Problem with Refridgerator Water Line

[kade714]

I installed a new line... it's actually 2 lines with a connector. I bought the 15' copper water line packages from Home Depot... so it's 30 feet now. At first there was very little pressure to the fridge, so I went under the house to inspect the line. It wasn't leaking, but upon moving the copper piping just a little bit, one of the lines just popped out of the nut that was attached to it. (The copper lines in the packages have 2 different ends. On one end, it's a little rounded off and has an indentation so you can slide the nut over the end and it doesn't go past the indent. On the other end, it's a straight cut off so you can slide the nut to wherever you want.) Well for some reason, now the piping just pops off the nut whenever there is water pressure. This is a problem with the rounded off ends that have indentations... when you screw the nut in and add pressure, the line pops off. On the ends that have a straight cut, I slide the nut on a little further then bend the very tip of the line so that it can't slide off of the nut. AND it's extremely difficult to make a perfectly flat cut to an end. I've been trying to do all this while in the crawl space under my house. Extremely frustrating and MUDDY!

This must sound confusing. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? How do these copper lines with the sliding nuts work so that they don't leak or pop out under pressure???

Thanks

[kade714]

And... any idea as to why there was no water pressure before? There was no leak before. Thanks again

[N8N]

Sounds like you are describing a compression fitting, there should be a ferrule of some kind of soft yellow metal that you slip over the tubing as well as a nut, is this not the case?

Alternately it could be a flare fitting in which case you would need to flare the tubing for it to work correctly, although the flaring tool would likely cost more than the tubing itself ($20-40 at your local auto parts store)

good luck

nate

[kellyj00]

I would go back to home depot and pick up some of the plastic tubing...usually comes in a kit. It's back by the shower stalls and stuff, near the bathroom fixtures for some reason.

1/4" OD (outside diameter) should do the job without any trouble. Plastic is way easier to hook up.

[Malcolm Hoar]

Yup, the standard quarter inch copper pipe is just horrible in this application. Nothing but trouble. Even worse if you want to connect a filter in-line -- those compression fittings onto the plastic filter bodies are total crap.

Just buy a plastic tube, preferably with the steel braided cover for strength and protection. Problems over, permanently.

They're readily available in a range of lengths.

[kade714]

Yes N8N, there is a ferrule and nut, but the line pops out of that whenever the pressure is on.

I used copper because I heard it was better than plastic.

Just seems like a crappy system how a little water pressure blows the line off the nut.

[Pete C.]

You have to tighten those compression fittings fairly tight to get them to seal. That little tapered ferrule is compressed in the taper by the nut and clamps down on the soft copper tubing, actually cutting into the tubing a bit and locking it in place. If you have the parts assembled per the diagrams included with the fittings and it's popping apart, you haven't tightened them enough.

Pete C.

[Steve Barker LT]

Then it's the wrong ferrule for that tubing.

[Stormin Mormon]

Very often, if the compression fitting won't compress, you have to soak the fitting with WD=40 or other oil. That way the ferrule will slide and squeeze into shape instead of jamming.

It's hard to explain, but a good shot of penetrating oil sure makes compression fittings work better.

[Stormin Mormon]

First, you need a tubing cutter to, uh, well, cut the tubing. That's the only way to make a square end.

second, when you go to put the fitting together, the nut slides onto the tubing. And second, a "ferrule" which looks kinda like a mini wedding band. When you tighten the nut, the ferrule compresses onto the tubing. Soak the nut, ferrule, and fitting with penetrating oil, so it will seat tighter.