[adgjqetuo]

I was in our furnace room last night and I noticed a small wet spot on the subfloor above. It was around a 1/4" copper pipe going up to our ice maker. I pulled the fridge out and saw the pipe going through the floor with a slight drip at the compression fitting where the copper meets the flex pipe.

Question - is this accepted practice? Should I replace the compression fitting and move on? Or should this be fixed and have a recessed wall valve (similar to a washer) installed? I was actually surprised it didn't have a wall-valve installed TBH.

 

[joecaption]

Someone was looking to the easiest fastest way to get it hooked up.
A recessed box would sure look a whole lot better but involves more work.
Easy enough to replace that compression coupling with a compression stop valve if you do not want to have to redo the whole thing.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/BrassCra...Multi-Turn-Straight-Valve-OCR11X-C1/202973989

 

[adgjqetuo]

Thanks - the leak is where the copper meets the flex line. Very slow leak (one drip every 10-15 minutes or so).

I just wasn't sure if this was ok to leave as-is or not. It sounds from what you are saying it doesn't particularly matter but the wall valve would be cleaner. Having limited plumbing skills, I think I may just replace the fitting and see if it stops the leak.

If it was a code violation or something terribly wrong I would maybe look into having the later done.

 

[joecaption]

That flex line needed to just be snugged up, there's a rubber seal inside the fitting that does the sealing.
If someone over tightened it they may have crushed the seal.
There's a fine line when installing compression fittings, to loose and it leaks, over tighten it and the brass sleeve wants to twist sideways and leak.

 

[woodchopper65]

put a clamp on the fitting to hold it tight to the moulding to give it some support..

 

[Bret86844]

I have an old house and the fridge water line also did not have a valve. However, they tapped the line off the CW in the basement downstream of a different valve. So it's possible that there is a valve somewhere not so visible.

 

[adgjqetuo]

So I tried turning off the valve downstairs that that started leaking heavily too. Tightened the outside ring, and it stopped leaking out of the valve, but even with it turned all the way closed, it still leaks water from the other end.

I think I'm going to scrap the whole setup and try adding the wall valve instead. Are SharkBite fittings ok to use since I don't have much soldering experience?

 

[oh'mike]

Shark bite fittings work very well--just be sure they have seated the pipe all the way in---

 

[adgjqetuo]

Ok, so I drained the whole house and used shark bite fittings to T off from my 3/4" cold HWH intake and used 1/2" blue pex piping with a couple 90s to run a line up through the basement ceiling and behind the fridge where it meets the wall box valve and then has a flex line from there to the actual fridge.

I tried using the fridge for water and nothing. I went behind and disconnected the flex hose from the fridge, slowly turned on the valve and no water again. I disconnected the flex hose from the wall box and slowly turned on the valve and water came out. I tried blowing out the flex line and a bunch of yellowish sediment water came out of it. I reconnected it all and everything seemed to work fine. All seems well - no leaks and looks clear.

However, I took a shower in our master bath afterwards and the water pressure seems to be really high - to the point it was starting to hurt my back. I can't see this being related as I only touched the feed to the HWH - but what gives? All the rest of the faucets in the house seem normal. I haven't tried my daughters bathroom yet, but I don't get why it's so high all the sudden?

 

[adgjqetuo]

Update to anyone who may care: I know it wasn't just me - my wife walked out this morning asking what happened to the shower and that she felt like she was being power washed, lol.

I took the shower head off my daughters shower (same one - 1.6gpm) and it went back to normal - I guess coincidentally the head went bad. Weird how things break in sync isn't it? Unless it broke when I turned it on and the blast of air came through the pipes.

 

[oh'mike]

In the trades we call that,' coincidental failure'---

It happens to all of us----

 

[adgjqetuo]

Sorry, one last question.

The HWH has grounding wire (I think?) attaching the hot and cold lines. It's silver metal clamped onto both H & C pipes.

I've been reading online how shark bite fittings can break the grounding connection. Is this an issue since I branched off from the HWH intake?

I'm not concerned with the PEX branch feeding to the ice maker, but more so breaking the grounding to the rest of the house. Is this a concern?

 

[oh'mike]

I doubt if it will be an issue---however, if you are concerned, buy a pair of wire clamps and a jumper wire--

A plumber or electrician will give you a good, code and safety, answer.

Typically, if the house piping is used as an electrical ground--this happens at the meter----not in a run of pipe.

 

[adgjqetuo]

Thanks - it is grounded at the meter, but the jumper on the HWH grounds the hot line which isn't present at the meter. The SB connector is upstream from the jumper on the HWH.

I didn't think about adding another jumper at the fitting - that's not a bad idea.