Leaking Soft Copper Pipe on Fridge Inlet for Ice Maker

[ATLL765]

So yesterday I walk into the basement to repaint my stand and I notice a big puddle. That was odd I though, so I walk around the wall and see a fair amount of water had collected in a hard to see spot....glad I caught it when I did. Somewhere on the PE tubing for my ice maker, there was a leak.

After 2 trips to Lowes, I still didn't have everything I needed, but I managed to get it working by stealing a coupling from my RO/DI and a compression nut I had on another fitting laying around the house since I couldn't figure another way to make it work without needing to cut the pipe and sweat new fittings in. Even worse, in the process of removing the nut from the inlet on the fridge, I bent the soft copper tubing enough to get that to start leaking too.... With things going very well, I wrapped the pipe in magic wrap, which at least slowed the leak to a very slow drip.

Anyways, my question is how do I fix this? I was thinking about putting a ball valve into the PE tubing, cutting the flow to the fridge and draining that pipe and re-wrapping with the magic wrap. Anybody know if they make those pipe repair clamps in small sizes? The soft copper pipe is only about .25".

 

[redfishbluefish]

I'm not quite sure what you're talking about...but you can buy 1/4 copper tubing. If you were closer, I'd give you some. However, what I recommend on an ice maker is to get rid of the copper and PE tubing and either use braided tubing (like this) or PEX (like this). Both of these are much stronger than the PE tubing and are easily coiled up behind the refrigerator when you push it back into place.

 

[ATLL765]

I'm not quite sure what you're talking about...but you can buy 1/4 copper tubing. If you were closer, I'd give you some. However, what I recommend on an ice maker is to get rid of the copper and PE tubing and either use braided tubing (like this) or PEX (like this). Both of these are much stronger than the PE tubing and are easily coiled up behind the refrigerator when you push it back into place.

Ok. I'll try to explain it better because I don't feel like moving the fridge for a pic, lol. The PE tubing runs from a saddle valve in my basement up to the fridge. When it hooks into the fridge, it connects to a bendable .25" copper pipe that acts as a manifold to split the line to ice maker and water filter. In my attempt to remove the compression nut to hook the new line up, I bent this copper pipe and it started leaking slowly. It's now wrapped with magic wrap tape, but is still leaking very slowly.

Not really sure what I could do. My only real though was to drain the copper pipe by installing a ball valve(as quickly as possible) and shutting off the flow from the saddle valve to the fridge. I'd then re-wrap it in magic wrap, hoping that would hold better than it is now, where it was leaking as I put the magic wrap on it.

 

[redfishbluefish]

Turn off the water at the saddle valve. This stops all water from going to the refrigerator. With a towel, disconnect the bent copper tubing and replace it. You can use PE or PEX or copper as a replacement. You’ll have to buy new ferals as well. Wrapping it with Magic Wrap is not a fix.

 

[ATLL765]

Turn off the water at the saddle valve. This stops all water from going to the refrigerator. With a towel, disconnect the bent copper tubing and replace it. You can use PE or PEX or copper as a replacement. You’ll have to buy new ferals as well. Wrapping it with Magic Wrap is not a fix.

How hard is it to solder fittings onto a copper pipe? The pipe and fittings are soldered in place, so I'd have to cut the pipe upstream from the leak and go from there. Which if that's the case, I might just have to shut the water off and keep it disconnected for the time being.

 

[redfishbluefish]

I would not suggest sweating 1/4" tubing....you'll want to use a tubing union....looks like this:

Cut the tubing to eliminate the bent portion and install new tubing using these unions.

 

[Cdiggy]

I would not suggest sweating 1/4" tubing....you'll want to use a tubing union....looks like this:

Cut the tubing to eliminate the bent portion and install new tubing using these unions.

+1 on the 1/4 compression fitting. Make sure to use the correct wrenches and be careful not to bend the tubing when cranking down the nuts on the compression fitting.

 

[ATLL765]

+1 on the 1/4 compression fitting. Make sure to use the correct wrenches and be careful not to bend the tubing when cranking down the nuts on the compression fitting.

That's the mistake I made last time, lol.

Doesn't matter either way because upon further inspection, it's leaking from deeper inside the fridge...in addition to the other spot it's leaking from. I now realize this must be the leak that I thought was in the PE tubing....Looks like I'm just gonna cap it off and go without an ice maker. Oh well.

 

[Cdiggy]

The back at some point is probably removable. And maybe it is just a loose fitting where it connects to the fridge.

 

[ATLL765]

The back at some point is probably removable. And maybe it is just a loose fitting where it connects to the fridge.

I already took the guard off the back where the fan is located as well as where the copper tubing enters the fridge's frame, which is when I realized t wasn't leaking from where I thought it was. I can't pinpoint the spot where it's leaking though, it's a bit tough to see, but it must have been leaking for a while or intermittently over a period of time...lots of calcium deposits, some rust. I'm thinking we don't REALLY need it since we get poland spring delivered to the house and all drinks are refrigerated/garaged, so no one really uses ice.