this has never got warm or hot would this effect the running or the life span of the machine. Apart for the really bad odour that we get from it & the copious amounts of scale i’m sure it would have doubled the amount from a normal working machine.
Thank you
Hi, I ordered a Y piece but it will not fit as the cold tap is too close to a wall – in rental accommodation so can’t do too much about it. Is it okay for me to just connect the cold or is there some other way that I should do it?
Cheers
You can connect a small hose to the tap first, then connect the y-piece to the small hose and two further hoses to the y-piece. You’ll need to make sure there are no leaks with so many connections and try to use small hoses otherwise there could be a mess of hoses. Also, make sure the plastic y-piece lays somewhere safe so it doesn’t get knocked.
I would connect the bent end of the first hose to the tap so that you can connect the y-piece to the straight end of the other end which would be easier and neater (though not essential). You’ll also need a fill hose connector between the first hose and the y-piece.
Hi, we used a screw on cap on hot feed when new washing machine was cold feed only. Now 4 years later, we want to use hot feed for dishwasher so have removed the cap but have no water coming through, even when tap is opened. The end of the tap is wet but water is not flowing. The nearby sink hot water tap on the same leg is functioning without issue. Any idea why the washing machine/dishwasher hot water feed is not flowing?? we get hot water from combi boiler. Thanks
This site has helped me so much, I was panicked last night when realised I only had cold water supply and new washer has hot or cold but now I’m off shopping for Y adaptor and feel a lot happier.thanks guys. Lisa