What is this plumbing fitting and can I turn it off?? Have leak.

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › What is this plumbing fitting and can I turn it off?? Have leak.

1 | 2

mentalinc

3384 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1023

Trusted

#3010596 16-Dec-2022 08:29

fe31nz:

mentalinc:

Also be careful as it looks like there is electricity there wrapped with some electrical tape only.
Water plus electricity never a good outcome.

Those green wires are the grounds for the metal of the plumbing. They are required by law - all plumbing metal must be grounded to prevent horrible electrical disasters if a live wire touches the plumbing. So they are just as safe to touch as the plumbing itself. And they must be maintained in good order - I do not like the look of that messy taped up bit at all! And having them just floating around like that does not seem a good idea either - they could get ripped out if something catches on them.

Agree they 'should' be the ground, but given the quality of the finish, not sure the person who installed it knows where to use green etc! and given the confidence of OP on the tap side, worth a point out.

CPU: AMD 5900x | RAM: GSKILL Trident Z Neo RGB F4-3600C16D-32GTZNC-32-GB | MB: Asus X570-E | GFX: EVGA FTW3 Ultra RTX 3080Ti| Monitor: LG 27GL850-B 2560x1440

Quic: https://account.quic.nz/refer/473833 R473833EQKIBX

Handle9

11925 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 9675

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#3010597 16-Dec-2022 08:32

JayADee:
Thanks everybody!

I have turned the blue handle clockwise to turn the water off to the dishwasher.

The leak has stopped. We do have Teflon tape and could no doubt grab a new washer from Mitre10.

I figure odds are the rubber washer is stuffed (given the age of the dish washer and it’s fittings).

My spouse wants a new kitchen mixer anyway so I'll get the plumber to do both at the same time. Neither of us are keen on installing a new tap without the right tube wrench.

Replace the washer, don’t use thread tape. It’s a plastic nut so over time thread tape can make it split.

JayADee

2236 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 483

#3011203 17-Dec-2022 10:52

Thanks for the advice re: ground wire and tap washer and where to buy the tap wrenches. It isn't so much lack of confidence as age and flexibility issues. We replaced the last mixer ourselves and it went fine but we're not keen on doing it again. Plumber is coming next week.

The tape on the wire is just old tape, no idea why it's there, took it off.

I'll get the plumber to advise on the green ground wire as well.

I remember at the time the plumber commenting attaching this ground wire to anything wasn't required.
Pretty sure it isn't for the dishwasher but is a spare ground that used to be required to be connected to a pipe.

Before the dishwasher was put in the house had been re-wired entirely. Everything in the kitchen was hooked up by sparkles and plumbers.

1 | 2