Whether you live alone or with a family, households of all sizes rely on a number of machines and fixtures to keep life on track. One of the most important appliances is in the laundry room—it’s the washing machine.

We received a call at California Plumbing from a Sorrento Valley homeowner concerned about water leaking from their washing machine. We promptly arrived to inspect, uncover the real reason for the problem, and fix it!

If you think something might be wrong with your washing machine causing it to leak, it may be from the appliance itself, or the leak may be from a valve, drain, or hose.

In this Sorrento Valley home, the leaks turned out to be coming from the hot and cold water shutoff valves. These valves needed to be replaced to keep the laundry room safe and clean and to prevent further leaks.

When Should Water Shutoff Valves Be Replaced?

Hot and cold shutoff valves in your laundry room direct water from your home plumbing system to your washing machine. It is very important that these valves are replaced when necessary. A leaky valve can create a puddle around your washing machine, leading to a messy laundry room, potential electrical hazards, and costly water damage.

Homes in San Diego are known to have hard water, which can leave buildup of mineral deposits in various plumbing pipes, valves, and connections throughout the home. This can affect the mechanisms of water shut off valves, reducing their functionality. Water shut off valves may also deteriorate due to wear and tear, and sometimes due to rust or corrosion. In other cases, the leak may be due to a loose packing nut around the shut off valve.

You should call a plumbing professional as soon as you notice anything unusual with your washing machine or around it. The problem may in fact be an old or faulty cold or hot water shut off valve that needs to be replaced immediately.

Replacing Washing Machine Valves Inside A Small Washer Box

Hot and cold water shut off valves are typically located inside a washer box, often with water hammer arrestors attached. These hammer arrestors absorb the shocks that occur due to changes in pressure when water flow stops or changes, such as when the washing machine operates.

For this particular home, the size of the washer box restricted us from installing the new hot and cold water shut off valves with the hammer arrestors behind them. The space inside the washer box would not allow the hammer arrestors to be threaded back on, and the connection of the water shut off valves would not be able to spin with hammer arrestors behind them. One option would be for us to replace the entire existing washer box with a bigger washer box, however this would require cutting through the drywall which the client decided against.

As our solution, we removed the hammer arrestors and capped off their ports with brass caps. Once the new hot and cold water shut off valves were installed, the water was restored and our testing confirmed that there were no leaks. We reconnected the shut off valves to the washing machine and tested the connection, ensuring again that there were indeed no leaks.

Call California Plumbing Today

If you think your laundry room might be in need of plumbing repairs, call a professional plumber near you as soon as possible. It’s the safest way to ensure that replacements are correctly installed with secure plumbing connections that withstand the test of time so that you can finish your chores uninterrupted.

California Plumbing offers a wide range of plumbing services in San Diego to restore peace and comfort to your home. We understand how important it is to keep your laundry machine, washing machine, toilet, shower, and sink up and running, which is why California Plumbing is there for you when you need us most.