How to add a hose to washing machine taps?

[elliekay]

Hi I want to use my hot and cold washing machine taps to add a hose attachment to wash my dog in warm water as well as cold water. is there something that can be added on to combine the 2 taps and click on a hose attachment?

[MitchellMc]

Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @elliekay. It's great to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about connecting to washing machine taps.

Does this connection need to be attached while your washing machine hoses are connected? Or, is there no washing machine connected?

First off, we'll need to see what type of taps you have, so if you can please post an image, that would be greatly appreciated. Let me know if you need a hand uploading an image.

If there's a washing machine connected, then there is no off-the-shelf product that will achieve what you're looking for. You'll need to intercept the water lines before the washing machine hoses and add an independent valve to control water flow to the handheld shower. Something like the Pope 2 Way Brass Threaded Tap would get us most of the way there, but these are rated for external use in the garden. Once the two diverters are connected to your washing machine taps, you can connect them with a couple of short lengths of garden hose, splicing those together with a Pope 12mm 3 Way Coupler and have your dog washing hose out of that. The two free connections on the diverters can be used to attach your washing machine's hoses. I do need to stress that the diverters are designed for external use, and click-on garden fittings typically shouldn't be used indoors as they are more prone to failure than threaded metal plumbing fittings.

If you're washing your dog on a regular basis, what are your thoughts on having a plumber install a shower handset and diverter on the wall? That way, all the connections would be behind the wall, and it would be a much neater installation.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[elliekay]

Hi Mitchell

 this is a pic of what's there. 

[MitchellMc]

Hi @elliekay,

Since you have the washing machine hooked up, you'd need to split the hot and cold into two lines, as described above. The Pope 2 Way Brass Threaded Tap will do that and allow the dog washing hose to be isolated and turned off when the washing machine is in use.

Let me mention some of our knowledgeable members @RSS, @TedBear and @Jewelleryrescue, to see if they have any thoughts. 

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Mitchell

[TedBear]

Hi @elliekay , the solution offered by @MitchellMc looks pretty sound to me. 

Even though you'd be using snap on fittings for the dog-wash part, those brass taps will be turned off after use, thus preventing flooding risk if the fittings jump off and also allow you to regulate the temperature for the dog.