UPDATE: Fixed! (hopefully) Friends, plumbers, handymen, lend me your ears

[blackdogdeek]

Yours truly was this weekend tasked with replacing our annoying kitchen faucet with a younger, sexier model (by now you've no doubt deduced that i'm both married and a homeowner as I am calling kitchen faucets sexy). In preparation for this task, I turned off 3 taps under the sink: 1 cold to faucet, 1 hot to faucet, 1 hot to dishwasher; all the while noticing that it took many turns to finally close each of them. after completing the arduous, non-standard Ikea faucet install (do not want) i turned the faucet taps back on and Bob was once again my uncle. However, when my human dishwasher went to run the automated dishwasher I realized I had forgotten to turn the dishwasher tap back on so I turned it back on but not to the same degree as I recall it being beforehand. Having finally done so we finally thought we were finally done. Alas, to our dismay, we found out last night that the dishwasher tap is now leaking, even when fully closed, and at differing degrees depending on its openness.

ATOT, what can be done to remedy this foulest of misfortunes?

Here are my uninitiated, unguided, possible remedies:

1. open the tap a lot, apply liberal amounts of plumber's tape, re-tighten the tap but not all the way
2. open the tap to what I think was the amount of openness at the start (ie - a lot)
3. call the dishwasher installation people (installation was last year) and complain that the dishwasher tap is leaking. current dishwasher is a younger, sexier replacement for a previous dishwasher (ie - the dishwasher tap already existed).
4. call a plumber

ATOT, I humbly ask for your omnipotent, omniscient guidance.


CLIFFS/TL;DR:

1. dishwasher tap leaks
2. x
3. dishwasher tap no longer leaks

solve for x. show your work.

UPDATE: the mrs. opened the tap all the way and it appears to have STOPPED leaking. weird! anyway, thanks for the suggestions, everyone! hopefully, we will remain leak-free.

 

[Greenman]

It's most likely the packing nut or the packing itself. Right under the handle you twist there should be a nut on the valve stem, try tightening that nut a bit. If that doesn't work you might have to replace the packing.
If it's not leaking around the valve stem, it's coming from the compression fitting that goes to the dishwasher. I doubt that's the case because you shouldn't have had to remove that fitting.

 

[DrPizza]

^^^ What Greenman said. I've got nothing to add, except turn off the water further back in the chain (possibly to the whole house) before messing with the valve stem on the shutoff valve to the dishwasher.

 

[highland145]

^^3rd

 

[janas19]

*blinks*

Wow, that was a long post for such a simple problem.

I used to work as a plumbers tech. IIRC, what you should do is just replace the valve. Go to the street level water main meter. It's under an iron grate and has a dial that spins whenever water is used. Use a water main key to shut that off. Then you go back inside and turn on the faucet do verify the water is off. Then use a monkey wrench to loosen the valve. Be VERY CAREFUL when turning the bolt because those lines ARE flimsy (apply the pressure firmly but smoothly in a steady direction). When that's off, just switch the valve with a $5 matching piece from Home Depot.

The most expensive thing will be a water main key. I think it costs like $20. But once you have it, you can be a plumbing rockstar 😛

That should fix it, for about $25.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Valves have rubber/fiber washers in them that degrade, dry out, and deform over time. When you open/close any valve that has remained in a certain state for an extended period of time, you can destroy the washer and it will never operate correctly again. My guess is that when you closed the shutoff valves the washers had been deformed into their open state for so long and dried out that way that when you re-opened them they developed the leak you are having problems with because they are no longer "rubbery".

You can replace this internal washer as Greenman said (cheapest if you can find the part and the valve actually opens), or just replace the entire valve (easiest, and still cheap), either way you will need to shut off the water to the entire line/house.

 

[blackdogdeek]

It's most likely the packing nut or the packing itself. Right under the handle you twist there should be a nut on the valve stem, try tightening that nut a bit. If that doesn't work you might have to replace the packing.
If it's not leaking around the valve stem, it's coming from the compression fitting that goes to the dishwasher. I doubt that's the case because you shouldn't have had to remove that fitting.

thanks i'll give this a try if it continues to leak after the mrs' fix.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

*blinks*

Wow, that was a long post for such a simple problem.

I used to work as a plumbers tech. IIRC, what you should do is just replace the valve. Go to the street level water main meter. It's under an iron grate and has a dial that spins whenever water is used. Use a water main key to shut that off. Then you go back inside and turn on the faucet do verify the water is off. Then use a monkey wrench to loosen the valve. Be VERY CAREFUL when turning the bolt because those lines ARE flimsy (apply the pressure firmly but smoothly in a steady direction). When that's off, just switch the valve with a $5 matching piece from Home Depot.

The most expensive thing will be a water main key. I think it costs like $20. But once you have it, you can be a plumbing rockstar 😛

That should fix it, for about $25.

You don't think they'll be at the very least a master shutoff valve in the house? Though I guess he could run into the very same problem with that valve. It could be a Hydra!

 

[SphinxnihpS]

UPDATE: the mrs. opened the tap all the way and it appears to have STOPPED leaking. weird! anyway, thanks for the suggestions, everyone! hopefully, we will remain leak-free.

Missed this...

Those valves are meant to be all the way open or closed. Says so on the box! 😛

 

[blackdogdeek]

Missed this...

Those valves are meant to be all the way open or closed. Says so on the box! 😛

lol. I freely admit my ignorance in such matters.

 

[DaTT]

Those type of valves always leak after time. I think the reason is they rarely get used and the seals dry out. Anyways, your best bet is to replace ALL of them in your house with ball valves. If you don't feel like doing that, you can almost all the time find the "sweet spot" on them where it won't leak. I have a few left to replace.

 

[janas19]

Valves have rubber/fiber washers in them that degrade, dry out, and deform over time. When you open/close any valve that has remained in a certain state for an extended period of time, you can destroy the washer and it will never operate correctly again. My guess is that when you closed the shutoff valves the washers had been deformed into their open state for so long and dried out that way that when you re-opened them they developed the leak you are having problems with because they are no longer "rubbery".

You can replace this internal washer as Greenman said (cheapest if you can find the part and the valve actually opens), or just replace the entire valve (easiest, and still cheap), either way you will need to shut off the water to the entire line/house.

Missed this...

Those valves are meant to be all the way open or closed. Says so on the box! 😛

Ok, I feel stupid. I told you to replace the whole valve, not even understanding that they should be fully open or closed, because of the rubber/fiber washer.

😱