Home Improvement → Re: Refrigerator water connection - saddle valve alternative

I never really went looking for this part, but glad you posted.

I have only had about 5 saddle valves at places I lived, but my experience with them is that they are like short lived gate valves. They work fine if you never touch them. But if you ever operate them, . . .

Never had a disaster with one, but they made a mess when opening/closing.

That was my experience with them as well. The line that went to our fridge used one installed by the previous owners. The line sprung a leak one day and I went to shut it off. It never fully shut off as well as it started to leak when I tried to turn it off. It ended up just getting replaced properly with a t, shut off valve, and fitting down to the nylon tubing.