# I messed with the water line valve and now my sink doesn't work



## Hippocampus (May 31, 2009)

Sorry to come here and post a question as a first post but I'm in a bit of a situation...  

I was attempting to repair an instant hot water dispenser as it wasn't working.  I opened the little hatch on the unit and adjusted the thermostat and hit the reset button as it said to do on the website - nothing happened.  I wasn't going to do anything more with that and just call to have it serviced, but for some reason I thought I'd try and turn the valves on the water line off and on again just to make sure I had tried everything.  I did and it still didn't work.  Then I turned on the regular sink faucet to wash my hands and was a bit surprised that the water flow was down to a drizzle. 

I checked and made sure the little oval shaped handles/ knobs were pointing up completely (as they were before I messed with them), and turned them all the way off and then on again, but it's the same story.  I've left the sink running for now hoping it'll start flowing again and that there's just air in the line or something but I'm not real sure what to do...  Just in a bit of a spot given that it's the kitchen sink and the dishwasher is connected to the same water line 

Did I just make myself a huge expensive problem or am I overlooking something?  And sorry this is such an unprofessional question, I should have known better than to try and mess with this stuff on my own...


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## Redwood (Jun 1, 2009)

Try unscrewing the aerator off the end of the faucet and see what happens.
There is probably some debris caught in it blocking the flow. Maybe part of the washer from the stop valve you turned off.


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## Hippocampus (Jun 1, 2009)

Thanks for the tip!

I ended up taking off the sprayer attachment and letting it just soak in some CLR, and once I finally got it all reassembled it started working just fine.

Thanks again


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## Nestor_Kelebay (Jun 2, 2009)

Hippocampus:

       You can save 90 percent of the cost of maintaining your home by just doing the simple things yourself.



> Did I just make myself a huge expensive problem or am I overlooking something? And sorry this is such an unprofessional question, I should have known better than to try and mess with this stuff on my own...



No, you just learned one of those "simple" things.  A plugged aerator on a faucet will prevent the faucet from working properly.  That is, if the water can't get out of the faucet, it'll seem like the faucet isn't working properly anymore.  I can guarantee that whenever you come across this same problem in future, you'll think of checking for a plugged aerator or sprayer.

It's called a "leaning experience", and they can be terrifying.  That helps immensely in the memory process.

But, still, what you learned was one of those "simple things" that counts as part of the 90 percent.  Someone else woulda called a plumber and paid for a service call only to find out that the sprayer attachment nozzle was clogged.  See how some of this stuff can initially be difficult to solve, and turn out to be blindingly obvious?

PS: Maybe don't use harsh cleaners like acids too liberally.  You wouldn't have done any harm to your sprayer attachment by soaking it in CLR, but the better way would have been to simply clean the crap out of the sprayer nozzle by hand.  That's cuz there's lots of stuff (like plastic and/or particles of metal) that wouldn't have been removed by the CLR, and could still be plugging some of the holes in your spray attachment.   It's the same with drain cleaning chemicals; they're best left unpurchased.  Put the money toward mechanically clearing the drain with a snake or jetter instead.  Those ways are sure to clear the drain, even though the up front costs are higher.


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