Plumbing Mystery: No water from kitchen faucet for a brief period
November 25, 2022 10:26 AM Subscribe
I woke up this morning and turned on the kitchen faucet but no water (hot or cold) came out. It felt almost as though the faucet was decorative, not connected to anything. Everything else plumbing-related in the house worked fine. About 45 minutes later, the faucet worked as expected again with no sign that anything was ever wrong.
The temperature did not go below freezing last night outside, much less in the house, and the pipes under the sink did not feel abnormally cold to the touch. The faucet worked perfectly fine last night. The faucet itself is less than 5 years old. There is no (visible) evidence of any leaking anywhere.
This is in an individual house, not an apartment or condo, on the ground floor.
What could cause this? It works fine now but should I call a plumber to check things out?
The temperature did not go below freezing last night outside, much less in the house, and the pipes under the sink did not feel abnormally cold to the touch. The faucet worked perfectly fine last night. The faucet itself is less than 5 years old. There is no (visible) evidence of any leaking anywhere.
This is in an individual house, not an apartment or condo, on the ground floor.
What could cause this? It works fine now but should I call a plumber to check things out?
Maybe the diverter was stuck but then worked itself loose?
YouTube video
I love YouTube for this sort of thing. No matter what the problem is, someone has almost always made a video showing how to fix it.
posted by BoscosMom at 11:20 AM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
YouTube video
I love YouTube for this sort of thing. No matter what the problem is, someone has almost always made a video showing how to fix it.
posted by BoscosMom at 11:20 AM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
Maybe your water line is close to an outside wall, and froze, until the outside temperature rose enough for your house temp to thaw the pipe. I recommend keeping the under sink cabinet door open, this time of year, until you find out. It could also be a feeder pipe elsewhere, that freezes against an outside wall. They make foam pipe insulation you can retroactively slip over a problem area, it is cheap and easy.
posted by Oyéah at 11:33 AM on November 25, 2022
posted by Oyéah at 11:33 AM on November 25, 2022
Response by poster: Possibly the water was shut off at the street?
If it were, wouldn't the water have been off at other places in the house? Everything else worked fine.
Maybe your water line is close to an outside wall, and froze,
This was my initial thought but the temperature had not dropped below 5° Celsius the night before. It had been colder in previous days, but not significantly so, and we had an overnight temperature well below freezing a week or two ago with no issues. I guess that doesn't rule it out and insulating the pipe is a good idea regardless but I wouldn't have thought the pipe would have frozen in that mild of weather. We've had much, much colder temperatures in years past, too, without any problems.
posted by synecdoche at 12:57 PM on November 25, 2022
If it were, wouldn't the water have been off at other places in the house? Everything else worked fine.
Maybe your water line is close to an outside wall, and froze,
This was my initial thought but the temperature had not dropped below 5° Celsius the night before. It had been colder in previous days, but not significantly so, and we had an overnight temperature well below freezing a week or two ago with no issues. I guess that doesn't rule it out and insulating the pipe is a good idea regardless but I wouldn't have thought the pipe would have frozen in that mild of weather. We've had much, much colder temperatures in years past, too, without any problems.
posted by synecdoche at 12:57 PM on November 25, 2022
Seconding BoscosMom, my guess is an issue with the faucet - something's loose/stuck, and you need to fix or replace the faucet.
posted by jpeacock at 1:07 PM on November 25, 2022
posted by jpeacock at 1:07 PM on November 25, 2022
If it were, wouldn't the water have been off at other places in the house? Everything else worked fine.
. . . for a while. Standard practice where I live is to have a single faucet [usually the kitchen sink cold] attached directly to the rising main. Everything else [toilets, showers, baths, other sinks] is fed from a header tank in the roof-space / loft / attic. Our standard operating procedure is not to run any of these secondary sources if there is a power-cut disabling the well pump. Running header tanks dry is a fixable pain in the ass from air-locks.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:57 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
. . . for a while. Standard practice where I live is to have a single faucet [usually the kitchen sink cold] attached directly to the rising main. Everything else [toilets, showers, baths, other sinks] is fed from a header tank in the roof-space / loft / attic. Our standard operating procedure is not to run any of these secondary sources if there is a power-cut disabling the well pump. Running header tanks dry is a fixable pain in the ass from air-locks.
posted by BobTheScientist at 1:57 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
Remove the aerator from the faucet. Are there any particles stuck in it? Then they were probably jammed inside the faucet at some point.
posted by flimflam at 2:50 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by flimflam at 2:50 PM on November 25, 2022 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Update: it happened again, mid-afternoon today (10°C and sunny). I'll wait and see if it comes back on.
I did take the aerator off and it was apparently not the issue. I feel like it has to be somewhere in the faucet but I'm not super handy so I am nervous about taking it all apart and starting a project I can't easily complete, especially not knowing if that will solve the problem.
posted by synecdoche at 12:40 PM on November 26, 2022
I did take the aerator off and it was apparently not the issue. I feel like it has to be somewhere in the faucet but I'm not super handy so I am nervous about taking it all apart and starting a project I can't easily complete, especially not knowing if that will solve the problem.
posted by synecdoche at 12:40 PM on November 26, 2022
To rule the faucet in or out, turn off the water under the sink, and disconnect the hoses. Then turn the water back on, with a bucket or something to catch the water. If the water flows from the plumbing but not from the faucet, it has to be either the faucet or the hose. If you also get no water from the plumbing, you at least know it's an issue in the plumbing.
posted by yuwtze at 1:30 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by yuwtze at 1:30 PM on November 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
Do you have a well and a pump? If your water is on a well or pump, you may be out of water, but the cistern upstairs was charged before the drop in the water level. If you share water off a well is someone overpumping? Oh well, as they say.
posted by Oyéah at 6:36 PM on November 26, 2022
posted by Oyéah at 6:36 PM on November 26, 2022
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posted by SPrintF at 11:03 AM on November 25, 2022