Third water supply valve

[clint]

Since the house was built, I've never been able to consistently get cold water out of my kitchen faucet. I blamed the faucet, but after replacing it and experiencing the same problem, I tested the cold water supply line and it ran warm. I noticed another (third) supply valve coming out of the back of the cabinet, opened it and it ran cold, so I bought a longer supply hose (to reach it) and hooked it up to the faucet.

I get cold water now, but the water tastes terrible. I assumed it would flush out over a couple weeks, but it remains. I tried to squirm under the house to see where the supply pipes are coming from, but just couldn't get a good look.

Any ideas why there would be three supply valves, and is the bad taste going to flush out eventually?

Thanks for any input.

 

[Mr_David]

Some times they put 2 hot supply valves. One for the dish washer instead of using a dual stop valve.
Is it a copper or galv steel pipe sysytem.

 

[clint]

Thanks for asking which type of pipe ... because I didn't know I went back under the house and spent an hour tracing the (copper) pipes throughout the house. What I found was the three valves are:

HOT
COLD
COLD (Water Softener)

So, the bad tasting water is the unsoftened cold, which really only runs to the outside spigots as far as I can tell.

Not sure why the softened Cold is warm at that faucet and none of the others, but your inquiry led to understanding why three valves.

Thanks.

 

[phishfood]

The hot water might be crossing over through a single handle lavatory faucet or through a tub/shower valve. You can check the lav faucets by shutting off the supply valves under the lavatories, and then checking your kitchen faucet. If that solves the problem, then the cartridge in the lavatory faucet is bad.

 

[clint]

Wow, thank you phishfood! I would never have believed a faucet in a bathroom would affect the kitchen faucet ... you were absolutely right! It was just as you described. After three years, this problem is finally resolved!

 

[Mr_David]

It was probably a Moen faucet that was crossing over.
Another way to check for the same type of cross over is to turn off the supply to water heater and open a faucet to hot only and the go listen to the other fixtures and usually you can hear it passing through the faucet.

 

[phishfood]

Wow, thank you phishfood! I would never have believed a faucet in a bathroom would affect the kitchen faucet ... you were absolutely right! It was just as you described. After three years, this problem is finally resolved!

Actually, thank the poster just underneath you, Mr. David, as I first heard of a single handle lavatory faucet crossing hot/cold from him, on this forum. I have chased a couple of these issues before, and always found them either in a hot water heating unit or a future installation rough being looped together.

It is really great that I could use something that I learned on here to help out on this very same forum.

Cheers to Mr. David!

 

[clint]

Having access to all this expertise is really unbelievable. A big thank you to Mr David for sharing his experience/knowledge ... without which I'd still be cursing the kitchen faucet everytime I walked by it.