[GailAnne]

Water is dribbling into the washer; at first it was the cold; I cleaned the screen and it was better but only for a short time; now it is the hot also; one additional clue is that if I turned the water faucet off and then on again it sometimes gets a good flow but it is inconsistent. Any ideas?

[drtom4444]

Your lines are stopped up. I see this all the time and have even found perfectly good machines by the road because the screens were stopped up. It sounds like the valves are stopped up with scale which may mean that you need to turn the water off and clean them out after removing them. DrTom4444

[GailAnne]

Dr Tom4444: Thanks for your reply. When you say clean them out, do you mean the screens in front of water inlet valves? If so, I have done that unkinking the hoses also helped some. How do you know if the valves are bad? Thanks in advance.
Gail

[GailAnne]

Thanks DrTom: I'm wondering if you meant by clean them out if you meant the screens or the actual valves. If you mean the valves, is it easy to clean them out?
Thank you.

[drtom4444]

You can take the valves apart to clean them out. Many times scale will get in them and stop small holes that the needle valves seat in. The solenoid pulls up a slender metal rod with a pointed rubber end which seats in a hole to stop the flow of water and seat the rubber diaphragm on the bigger valve seat. Just carefully take it apart and clean it and put it back together like you took it apart and it should work fine. Sometimes the plunger will stick, too. It's very simple to do. DrTom4444

[GailAnne]

Okay I have another problem now: the hot water washing machine faucet drips when I turn it all the way off. I would just like to completely turn it off and just wash with cold now that that is working but I don't know how to do that? Help!

[drtom4444]

These valves are many times very cheap. You will need to turn off the water and replace the valve. Otherwise just leave it hooked to washing machine and it should be okay. DrTom4444

[GailAnne]

Dr. T: Okay, so I hooked up the hose to the machine and now there is water dripping very slowly into the washer when it is not on. I suspect this is because of the leaky faucet. Since I don't know how to replace the faucet, could I just cap it since I don't intend to use the hot water for laundry anyway. OR does this mean that the water inlet valve has gone bad and I should get ahead and replace it? Let me know your thoughts. I appreciate your help.

[Handyman2007]

Most likely the internal mixing valve is clogged with sediment from hard water. Replacement of the mixing valve isn't too difficult if you are a little mechanically inclined.

[drtom4444]

If water is dripping into the washing machine when the valve is not supposed to be open then you need to either replace the valve set on the washing machine or take it apart and clean it, soaking the parts in Lime Away or vinegar and reassembling. It's so easy to do that I would try cleaning it first because with hard water you may have to do this again at any time. There is no need to replace the valves every time a little scale clogs up one of the little holes in the valve. Set up something where you can hook water hoses to the valve and supply 110 volts to each solenoid coil to see that the valves work before re-installing. Just get an old lamp cord and put a push-on connector on each wire; hook up water and plug in wire for a second to see if it opens the valve with power and closes it when you unplug it. If not take it back apart and fix the problem. You can find a diagram at: http://ebookbrowse.com/dole-valve-ffv-exploded-drawing-pdf-d65753632 . DrTom4444

[Handyman2007]

If it is only the hot water supple faucet, it could be as simple as replacing the washer in the faucet. Turn off the hot water supply to the faucet, take the faucet apart and take it to a hardware store and get a washer for it. Often times that washer just flattens out and won't seal.