Old washing machine (two pipes) into new piping (one pipe)

ra9jd

So I have a washing machine area set up which has been plumbed for one pipe into the washing machine (cold water) however have just picked up an older washing machine that takes two (hot and cold) 
Is it possible to use the older machine with the newer style plumbing or should I look for a newer machine with one pipe?
Thanks for responses 

shiraz99

Unless the old machine can run off the cold feed on it's own, which I doubt, then you're either going to have to route a hot water feed to it or get a new machine.

You might get away with using a Y piece washing machine connector but some programmes may take longer to run, if you leave the hot water hose disconnected then some programmes may not work at all.

Northern_Wanderer

You can add a hot supply, just tap into the hot pipe. I think you get self-tapping valves. You might need a plumber. Must be quite an old machine though as they haven't been made with hot and cold supply for a while.

ra9jd

shiraz99 said:

Unless the old machine can run off the cold feed on it's own, which I doubt, then you're either going to have to route a hot water feed to it or get a new machine.

Thanks Mr 99. 
I'm guessing the new machine option is easier/cheaper/better in the long run 

sew_what

You can use it with just the cold water feed - the washer should heat up the water.

shiraz99

Something like this might work:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/washing-machine-y-piece/81000?cm_sp=managedredirect-_-plumbing-_-washingmachineypiece&_requestid=280397

Northern_Wanderer

I'm thinking that this machine might not be very energy efficient and a newer one would cost a lot less to run. Heating the water from cold in a machine that's designed for hot and cold fill might use more energy than a cold fill machine.

theoretica

Or, of course, always do cold washes.  I believe there are special detergents...

Northern_Wanderer

theoretica said:

Or, of course, always do cold washes.  I believe there are special detergents...

Cold washes does not kill bacteria, fungus or moth on towels or bedding, regardless of what detergent is used.

EssexExile

As Sew_What says it may work with only one feed, but if it doesn't then use the y-piece shiraz99 linked to and feed both inlets with cold.

jrawle

You should definitely use some sort of splitter to connect both feeds to the cold supply. This is actually less of an issue that you might think, as often the water from a hot supply tap would come through cold in any case due to cold water in the length of pipe, etc. so the machine has to be able to heat water from cold. This is one of the reasons why modern washing machines are cold fill only, as using hot water didn't really make sense.

The programmes you use may not even use the hot water inlet, but even so, you should connect it to something otherwise you risk damaging the machine if it tries to fill from the hot feed but it's not connected (the manual will almost certainly caution not to operate the machine without both water supplies being connected).