We had a leak in the galvanized pipe that drains water from our kitchen sink and dishwasher, plumber came and repaired the leak (which was located in the wall behind the sink and the dishwasher) but after the plumber left there is no cold water. I traced the problem to a piece under the sink that comes down from the cold water pipe. There is a red lever on this piece is in the off position, when I turn it down to the on position, water starts leaking out from an area near the bottom of the piece where a gasket is located (circled in pink). Underneath the gasket is a small piece it is attached to and it feels like it is threaded but it does not come off. The red lever has a label on it that suggests it is for turning on/off gas lines (this is not a gas pipe though). Any thoughts on how to remedy this problem so that I can re-establish cold water in our kitchen would be greatly appreciated!




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The piece with the red handle is a valve. Like you say, if the handle is lined up with the valve body and pipe it is connected to it is ON, if the handle is crossways it is OFF.

If this red-handled valve is where your cold water to the kitchen sink comes thru then it must have been "open" (turned ON) before the plumber came to fix the drain leak since you had cold water back then. So it would seem he closed the valve for some reason (maybe to work on your drain, get his wrench or hands in there) and then forgot to turn it back on. I would call him up and tell him you don't have cold water at your sink and you did have it before his work, could he please come back out and fix this new problem. If you turn on the red valve and cold water is restored to working then you know for sure that red valve is what controls it. If the leak is not too bad you can place a bucket or bowl to catch the leaking water until you get it fixed, or turn the red valve off unless you need to use the cold water. It is odd that the plumber didn't see this leaking when he was there, unless something happened he wasn't aware of since the valve was turned off and he never turned the valve back on.

Gas valves are made of brass, same as water valves. Sometimes people will install a gas valve in a water line, it should work ok.

Your photo is a little small for me to see the detail you circled so I increased the size but doing that makes it a little blurry, but hopefully this is helpful. That appears to maybe be a compression fitting below the red valve, maybe it just needs tightening. But I'm not sure about that.





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The fitting is a Sharkbite and in that location it is going to be very difficult to remove and replace.

Thanks hj, I didn't recognize the Sharkbite. It looks like someone added it to run cold water piping back into the wall to another location. Is that the sink cold water supply to the left of the Sharkbite, with a blue flex line? There is another water valve in the background, presumably the hot water supply, it also has a blue flex line.



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It looks like a shark bite cap resting on top of a elbow.

What a cluster.

It's a SharkBite cap so the valve should be closed anyway- dead end. Can't determine by your photo why you would have no cold water but it's probably best to call the plumber back.

stuckinlodi, hj, Curly, m&m - thank you all for your comments - I was able to resolve the issue with your help. It was not the sharkbite. As pointed out - that blue flex line does connect to the cold water and I just found that valve was closed. I opened it up and cold water came back. THANKS!!!!



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Sharkbite = Clown Plumbing