The hot water from your faucet may be coming out fine, but the cold water isn’t. In effect, you can’t use it to wash your hands or clean fruits and veggies in the kitchen.
This guide identifies some of the main reasons why your cold water isn’t running: high water pressure, poor heat trap installation, copper pipes, and a defective thermostat.
We’ll also advise you on how to fix them yourself. Thus, you might not need to get and spend highly for a plumber—unless the plumbing issue is complex.
1) High Water Pressure
The first reason why you’re not getting any cold water from your faucet or shower is high water pressure. A house with high water pressure run the risk of damage to its entire plumbing system.
While the water can get hot and powerful, cold water may not come out for you to use as you do normally.
When this happens, you should turn off your water supply or water main and then adjust the water pressure to the right amount.
For this, you will have to loosen the screw and locking nut with a screwdriver and wrench, respectively. Do so counterclockwise to decrease the water pressure and clockwise to increase it.
2) Poor Heat Trap Install
It may also be due to an incorrect heat trap installation done by your plumber or yourself just recently.
The only place the heat trap should be is in the water heater inlet. Otherwise, hot water will trespass to the cold water line, which ends up in only warm water flowing out of your faucet.
In this case, you can perform a DIY repair by replacing the existing pipe with a gooseneck one (a long and bent connector) and insulating it so that less heat will escape through the pipes.
But if you aren’t confident fixing it on your own, you can just let a qualified professional handle it for you.
3) Using Copper Pipes
Even up to now, copper pipes are used in many homes because of their style, durability, and corrosion resistance.
However, this material heats up quite fast and transfers the heat to nearby fixtures and incoming cold water. And that results in your supply water becoming hot or warm.
But don’t worry. The warm water should cool down after a while, ready for you to use. If you use cold water often and don’t want to wait, consider replacing your copper lines with steel or plastic ones.
4) Defective Thermostat
Your water heater may come with a thermostat, and if only hot water is strangely coming out, it may have become damaged through daily use.
As a result, all of the stored cold water will boil, preventing any cold tap water from reaching your hands.
So if this is your situation, know that different issues can befall a water heater’s thermostat.
Here’s what you can do about it: try replacing the thermostat batteries, double-checking the settings, or wiping dirt and dust buildup on it to allow the sensor to work properly for cold water to come.
