Weak Ice Maker Supply Line

[sullim4]

What are my options if I have weak water pressure behind my fridge?

We bought a house about three years ago, and the owner did a crappy job of installing a water supply line for the old fridge's ice maker. It's soft 1/4" copper tube coming out of the floor with no visible connection to the house supply. We've since upgraded the fridge to include a water dispenser, and the flow is just not adequate - bypassing the fridge completely and trying to fill a glass directly from the line takes over a minute.

I suspect that the root issue here is that either the line is kinked (and it appears to be right where it comes out of the floor), or a saddle valve was used which severely restricts the flow, or both.

It seems like I have three options to fix this, although if there are any others, I'd certainly love to hear them:

- Replace the existing line and remove the saddle valve, if it exists. This is problematic because, as I said, the line just comes out of the floor and the connection to the house supply is somewhere in the floor. This is on the second floor of a split entry home - beneath this is the master bathroom, the likely source of the supply line. I'd really rather avoid having to rip open the ceiling of the master bath on a quest to find this line, and then have to patch the ceiling up. On top of the annoyances with the drywall, there's no way to know how this line snakes around - perhaps it goes down through one of the walls.

- Abandon the old line, install a new line. This is the option I'm leaning towards. The problem with this is that the fridge is on the other side of the kitchen from the sink, so I am going to have to get creative about hiding the line across an entryway. Any tips here would be appreciated.

- I see that storage pressure tanks are used in RO water systems to increase water pressure. Would this be an option in a situation like mine? I have enough space to put something like this in: https://www.amazon.com/Gallon-RO-Expansion-Tank-Reservoir/dp/B079Z1R4GD?ref_=ast_sto_dp

 

[WorthFlorida]

Depending when the home was built, it was very typical to run copper line from a saddle valve if the home was built before ice makers were common. The saddle valve if properly installed and the valve open would not restrict the water flow. With the copper coming out of the floor there is no wiggle room and when the fridge is rolled out and in, it is very likely the tubing was kinked. Check at all the sink cold water stop valves. As you stated probably the master bath and look for a saddle valve. It is also possible a stop valve was added or one of the stop valves is a double. Look around the water heater's cold water pipe.

My son's house had a water line burst one day while at work. He couldn't find the shut off for it so he had to shut off the main and lived a few days without water. I was a 1000 miles away from home so I couldn't help. A plumber found the saddle valve in the main bathroom sink on the other side of the kitchen wall. The clowns who installed it were ones who remodeled the kitchen by the previous owner, and the refrigerator was moved to the opposite side of the kitchen. The real problem was the idiots ran nylon tubing (from an ice maker kit) inside the wall, up to the the attic and then down the wall on the other side. If they used copper it would not have been a problem. The fix was a new copper line was run the same way.

I do not think an RO will help any.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[sullim4]

Thanks for the reply! I checked all the angle stops at the sinks - no "doubles" - they just serve the connected fixture.

One detail I left out - the downstairs master bath below the kitchen is an add-on. They took the rec room/family room downstairs and converted it into a master bed and bath. What I suspect is that either they or a previous owner installed the saddle, then drywalled over it without adding access to the valve itself.

I drilled a small hole next to the tubing coming out of the floor and stuck a cheapo endoscope camera I picked up online down there to check it out. The copper tubing definitely runs between the joists but I couldn't get it far enough down there to see anything further. That's what makes this particular situation difficult to figure out - it seems like exploratory cutting into the drywall is my only option and I don't want to be the guy with a bunch of random cuts to patch in my ceiling.

That's why I think the new line is a better bet. There is a hole for the gas line running from a utility room downstairs to behind the stove. I could easily stick 1/4" tubing in that hole and route it into the kitchen, and as an added bonus, there's an unused 3/8" angle stop from an old laundry sink in the utility room just waiting to be used. My concern with this approach is that the run would be pretty long - in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 feet to the fridge, and it has to go up one story. I'd be concerned about whether flow would be impacted and I'd also have to deal with finding a way to hide the line as it crosses the entryway to the kitchen.

 

[WorthFlorida]

The main problem with a new line is he old one needs to be cut and capped off or disconnected. When using the existing holes with e gas line, there needs to be enough wiggle room for the copper and keep it from contacting the iron pipe. If there is enough room, you can wrap the 1/4" copper with
wire loom tubing. I will keep the too dissimilar metals from touching each other.
https://www.cabletiesandmore.com/wi...xhj_hdabYG9p-Nt3W_wR9kMB6MJ4M4CxoCEcoQAvD_BwE

 

[sullim4]

The main problem with a new line is he old one needs to be cut and capped off or disconnected. When using the existing holes with e gas line, there needs to be enough wiggle room for the copper and keep it from contacting the iron pipe. If there is enough room, you can wrap the 1/4" copper with
wire loom tubing. I will keep the too dissimilar metals from touching each other.
https://www.cabletiesandmore.com/wi...xhj_hdabYG9p-Nt3W_wR9kMB6MJ4M4CxoCEcoQAvD_BwE

That is an excellent point with the copper touching the gas line - I hadn't thought of that. There is another possible route I could take that might actually be more direct and avoids the gas line, so I might look at feasibility there.

Any opinion on using 1/4" copper vs braided vs plastic tubing? The more direct run length is about 15 feet or so - the reason I'd want to use the plastic is that it'd be easier to manipulate and less likely to kink in the space between the joists, but I have no idea on its longevity or propensity to fail.

I'm fine capping the old line - I have enough slack with the copper tubing to do that easily enough.