Plumbing question

[Clarence Martin]

Woke up this Morning , and the hot water from the Kitchen faucet is not running. Cold water runs fine. Checked the Bathroom, and the tub and sink in there have the hot water running fine. Now, the Kitchen sink faucet has been giving me problems all last year. Turn the hot water on, and it would run , then stop for a few seconds and then run some more. Definitely NOT! frozen in the Summer when it is 90 Degrees outside !:)

Currently , it is -8 Degrees outside, with a Windchill of -25 to -30 Degrees.

Kitchen is 72 Degrees.

Is this just a faulty faucet or is it frozen ? The same hot water line that feeds the Kitchen Faucet , also runs to the Dishwasher. No hot water coming into the Dishwasher , either.

[Clarence Martin]

Well, this nice!:rolleyes: Weather forecast says it is going down to MINUS 24 Degrees tonight!

[Paul F Franklin]

If the dishwasher isn't getting hot water either, then I'd suspect frozen. But...see if the line for the dishwasher splits off after the shut off valve under the sink. I've seen those little valves go flaky and block water flow before.

If it is frozen, leaving the undersink doors open can help keep the area warmer, and of course allowing the faucet to drip a little usually prevents freezing.

[Bert Kemp]

Take the wife's hair dryer and stick it in the sink cabinet for a while see if it thaws out,

[Dennis Peacock]

Take the wife's hair dryer and stick it in the sink cabinet for a while see if it thaws out,

I was going to suggest the same thing. :)
I hate dealing with frozen pipes.

[Myk Rian]

Well, this nice!:rolleyes: Weather forecast says it is going down to MINUS 24 Degrees tonight!
Centigrade.

[Clarence Martin]

Don't know if the hair dryer would be a good idea. Old copper pipe hooked up to PVC. Neither pipes feel cold. I think the the hot water knob has crapped out.

[Al Launier]

If the hot water hasn't been used to the kitchen sink in a while it would feel warm as you noted. Can you shut off both hot water & cold water feeds & then hook the hot water to the cold water faucet to see if you get hot water? If you do, then you should replace the hot water faucet, probably both.

[George Bokros]

Are you on a crawl space? Do the lines come from below (basement) or are they in an exterior wall?

[Wade Lippman]

I had a similar problem this summer. Turned out I had some debris lodged in the shutoff valve. Removing the valve would have been a bad chore, but I was able to attach a hose and flush it out. Isn't plumbing fun?

[Brian Henderson]

You need to figure out where the problem actually is. Turn off the water at the sink, remove the hot water valve, then turn the water on just a little to see if you have anything coming out. If you do, then replace the valve assembly. If not, keep backtracking. You say that the same line supplies the dishwasher and that has the same problem, maybe you have a problem with the line. Go back to the shutoff at the wall and unscrew the supply line, get a bucket and turn on the water and see if it comes out. You might have an obstruction in the line that you can either flush out or needs to be replaced. Once you get to the wall, it's a bit harder to check on your own without punching holes in the walls.

[Clarence Martin]

You need to figure out where the problem actually is. Turn off the water at the sink, remove the hot water valve, then turn the water on just a little to see if you have anything coming out. If you do, then replace the valve assembly. If not, keep backtracking. You say that the same line supplies the dishwasher and that has the same problem, maybe you have a problem with the line. Go back to the shutoff at the wall and unscrew the supply line, get a bucket and turn on the water and see if it comes out. You might have an obstruction in the line that you can either flush out or needs to be replaced. Once you get to the wall, it's a bit harder to check on your own without punching holes in the walls.

Well, now the cold water doesn't work in that sink.:confused: 72 degrees in the Kitchen . water works every other place. I turned the valve off that leads to the Dishwasher from the sink and turned off the cold water valve under the sink . The hot water valve is in the basement. Left that one on. Then I turned both valves back on. Knobs on the kitchen sink are wide open. No water coming out.

It's 72 Degrees under the Kitchen sink . Same as in the Kitchen.

[Brian Henderson]

Well, now the cold water doesn't work in that sink.:confused: 72 degrees in the Kitchen . water works every other place. I turned the valve off that leads to the Dishwasher from the sink and turned off the cold water valve under the sink . The hot water valve is in the basement. Left that one on. Then I turned both valves back on. Knobs on the kitchen sink are wide open. No water coming out.

It's 72 Degrees under the Kitchen sink . Same as in the Kitchen.

Yeah, you've got an obstruction somewhere. You're going to have to backtrack the lines and repeat the process until you can find out where the problem is.

[Jerome Stanek]

Yeah, you've got an obstruction somewhere. You're going to have to backtrack the lines and repeat the process until you can find out where the problem is.

If both are not working the stoppage would have to be in the faucet at the diverter

[Brian Henderson]

If both are not working the stoppage would have to be in the faucet at the diverter

Which is why I said to pull the valve, back when it was only the hot water not working. That's where the problem most likely is. He said that he's not getting any cold water at the shut off under the sink, or at least that's what I told him to check, which tells me that it isn't the faucet itself. And, of course, the faucet isn't going to affect getting water to the dishwasher.

For Clarence, to clarify, after you turned off the cold water at the shutoff, did you remove the hose from the cold water shutoff and see if you have water coming out of the pipe? We need to find out if the problem is at the faucet or further down the line.

[Clarence Martin]

Well, a Man has to know his limits , as they say...

So....
I called my dad's Semi Retired Plumber friend that he has known for years.!!! He is coming over tomorrow Afternoon to check things out.

This is a checklist of what I was comfortable in doing myself, seeing as I HATE Plumbing work !!

1. The cold water line runs up from the Basement and then through the exterior wall then up the kitchen cabinet floor . From there, you can see the pipes under the Kitchen sink in the cabinet. The cold water line then is connected to a short line that attaches to the under the sink water filter . Then then feeds into the kitchen sink faucet. Hot water line is the same way, except for the water filter. It hooks up the the hot water side of the sink and there is a side run, I guess that is what you could call it, for the hot water to feed into the Dishwasher.

I unscrewed the line feeding into the water filter. Not a drop of water coming out. \

I then went into the Basement to check the hot water line. This where it got messy !!!

I turned open and closed the hot water valve. Then It started to LEAK!! So, I waited a couple of minutes for the water to drip out. It eventually dripped out hot water.

I closed the valve as tight as I could ( House was built in 1870 !! ) The water eventually stopped dripping.

Went back upstairs and no water running out of the kitchen sink.

So, I called plumber up and told him what I did. He is coming over Tomorrow!

I think when he comes over, I will have him replace that old leaky valve, in addition to getting the water running.

Now, what I don't understand, is that it was a heck of a lot colder last Winter, and the Pipes never froze. The only difference , is that we now have the Basement spray foam insulated all around where the basement wall meets the floor joists. This pipes have almost a foot of that yellow spray foam encased around them. Don't know how they could freeze after that.

On a side not, I found a tag in the Basement from the Phone Company dating the original phone lines!! House built in 1870, but the phone lines did not get installed until 1948!

Oh, and then there is the insulation that some of the hot water boiler pipes are wrapped in . Some sort of white honeycomb pipe wrap insulation. Anyone know what that is ?

[Brian Henderson]

If you still have plumbing from 1870. it's probably time to get it replaced anyhow. You really ought to have both hot and cold water shutoffs under the sink (and under every sink), not in the basement anyhow. I've got an old house too, built in 1926, and I've had to update most of the plumbing. There probably isn't a fixture in the house that is older than 15 years now.

And I'd be careful with that insulation, sounds like it could be asbestos. Getting that removed is going to be a real job.

Good luck getting it fixed!

[Lee Schierer]

The guest room at my daughters house has it's own bathroom. There are two sinks with a fancy water pump style spigot. The first few times we used it, the water barely trickled out of the hot water. Cold water flow was better but not great. I checked the lines in the crawl space and couldn't see any problems. The adjacent shower worked just fine and had plenty of flow. It took some time figuring out who made them and contacting the manufacturer, who was far less than helpful. Finally, I shut off the water under the sink and disconnected the hot water line. I carefully opened the shutoff valve with the line in a bucket and had plenty of flow. After removing one faucet completely from the counter top and getting it out where I could see. I discovered that there were screen strainers in the water inlets on bot the cold and hot water side. The screens were not mentioned on the manufacturer's literature and the customer service gay I spoke with was clueless about them as well. I was able to clean the screens which had a slimy algae type of growth using a home made bristle brush that would fit down into the opening. Once everything was back together, I had plenty of flow.

[Clint Baxter]

Well, a Man has to know his limits , as they say...

So....
I called my dad's Semi Retired Plumber friend that he has known for years.!!! He is coming over tomorrow Afternoon to check things out.

This is a checklist of what I was comfortable in doing myself, seeing as I HATE Plumbing work !!

1. The cold water line runs up from the Basement and then through the exterior wall then up the kitchen cabinet floor . From there, you can see the pipes under the Kitchen sink in the cabinet. The cold water line then is connected to a short line that attaches to the under the sink water filter . Then then feeds into the kitchen sink faucet. Hot water line is the same way, except for the water filter. It hooks up the the hot water side of the sink and there is a side run, I guess that is what you could call it, for the hot water to feed into the Dishwasher.

I unscrewed the line feeding into the water filter. Not a drop of water coming out. \

I then went into the Basement to check the hot water line. This where it got messy !!!

I turned open and closed the hot water valve. Then It started to LEAK!! So, I waited a couple of minutes for the water to drip out. It eventually dripped out hot water.

I closed the valve as tight as I could ( House was built in 1870 !! ) The water eventually stopped dripping.

Went back upstairs and no water running out of the kitchen sink.

So, I called plumber up and told him what I did. He is coming over Tomorrow!

I think when he comes over, I will have him replace that old leaky valve, in addition to getting the water running.

Now, what I don't understand, is that it was a heck of a lot colder last Winter, and the Pipes never froze. The only difference , is that we now have the Basement spray foam insulated all around where the basement wall meets the floor joists. This pipes have almost a foot of that yellow spray foam encased around them. Don't know how they could freeze after that.

On a side not, I found a tag in the Basement from the Phone Company dating the original phone lines!! House built in 1870, but the phone lines did not get installed until 1948!

Oh, and then there is the insulation that some of the hot water boiler pipes are wrapped in . Some sort of white honeycomb pipe wrap insulation. Anyone know what that is ?

It is very possible that the insulation you installed is responsible for a freeze up. There might have been enough heat going through there before to keep the water lines from freezing. Now that it is insulated, they are close enough to the exterior wall that they will freeze up.

They shouldn't be run in an exterior wall at all in a northern climate like where you're at.

I'm confident your plumber acquaintance will get you all taken care of.

let us know how it goes.

Clint

[Brian Henderson]

The guest room at my daughters house has it's own bathroom. There are two sinks with a fancy water pump style spigot. The first few times we used it, the water barely trickled out of the hot water. Cold water flow was better but not great. I checked the lines in the crawl space and couldn't see any problems. The adjacent shower worked just fine and had plenty of flow. It took some time figuring out who made them and contacting the manufacturer, who was far less than helpful. Finally, I shut off the water under the sink and disconnected the hot water line. I carefully opened the shutoff valve with the line in a bucket and had plenty of flow. After removing one faucet completely from the counter top and getting it out where I could see. I discovered that there were screen strainers in the water inlets on bot the cold and hot water side. The screens were not mentioned on the manufacturer's literature and the customer service gay I spoke with was clueless about them as well. I was able to clean the screens which had a slimy algae type of growth using a home made bristle brush that would fit down into the opening. Once everything was back together, I had plenty of flow.

Most modern faucets will also have a carbon filter that needs to be replaced from time to time. They cost a couple of bucks but once they clog, you're not going to get much water out of the tap.

[Wade Lippman]

Most modern faucets will also have a carbon filter that needs to be replaced from time to time. They cost a couple of bucks but once they clog, you're not going to get much water out of the tap.
Since when? I haven't bought one in 5 years but checked Lowes website and none had filters.

[Brian Henderson]

Since when? I haven't bought one in 5 years but checked Lowes website and none had filters.

It tends to be part of the screw on aerator. They clog all the time and need to be replaced once every year or so.

[Clarence Martin]

Well, Hot water BLASTED !!! through the faucet about 30 minutes ago !! YEE HAW!!!!!:D

Still waiting for the cold water to flow through !

On the screen, there is only the aeriator screen on the end of this faucet. I took that off about a year ago.

[Clarence Martin]

Plumber showed up. Pipes were frozen. Heated the pipes up till the water thawed out. Water blasted put of the faucet !! Got the shut off valves, fixed. No leaks in the pipes. Plumber thought that it was interesting that the pipes froze up right after the spray foam was done in the basement. Pipes were encased that spray foam. So, he dug that stuff out around the pipes to let the heat from the basement help keep them from freezing. Thought about moving the pipes away from the wall, but will put that off till later this year. Will see if this fix works. Got new Kitchen Faucet installed and the under the sink filter cartridge replaced .

He was pretty reasonable on the price for the job.