No hot water in only ONE faucet in the house

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rjensen11

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Good evening. I'm new here so sorry if this is not in the right place.

Just installed a new faucet in our kitchen. Right now I am not getting any hot water out of the faucet.
I have checked everything I can think of. Here is what I've tried:

1. I have shut off the flow from the cold valve allowing only the hot valve to feed the faucet. It is warmer than the straight cold, but barely. Water pressure is fine.
2. I have tested all the hot water in the house, the three other faucets in the bathrooms, the faucets in the showers and tubs...all getting nice hot water.
3. The dishwasher that is fed from a valve just below the one that is not working is running hot as normal.
4. I unhooked the valve from the faucet and let it run unattached to the faucet, and it is still running cold.

The faucet worked fine up until i put the new one in. It makes no sense to me at all.

Any ideas? It seems so strange that it is limited to that one valve, and that it is not quite as cold as the other but barely...i mean barely. If i let it sit for a while and then turn it on I can get a tiny glimpse of hope... maybe for a half second it is warmer, then right back to cold.
 
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If I am understanding you correctly, this sounds really odd.

Just to make certain we are on the same page, when you say "valve" you mean the shutoff valve under the sink, that you would turn off to work on the faucet. And when you say faucet, you mean the faucet itself, that you would use every day. Correct?
 
Yes, when I said valve I was referring to the shutoff valve under the sink.
Yes, when I said faucet I was referring to the actually faucet that I would use every day.

I'm stumped. Perplexed and annoyed. I can't begin to understand what the problem is.
Thanks for taking the time to try and wrap your brain around this one...
 
Like phishfood I also find this very strange. Especially since you have hot water to the dishwasher. It may be that the hot water you think your getting to the dishwasher may be being heated by the heating element in the dishwasher it self. Try disconnecting the line to the dishwasher and running it into a bucket to see if it is actually hot at that point.

John
 
Hi John. When I ran the dishwasher I did feel the copper line going to the unit. It was nice and toasty warm.

When I get home from work today I'll disconnect and run it to a bucket to make sure I'm covering all my bases.

Thanks again to anyone who had taken the time to look at this. I really appreciate it.
 
Do both the dishwasher and hot supply valve for the kitchen faucet attach to the same pipe inside of the cabinet, or are there two seperate pipes feeding the two shutoff valves?

Can you post a picture of the piping arrangement under the sink?

Is the sink located near a hydronic heating unit, or the water heater?
 
They are two separate pipes, at least coming out of the back of the cabinet, they are not visibly spliced. Each has their own shut off valves, three total under the sink. One hot and one cold for the faucet, one hot for the dishwasher.

I'll get a pic up tonight.

The water heater is in the garage...probably 50 feet or so away, maybe a bit more.
 
Before replacement, remove the hot supply line and place it into a bucket and turn it on. If you get hot water, then yes, the faucet is trash (or needs rebuilding).
 
In the original post, under #4, the OP mentioned unhooking the valve from the faucet and letting it run, still only getting slightly warmer water. If I understood him correctly, that would locate the problem somewhere other than the faucet. That is what makes this so puzzling to me.
 
So here are the pics to get the idea of how it is set up.

The faucet is brand new, but above it being new (I know you can get some duds from the factory) i still get cold water even when the cold water valve under the sink is in the off position, so the only water feeding the faucet is from the hot water valve. I have run the valve unattached to the faucet and the water is still cold.

I tested the dishwasher again...and that water is running hot. So odd...

photo 1.JPG

photo 2.jpg
 
where do you live?
I ask because what you are experiencing happens in colder climates such as where I live when pipes are incorrectlly run in exterior walls or other cold partitions.

disconnect the hot and run it into the drain... turn it on full and wait, does the water get hot after some time ?

you say that the dishwasher runs hot ? why not just split the line above the angle stop valve? you would then have hot in the faucet and the dishwasher and since the dishwasher only runs periodically you wouldnt likely even notice a loss in flow for the faucet even with the dishwasher running.
 
What make model faucet did you install? Could it be one of the new touch on faucets? These faucets have built in check valves to prevent the hot water mixing with the cold. If it is one of these you may have a faulty check valve.

John
 
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I live in San Antonio. Its been pretty warm here still. I may have to splice the dishwasher off if I can figure this out. That was my last ditch effort...

The faucet is a Delta...regular type faucet, with the retractable nozzle thing. I don't think this has the check valve in it.

I don't think we have a recirculation system...is there an easy way for me to check? From what I can tell just a plain old water heater
 
You would need to look for a plugged in pump adjacent to the water heater. My hope was the recirc line was the line you are drawing for the hot water. I'm just thinking out loud for a solution to this major head scratching problem.

Is it possible to crawl around to look at the routing of your plumbing?
 
It's the faucet, turn off stops. Take the internal parts out, then turn on hot side stop and see if you got pressure. Push solder down the hot side to clear debris. If no luck replace faucet, good luck.
 
So there I was, celebrating my daughter's 25th birthday at a restaurant, and all I could think about was this thread. (no comments please!) First of all, looking at your pictures, usually both supply valves under the sink are positioned similar, but yours looks like one is closed and the other is open. Now I'm sure this has been already checked, so we will dismiss this. Secondly, I can pretty much follow the cold water supply line leading to the faucet, but I am unable to follow the hot water line. Could there be a kink in this line? Lastly, I would recommend exchanging the hot and cold supply lines to the faucet and see if this provides you with hot water (out the cold side obviously). This would at least isolate the problem and rule out a bad or defective faucet.

Also, it appears that you have two hot water supply valves (one strictly for the D/W). Is this correct?
 
Defective faucet has been out ruled. I have switched the lines with the same results.
In the picture that was one of my tests to have the cold off and feed only hot to the faucet.

You are correct, there is a separate hot water supply valve for the dishwasher that works just fine.

Sorry this issue has started infiltrating your personal life, it is maddening.
 
There is only one expansion left you have a cross connection some were in the system. To find it turn on the hot water at the sink and starting from the heater feel along the hot water line to see at what point is starts to cool down. When on some single lever faucets the cartridge fails it can mix cold water with the hot.

John
 

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