Running hotwater and cold water into one connection..

[wonderplumb]

Because when the machine shuts off, you still have hot and cold water mixing in the middle, typically your hot will have less pressure than the cold, therefore the cold can return through the hot side, and vice versa mixing the two to give you a lovely luke warm temerature through either tap. Then you get problems such as the potential for legionella, hot water heater craps itself because its working its guts out etc. etc. Bricks is spot on with needing a check valve on either side, its been a long day

[bricks]

Try working in morgue all day, you know that 6th sense movie

Yeah "i see dead people" starts to affect your concentration after a while.

[wonderplumb]

Im hearin ya, I done a job at sutherland hospital in the morgue, we had to replace an RPZ to an autopsy table and clear a blocked flushing floor waste, very unsettling, espaecially when you see them wheeling them out of the fridge! I get spooked by stuff like that, I dont even like pulling up next to a hearse at the lights. The bloke I was working with wanted me to take a photo of him lying on the table, with no clothes on!,as if he was lying in state.

[bricks]

That's kind of amusing,

My apprentice thought that'd be a good idea too ( the photo's), but i've got a big problem with no paying due respect to people. He wanted to take photo's of the dead guys aswell- no way buddy.

Ive been down there for a whole week now, i've taken to leaving a radio on all day coz the bodies make noises and it freaks me out- especially when the dropsaw trips the circuit breaker.

[montiee]

Good point about the check valve. Wondering whether it's all worth the effort now..
I guess it depends how much it's going to cost me. The cost may be more than the saving in the end...

[jedmanrocks]

The easiest way out is often the most simple. If hot water is free for you and you never run out, just hook up to the hot WM tap. The machine heats until it reaches a certain temp, therefore if its only heating water from 60c to 80c you wont use much power , as compared from 15c to 80c. However it will mean that youll be rincing in hot water. If the amount of HW u use isnt a prob and u like faded clothes, its all good.
PS the cross conection issue isnt really a problem if u use spring loaded jumper valves in the WM cocks. However if they have been 'pinched' to quieten them down it will be an issue.

[Smurf]

But you don't simply block the outlet once the bath is full, you turn off the taps.

A washing machine, on the other hand, doesn't leave the water running all the time; it operates a "third" tap to shut off the flow but it doesn't shut off the other two. This leaves your hot/cold lines connected and any pressure differential between the two lines will give you a flow from one to t'other.

If Montiee wanted to stand by the washing machine manually turning off the taps every time the w/m shut off the flow, then it wouldn't be a problem. Or if he fitted a couple of one-way valves...

I'm no plumber. But even I can see it ain't a good idea to cross-connect your hot & cold lines.

You would normally rinse in cold water. So the hot tap would need to be turned off after the initial fill for the wash anyway with only the cold left on.

[dan76]

off topic but i have also worked in a morgue, was doing test and tag on all the saws etc in the room and there was one bloke who was frozen and they couldnt dress him for the funeral so they had the door open and the tray half pulled out to thaw him a bit so they could put clothes on him.
this was in a small country town hospital.
freaked me out a bit

[jedmanrocks]

off topic again, but a funny tale. My Dad was a registered nurse until he retired. Years ago, when he was training in England, he tells the tale of one of the bodies that had been tagged and was meant to go to a teaching hospital for surgery training but got forgotten. My Dad and a friend fearing the abuse of their teacher, dressed the corpse in biker gear ( goggles and headgear as well ) and transported him themselves in a sidecar attached to my Dads friends motor bike.
Those were the days, imagine that happining now. Doubt it!

[Markw]

We have a large Simpson F/L machine and with it you get selectable temperatures. If you want 40 deg water temp you just programme it in. The machine is plumbed only to the cold water and being a 5 star (or drip for water consumption whatever) you use bu99er all water and therefore use very little energy for water heating.

Montiee - don't be so miserable about the miniscule energy consumption for water heating - it only happens once on the wash cycle as all the other cycles are cold. Just plumb it up the way it should be - otherwise you have to change temperatures for the rinse cycles. If you dont or forget then your wasting your stored hot water and you'll end up using instantaneous energy to heat new in-coming water.