I have two saddle valves on copper piping -- one for the fridge, the other for a filtered drinking water spigot. If I replace these by Tee fittings (but not in the same locations), what's the best way to seal the old holes?
Perce
Solder...
Just fill the holes with solder? I thought of that but wasn't sure it would have enough mechanical strength on its own.
Perce
Quite common repair technique, actually.
If you're uncomfortable there are some sleeve clamps you can use but I think they're generally overkill for the purpose.
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If you are leary about doing that you could cut the pipe at the saddle valve hole and rejoin them with a soldered on slip coupling. (The kind of straight solder coupling which does not have a center stop ring so it can be slid completely onto one pipe end and then pulled back onto the other one.)
Jeff
This will work well as long as you have enough play in one side of the pipe to deflect it away to slip the coupling on.
Otherwise, you'd need to make two cuts and use two couplings. Or if the place where you are going to put in the tee is nearby, you could just replace the section between the old saddle valve and the new tee.
Cheers, Wayne
I would think the difficult part about just using solder coulb be getting the pipe clean. The saddle valves leave a slight depression in the pipe. So running emery cloth or sandpaper over it to clean, it could be harder to get the spot at hole cleaned off.
Heat the pipe and seal the two small holes you have from saddle valves; needle/pin perforation into a copper pipe.
Not difficult, at all...
Thats what I thought. Just leave the valves on and shut them. Why risk making things into a project?
Billy Mays here for Mighty Putty.
Mighty Putty can seal that hole. There's nothing you can't do with Mighty Putty.
Any job, big or small, Mighty Putty repairs them all.
B.M.
That commercial always makes me chuckle. I love the red ceramic tile repair on the web page, you can't even see where it was broken off any more.
LOL
If you are replacing them with tees wouldn't you need to cut and shorten the tubing to fit the tee?
Slice a repair coupling into two c shaped pieces, clean , flux and solder over the holes.
OP never mentioned the copper pipe size. I've never seen a 1/4 inch coupling for a copper line that size (ice maker line). Guessing the holes are no bigger than a pencil lead. Solder them shut...
Usually a saddle tap pierces 1/2" copper supply line and feeds the fridge via 1/4". Odds are the hole is in the 1/2" supply. Have you ever seen a saddle tap to pierce 1/4" for anything other than refrigerant?
Oops. I stand corrected. I have a valve that I never used from an ice maker kit. It is for 1/2 inch pipe. Thanks.
Shut off the water.
Remove the saddle valves, and use your tubing cutter to cut the copper tube EXACTLY where the pinhole is.
Now, drain the water as best you can. Shake the copper tube, to shake out the last of the water. Sweat on the T fittings where you just cut. Very simple.
Since you are putting the T fittings in different places, go to your plumbing suply and ask for "slip couplers" for that tubing size. You can either cut the tubing, and repair with slip couplers. Or, you can saw the slip couplers long wise. Sand the pipe and couplers, flux em up. Lay the half-coupler over the hole. Heat, and solder. The half-coupler should patch over the hole. Follow the same counsel, to shut off the water, drain the pipes, etc.
In the case of 1/4 actual OD tubing, it's called 1/8 water copper. Go figure. Anyhow, water doesn't pierce 1/4 actual OD tubing. However, I have seen sweat tee, or compression tee for 1/4 actual (which is called 1/8 water copper).
So I am not the only one scratching his head about how repairing a hole in a supply line from a tap became a repair of 1/4" tubing?
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