As I was putting away something in my freezer I heard a new sound of water running from my fridge. For 14 years this fridge has not made any ice and as far as I knew it could not make ice or cold water. A quick look inside showed me that the water was my ice maker, slowly filling up the bucket we had in the freezer. What to do?
A saddle valve is a clamp that pierces a copper pipe in order to provide water to fridges and humidifiers. They are prone to corrosion and leakage, which is what happened to mine.
It turns out that after a frantic search for a shutoff valve for the water source, there was none. Who puts a water source without a shut off valve? My previous house owners. No shut off valve in the fridge, none in the kitchen. We frantically bail out the water filling in the freezer. We turn off the fridge and freezer, and unplug it, but the water keeps coming. We find what looks like a shutoff valve in the crawlspace, but this did not shut anything off. Finally we shut off the water for the whole house and the water stops. What just happened?
What I thought was a shutoff valve in my crawlspace was a saddle valve and not a shutoff at all. It looks like the saddle valve needle had corroded and clogged, thereby stopping all water to my fridge. For some unknown reason this unclogged itself at 11:00pm, sending us into panic mode. A saddle valve is a clamp that pierces a copper pipe so as to provide water to fridges, humidifiers and other equipment. Unfortunately they are prone to breakdown and leaking. A complete redo is the only option.
My saddle valve’s needle has completely rusted away and clogged the outgoing pipe, until yesterday when it decided to unclog itself and flood my fridge. Bad design. Photo by Don Tai.
The needle on my saddle valve rusted away, clogging the outgoing small copper pipe to my fridge. Yesterday it decided to give way and almost flooded my fridge and kitchen. Not only is this a bad design, but piercing a hole in my pipe, which is pressured at 30+ psi, means that water gushes out at a quick pace.
The saddle valve is not a water shutoff at all. The upper arms are used to turn the needle to initially pierce the pipe, after which turning the arm will only give you a leak.. Closing the arms will do nothing for shutting off the water. With a saddle valve you have no water shutoff.
After jerry rigging a temporary water shutoff for my fridge, today I researched the saddle valve and how to repair it. You need to cut the hole out of the pipe and put a tee joint in its place. After I bought all the parts I thought of a different idea: Since we do not use much ice nor cold water straight from the pipe, I’d simply bypass the plumbing into my fridge. I would cut out the hole and sweat solder a sleeve to plug the hole. This was easier said than done.
You see, in piercing the pipe the saddle valve needle also deforms the circular shape of the pipe, making putting on the copper sleeve impossible. My first cut was straight through the hole, only to notice the deformation of the pipe. Trying to fit the deformed pipe into the perfectly round sleeve was impossible. I therefore needed to make two extra cuts, before and after the pipe deformation. Once deburred and sanded, the sleeve fit was tight. I was able to solder the pipe closed.
As this was in my crawlspace, the lowest point in my house, draining the water from the pipe was problematic. The propane torch had to boil off water before it got hot enough to solder properly. It was a bit touch and go for a minute, and the crawlspace smelled like propane for a while.
Please do the right thing and put in a tee joint and a proper shutoff valve, before plumbing the 1/4″ copper or plastic pipe to your fridge. You never know when this saddle valve will break and cause a flood and contents damage. Saddle valves are easy to install but is not a reliable permanent fix. It will break, either for you or for the next owner of your house. The outcome is not good. Someone, and today that was myself, is needed to clean up the mess left by the original installer, many years later.
We now have no water to our fridge, and we really don’t need this feature. The fridge functions fine without water. The 1/4″ copper pipe is still plumbed from the fridge to the crawlspace and can be reinstalled at any time, but not with a saddle valve, if and when we need this feature. For now, I’d prefer to not have a flood risk.
A saddle valve pierces the copper pipe, leaving a large 3/16ths inch hole. photo by Don Tai.
A saddle valve pierces the copper pipe and deforms the pipe out of round, so a copper sleeve with a round diameter no longer fits. Photo by Don Tai.
Saddle Valve pin has completely disintegrated and is now missing. Pin should be below threaded rod. Photo by Don Tai.
Sears sells lots of fridges that do not have filtered water or ice makers. We’ll go simple and more reliable.
