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https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl DIY Forum >> Plumbing Questions >> plumbing in a washing machine https://www.askthetrades.co.uk/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1398717156 Message started by Natedog on Apr 28^th, 2014, 9:32pm

Title: plumbing in a washing machine
Post by Natedog on Apr 28^th, 2014, 9:32pm

a question on behalf of my sister. She has just bought a new washing machine, and unlike the old one, it only has a cold inlet.

her house has a big solar dhw system, and the water is also heated by her wood stove. most of the time, she is heating more water than she uses. would it be acceptable to plumb in the machine to both hot and cold feeds, via a blending valve, to supply water at 30 or 40 degrees (she only ever uses the bog standard 40 degree cycle) so the machine will use "free" hot water from the solar and stove, rather than paying for the machine to heat the water with electric?

Title: Re: plumbing in a washing machine
Post by thescruff on Apr 29^th, 2014, 12:12am

I have valves on mine so I can fill with hot water, then swap over to the cold only for the rinces.

Pain in the butt at times but I'm sure it saves on the electric.

Title: Re: plumbing in a washing machine
Post by Lectrician on Apr 29^th, 2014, 6:57am

On a commercial machine at work, we had to fit a new part which allowed a hot feed too. It was just a small section of pipework and a second solenoid. Pretty much all plug and play. It's almost like the hot feed is just "left out", but can be fitted.

Perhaps google if your model can be done similarly.

The one we did was a commercial machine.

Title: Re: plumbing in a washing machine
Post by woodsmith on Apr 29^th, 2014, 8:25am

I understand the reason new washing machines have only a cold fill is that they use so little water that the machine would draw off the cold water from the hot supply and then take very little of the hot water. Which is wasteful leaving a lot of hot water in the supply pipe to go cold for very little draw off of hot.

Title: Re: plumbing in a washing machine
Post by Natedog on Aug 12^th, 2014, 10:59pm

after a quick phone call to the manufacturer, anything other than a cold fill will void the warranty, and it's still got 3 1/2 years left. ah well, was a nice idea!