What a mess...

[jhoak]

Yesterday morning at 06:16 my phone rings. As a rule if my phone rings between 23:00 and 07:00 something really bad has happened. That morning I was awake but still in bed watching the local news. It was my Mom. She's in tears and hard to understand. My first thought was that something bad had happened to Dad. It was bad but in a different way. Dad was fine. Sometime during the night the plastic tube feeding their refrigerator's ice-maker had split. They had about an inch of water in most of the house.

I jumped out of bed, dressed, and loaded up both of my shop-vacs. I didn't shave, shower or even brush my teeth (I'm sure my parent's appreciated that). I made the normally 20 to 25 minute trip in 17 minutes. When I got there they had water running out of every exterior door and in to the garage. D@MN!

Dear Lord... What a mess... Dad was frantically vacuuming up water wherever he could. He was clearly really rattled. They have a houseful of antiques collected over a lifetime. I guess I supplied a little "sanity" to the situation by telling him to shut off the shop-vac and gather up what was needed to get all of the furniture up out of the water. Good idea he says. Dad told me that he had lost count of how many times he had emptied his 10 gallon shop-vac. I filled and emptied my 12 gallon at least 3 times and there was still a LOT of standing water. It was time for some help.

It was still only 07:30 and while we're trying to avert additional furniture damage I say "you need to be on the phone with your insurance agent at exactly 08:00". He begins to argue that he doesn't want to make a claim for fear of losing coverage. "I think we can fix this ourselves" he says.

Understand that my parents are deeply religious. Out of respect for them and their religious beliefs I simply do not use any language in their presence that they would disapprove of. Dad's "I think we can fix this" comment was all it took for me to go off on him. My response was "This kind of $H!T is the reason we pay outrageous insurance rates. If you won't call them I D@MN well will". Actually it was a bit worse than that but you get the idea.

I can only attribute my "first ever" use of profanity in front of my Dad to his decision to make the call. He had the home phone number of his agent and made the call. Within a few minutes he had a callback from the local Service-Master office AND the claims adjuster from his insurance company.

A little after 09:00 The Service-Master rep was at their house assessing the damage. A few minutes later a big truck full of equipment and a technician backed in to their driveway. After a bit of paper signing the tech went to work. He set up 2 VERY large dehumidifiers and a "ride-on" water extractor for the carpeted floors.

Trashed is about 600 square feet of gorgeous oak hardwood flooring, the carpet in at least 2 and maybe 3 bedrooms and the bases of their kitchen cabinets. Questionable is a dozen or so pieces of antique furniture. I think Mom is most upset about the couple of dozen Christmas presents that were sitting around one of their trees that received a thorough soaking. These are/were the presents purchased for their 7 grandchildren and 1 great-grandchild.

Since there was nothing more that I could do other than be in the way I headed back home at about 11:00. I talked to Dad early last night and Service-Master had left them with 3 dehumidifiers and 12 fans running. His comment was that his house currently sounded like a jet engine and would for the next 2 days. I offered my guest room but they wanted to stay at home with their little dog.

The moral of the story... If your ice-maker is being fed by a plastic tube change it out from time to time. They WILL fail eventually. In my house I replaced all of the plastic feed tubes with copper tubing many years ago after a similar (but not so catastrophic) failure that had water pouring down through my kitchen ceiling.

[USNRET]

I feel for them. Two years ago I woke up to a similiar situation in a rental where the fridge filter mount had cracked filling it up to the point that the doors opened and dumped it. Did what I could with the shop vac and called the landload who to this day swears it was my fault (his refrigerator).

[Daddy Dee]

jhoak,

that's a big mess indeed. glad you could be there for your folks' support. They would have been alot longer getting it sorted out, and may still wouldn't, if it weren't for your directing them to get help. No way to get through that without the cavalry to the rescue.

Thank goodness for insurance.

[HDBRbuilder]

That's one of the reasons I still use ice trays...besides, I get more cubic feet of space for frozen foods in the freezer by not having that space taken up by an ice-maker.

But the same kind of thing happened to my stepmother after my father died...I got a call saying the water line under the sink had started leaking heavily...but I lived 115 miiles away and she never even bothered to turn off the water under the sink...go figure! My father and I built that house when I was a Junior in High School...and we installed shut-off valves on all water lines for a reason! I guess my stepmother just never realized they were there...surely she never bothered to look!

-Andy

[Guest " "]

The moral of the story... If your ice-maker is being fed by a plastic tube change it out from time to time. They WILL fail eventually. In my house I replaced all of the plastic feed tubes with copper tubing many years ago after a similar (but not so catastrophic) failure that had water pouring down through my kitchen ceiling.

I had two failures over 5 years....pin holes...thought mice bit into them.....replaced everything with copper and no leaks since.

[Audio Android]

Wow!!!..... What a huge pain in the A#%....It's always great to see someone show up to help when your in those situations. I'm sure you were a huge relief to your parents. Reminds me of that commercial where roofers and mechanics, and plumbers are all wearing capes like comic book characters. Didn't know superheroes used shop-vacs....[{].....I hope U guys still have a Happy Holidays.

[Chris A]

His comment was that his house currently sounded like a jet engine and would for the next 2 days.

Gives new meaning the the old Maxell image, "blowing your hair back...":

[Mallette]

That's one of the reasons I still use ice trays...besides, I get more cubic feet of space for frozen foods in the freezer by not having that space taken up by an ice-maker.

As a southern boy who would use every ice tray for one large glass of tea, that wouldn't work for me. However, I've used those sub-two hundred dollar countertop ice makers for nearly a decade now. All in the house love it and there is always ice.

They all seem to come from the same Chinese OEM. Wish there was a bit more competition as there is one variant uses a standard 5 gallon water bottle and provides cold water and an ice crusher but the user reviews are uniformly dreadful on it for a variety of unfixed ills.

Dave

[Jeff Matthews]

I still think it is a bad idea that modern construction includes putting the hot water heater in the attic. Like the fridge's ice-maker lines, hot water heaters are only a matter of time, and the volume of flow that goes through them is a lot bigger.

[Coytee]

Sorry to hear about the water.

I plumbed a 1/2" copper pipe to the floor behind my fridge and yanked out the plastic pipe feeding the ice maker. I replaced it with copper tubing (flexible)

I'd personally suggest spending the extra couple dollars to get the copper. Then again, I'm retentive about some things.

You don't want to know what I thought when I discovered the ice maker was originally plumbed to the kitchen sink feed with a saddle valve...

[willland]

Jeff,

Sorry about your parents unfortunate situation. They should have few worries in life during these deserved years of rest and relaxation. You are a good son and they are very fortunate to have you so near and ready to jump at a moments notice. Those Service-Master guys sure know how to respond to these situations and get the job done.

Around Labor Day back a few years ago I came home to a similar situation(pipe burst under tile in master bathroom) with water flowing out my front door. Called insurance company and Servpro was at my house in 45 minutes doing their thing with dehumidifiers and industrial drying fans. One good outcome was having some $$$ left over after all repairs to base boards, carpet, tile work, etc. and snatching up a used pair of cherry RF-63's.

Enjoy the holidays with your family,

Bill

[Jay481985]

I suggest this behind the fridge

http://www.amazon.com/Leak-Frog-LF001-Water-Alarm/dp/B000WMSTUO

I remember buying three on woot.com when they had it for around 10 dollars.

[DrWho]

Sorry to hear about the water.

I plumbed a 1/2" copper pipe to the floor behind my fridge and yanked out the plastic pipe feeding the ice maker. I replaced it with copper tubing (flexible)

I'd personally suggest spending the extra couple dollars to get the copper. Then again, I'm retentive about some things.

You don't want to know what I thought when I discovered the ice maker was originally plumbed to the kitchen sink feed with a saddle valve...

Is this a tube inside the freezer? Or where would one look to identify if I need to swap it out? I'm having a hard time picturing how a solid copper tube could be installed behind the fridge since you gotta pull it out to reach anything back there.

I had a similar issue with a cheap plastic tube going between the inlet of my water heater and the humidifier. I was outta town and my roommate didn't think to turn off the valve so he just tried to tape it. Thankfully there's a drain in the basement, but it dumped enough water to put out the pilot light. I was surprised to learn that those armored strong tubes are only a few bucks more expensive. Is that the stuff you guys are talking about?

Sorry to hear about your grandparents. Did this even have any effect on their insurance? Way to step up and help them out.

[Coytee]

Is this a tube inside the freezer? Or where would one look to identify if I need to swap it out? I'm having a hard time picturing how a solid copper tube could be installed behind the fridge since you gotta pull it out to reach anything back there

You leave it coiled so it will spring out.

I yanked out the plastic water feed that was woven through my floor joists to the saddle valve on the kitchen sink. Replaced the part on the sink with the saddle valve puncture hole in it. Went downstairs, cut into the pipes and plumbed in a 1/2" hard copper pipe (solder) to the Fridge.

Punched a hole through floor and put a shutoff valve behind the fridge and attached this type of copper tubing from there to the fridge itself. I'm still at risk with SOME plastic tubing as there is still plastic tubing from the connection point to the actual ice maker inside the fridge. All I did was swap out the plastic tubing from the shutoff valve to the attachment point on the fridge.

(make sense?)

Here is a picture of the type of tubing I used and the same type of saddle valve that I yanked out. There was NO way on earth I was going to let that saddle valve stay installed.

http://www.appliance-parts-experts.com/ice-maker-water-supply-line.html?gclid=COehuLqyq7QCFQ0GnQodwm8AHQ

[JJkizak]

Just make sure you put enough coils in the copper line and that it won't catch on something. There are also braided hoses that might work better. If the copper tubing is too strong it might put too much tension on the fittings causing them to leak.

JJK

[Coytee]

I like the braided hose idea even more....however, I've (personally) never seen (never looked either []) a braided hose that was small enough for this application. To be honest, if it was out there, I'd considering swapping it in a moment as you bring up good points. Every time I pull the fridge from the wall I'm always paranoid that the copper tubing will catch or kink on something.

I use braided hoses on the clothes washer.

[MechMan]

I just installed the water line to my new fridge last weekend and used the stainless braided line with the ends already fitted. 10' lenth was only 20 bucks. I did use a saddle valve just to get it done, but will be soldering in a proper tee fitting with a shut off in the next few weeks. Just wanted to get it done quick for now.

After hearing Jeff's story I think I may just run out to Rona and grab the valve today. Better safe than sorry.