Washing machine hose contaminating water

[borzio]

Hi all, I've had a major problem with a taste/smell contamination from new washing machine hoses fitted to my Hotpoint which has separate hot and cold fillers, the hot from the combi (new last year)
The problem started when the old red hose started leaking and I went to Screwfix and bought the replacement. The hose looked and went on and worked as it should. Over the next few days we started getting a chemical taste off the water. We thought that Scottish Water had been working on the mains and this was just excess chlorine that would clear.
After a week the taste/smell from both the hot and cold taps in the kitchen and bathroom was too much to stand so we called SW and they came out to check the supply. My neighbours all had perfect water so it was surmised that we had a lump of the chlorine in our supply. We flushed all the taps for 24hrs and SW flushed the mains.
The problem wouldn't go away and SW came back and ran the mains for a week with no improvement. The taste and smell was still there. I read on the Water companies' pdf that contamination could come from washers reacting with the chlorine and phenol.
As an afterthought to that I suggested that the problem had started when I replaced the hose, but several plumbers told me that the taste/smell could not migrate against the incoming flow so it couldn't be that. I took the hose off anyway, and within 10 minutes the water had no taste/smell.

Thinking that Screwfix had a duff batch of hoses I bought one from Toolstation, put it on today at 3.30pm and made a cup of tea with fresh water at 4.30pm, the tea had a taste, I ran the water and it had a chemical taste and smell similar but different to the last hose. I took the hose back off and the taste/smell was gone in 10 minutes again.

The hose smells terrible, which it didn't when put on. The strong smell is from the washers, though whether they or the hose itself is the cause I don't know.
I know that I have found the source of the contamination as the hoses were the only thing changed in in the last 5 years and there is no smell or taste from the original blue hose. Has anyone heard of this before? I can't believe that of all the hoses Toolstation and Screwfix sell and plumbers install that I have been unlucky enough to get two mingers in the same period.
I'd also value an opinion as to why the taste/smell can migrate from a hot hose back through the boiler and into the cold feed. According to long served plumbers this can't happen. I know it does because it has, despite all taps and appliances being fed from mains water. (ie no tanks in loft etc)

How the heck do I get a hose/washers now that won't have this problem as the Water companies suggest using Kite Marked ones. No plumbers Merchants/Toolstation/Screwfix have any that has the Kite Mark so I presume they all come from China these days. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance

 

[Madrab]

Very weird, can't say I've ever heard of that one. Maybe you have a very high concentration of chemicals being added to your water but I guess SW would have checked and confirmed that as they have to ensure concentrations by law.

Have you still got the old hose? Could you try the washers from that? I suppose you could also put a check valve on inlet to the washing machine and see if that cures it.

 

[longdogs]

Hi Borzio

I have had this problem before but never really got to the bottom of it.

If you do a forum search with all the words 'metallic, taste, water' there are several posts which might help.

 

[footprints]

Never come across it, but I suppose one option is to contact the machine maker to buy (a no doubt overpriced) original makers part.

Just a thought but if the washing machine connection is directly off the cold main to the cold tap water might be picking up a smell when it sits there so extending the valve away from the tee with perhaps a foot or so of pipe could give some sepration.

Quite unusual these days to have twin feeds on a machine.

 

[borzio]

Very weird, can't say I've ever heard of that one. Maybe you have a very high concentration of chemicals being added to your water but I guess SW would have checked and confirmed that as they have to ensure concentrations by law.

Have you still got the old hose? Could you try the washers from that? I suppose you could also put a check valve on inlet to the washing machine and see if that cures it.

Hi Madrab, thanks, SW said the chlorine was higher than normal but within limits as they were working on mains at Cardonald, tbh I've tasted neighbour's water in same block and I'm the only one with the problem. Sadly I chucked the old hose as I thought it was a simple replacement job. I've been told by the plumbers I mentioned that the check valve wouldn't solve the taste problem, but they also didn't believe the taste could migrate in the first place so it's an option I'll look into

 

[borzio]

Hi Borzio

I have had this problem before but never really got to the bottom of it.

If you do a forum search with all the words 'metallic, taste, water' there are several posts which might help.

Thanks squeaky I'll do that

 

[longdogs]

The water companies will always deny any problem they have caused.

 

[borzio]

Never come across it, but I suppose one option is to contact the machine maker to buy (a no doubt overpriced) original makers part.

Just a thought but if the washing machine connection is directly off the cold main to the cold tap water might be picking up a smell when it sits there so extending the valve away from the tee with perhaps a foot or so of pipe could give some sepration.

Quite unusual these days to have twin feeds on a machine.

Thanks footprints, I thought of Hotpoint but wouldn't mind paying if I knew they weren't just using the same as Screwfix etc...and robbing me for the priveledge.
I'll try the separation suggestion if I can't get the washers. Part of this problem is that the washers (which I think are the main culprit) really smell strongly after being in contact with the pipe water. This shouldn't happen I know, and it may be a chemist could say why there is a reaction.
It's great washing machine touch wood etc and does the biz without problems, would hate to pay a couple of hundred quid for a more modern one to get a single supply. My wife tried that on straight away but I threatened to get a scrubbing board and mangle (younger plumbers probably don't know what the heck I'm talking about here). I'll look up the model and see if it can take a cold feed only

 

[kidgreen61]

Can anybody possibly convince me how a washing machine hose can conceivably contaminate tap water?

 

[borzio]

Can anybody possibly convince me how a washing machine hose can conceivably contaminate tap water?

Hi kidgreen, I'd drink to that except the water is so foul with the red hose in ....but I know where you are coming from on this and wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't experienced it. According to the water suppliers it's the cheap hoses or washers that have their phenol removed by chlorine.........not being a chemist I don't know if they are telling porkies ( as if they would). From the experience of today, the hose came out the bag smelling normally, went on the machine tap and ended up smelling of plasticky rubber..or something like.
Personally I'm fed up to the back teeth with a problem that seems impossible to fix with bog standard hoses, have looked on sites for WRAS approved ones but don't even know if that is a solution or waste of money.
Incidentally the previous postings suggested in the reply (search:metallic,taste,water) above on this forum show that this has been seen before and it was never solved

 

[Madrab]

The plumbers advised that a check valve wouldn't solve the issue?

Well, if the problem is that the hose or the washer is contaminating the water supply, therefore the contamination is travelling back down the distribution pipe via the water and mixing with the mains cold. A single or double check valve is designed specifically to stop that exact event from happening, so for the plumber to say, out of hand, that it wouldn't work without trying is quite honestly.... a load of crap (excuse my french)!
I would be asking him to explain why it wouldn't work but that's just me

 

[longdogs]

Can anybody possibly convince me how a washing machine hose can conceivably contaminate tap water?

I'm as mythed as you are. All I know is that in my customer's case, all was well until the new washing machine was fitted. Then they had metallic tasting water. I tried fitting check valves and new hoses but the problem was still there.

 

[Madrab]

I tried fitting check valves and new hoses but the problem was still there.

Fair enuf, if check valves were fitted and problem still existed then can't argue with that.

 

[Nozzle]

I tried fitting check valves and new hoses but the problem was still there.

Fair enuf, if check valves were fitted and problem still existed then can't argue with that.

Then the contamination must be coming from somewhere else. If the water flows back the wrong way, taking contamination with it, then the NRV will close, preventing both water and contamination getting anywhere else.

Nozzle

 

[Madrab]

I tried fitting check valves and new hoses but the problem was still there.

Fair enuf, if check valves were fitted and problem still existed then can't argue with that.

Then the contamination must be coming from somewhere else. If the water flows back the wrong way, taking contamination with it, then the NRV will close, preventing both water and contamination getting anywhere else.

Nozzle

Well that was my thinking but the op has tested that when the new pipe is removed then the taste disappears, so proving that the pipe is causing it. Though squeaky had the same issue and tried check valves and the problem persisted.
Head scratcher