If you go to the Big Orange Tool Box you can buy a self-tapping clamp-type water connection to supply water to an ice maker or other fixture. These taps are problematic in that they rely on a gasket that is subject to failure—-and thus prone to leaking sooner or later. These things work by clamping the device onto the pipe and then by turning the handle clockwise it literally “pierces” the pipe with a sharp hollow barb. Once pierced, the water flows until the water is shut off by turning the handle the rest of the way in.
I have seen these things tapped onto galvanized pipe, copper pipe and even CPVC plastic pipe. But this is the first time I have ever seen one clamped onto a braided flexible plastic supply line.
One has to wonder what someone was smoking in their pipe!
I guess the installation was a little more forgiving by the water pressure being barely 40 psi. A much better solution is to put a “T” in the water line and install a proper valve to supply the ice maker—-and skip the pipe dreams altogether.
By Charles Buell, Real Estate Inspections in Seattle
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WOW, thats a new one for me. I have seen stupid but that about takes the cake, its almost as dumb as the one I saw on a gas line in a house that was hidden in a drop ceiling. I just happen to find it by accident. They pierced black iron gas line with it. It didn’t go anywhere either and I don’t know what they would have ran off it anyways! It never ceases to amaze me.