Water Tap to Refrigerator Upgrade ?

[DMY]

Noticed that my water line to my fridge does some serious shaking whenever I draw cold water from the fridge. (see attached photo) Are there any taps or connections that would be advisable to replace this setup ? thanks

 

[Jadnashua]

First off, those saddle valves are a leak waiting to happen. They're easy to install. They may not work once you try to turn them off for any reason.

The valves in a typical refrigerator are usually what is called a solenoid valve. Any quick acting valve can cause the hose/tubing/pipe to jump because they shut off fast. Think driving along and hitting a brick wall...the water, nor anything else, doesn't like to stop quickly - it wants to keep going. The way to fix this is with a hammer arrestor. These have an internal air bladder that the water bounces off of, to absorb the impact of the water stopping, sort of like an airbag, but designed to be reusable repeatedly. There are several manufacturers. This is one of the larger ones https://siouxchief.com/products/supply/arresters-and-trap-primers/arresters/minirester . I think you could use 660-GTR0. To work best, it should be as close to the valve at the frig as possible.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Dj2]

I prefer installing an angle stop with a 1/4" outlet for the ice-maker tube, instead of the undependable saddle thing you have.

 

[DMY]

Is there an "angle stop" that can be installed "in line". Looks like my setup is a tap that leads to another faucet somewhere

 

[OLD TIMER]

Enjoy.

 

[Jadnashua]

Adding something inline is a little tougher if the two ends of the pipe won't move enough to allow you to insert the ends into the new piece after you cut out a section. This may entail making another cut and a repair coupling. A repair coupling doesn't have an internal stop. You slide it over one end of the pipe all the way so it's flush with the end. Align the other piece, then slide the coupling so it is centered over the space, then solder it in place. An alternative would be to use something like a Sharkbite slip push coupling which does not use any solder. It can fill up to about a 2" gap. You put the slip end onto one pipe, get the other bits aligned, then using the tool provided to release the grippers, slip it back onto the stub completing the connection.

 

[Plumber69]

Noticed that my water line to my fridge does some serious shaking whenever I draw cold water from the fridge. (see attached photo) Are there any taps or connections that would be advisable to replace this setup ? thanks

I don't know why people are having troubles with the saddle valve. I've put them in 10 years ago and no problem.

 

[Reach4]

I put a saddle valve on when I installed a humidifier. Since it was galvanized pipe, I drilled the hole in the pipe first. No leak. Hot pipe. I left the existing saddle valve that was in place in a cold pipe. It turned off fine. I disconnected the output tubing on that. No leak there either. Very limited experience. I have experienced leaks on expansion pex and compression fittings. Bad technique on my part.

My plan is to replace that saddle valve with a tee etc when I replace that line with PEX. My motivation is to eliminate the galvanized.

 

[Jadnashua]

If you never open/close a saddle valve, it can last a long time. Once the rubber seal gets old, you tend to get leaks if you do.

 

[Terry]

I saw this the other day. The end that went to the kitchen faucet had blown out and was spraying water. I guess it wasn't the saddle clamps though.
And what's with all the tape I found? None of that was needed.

Do not do this at home folks!

Dahl makes some fittings for a double stop that gives you some options. That's the one on the left of the picture. The one on the right is Brasscraft.