Home Improvement → Re: Supplying water to a refrigerator

I had a buried compression fitting that let loose a few weeks back. Don't bury a compression fitting.
You'll have a hard time soldering that pipe as well because it has oxidized quite a bit while buried. You'll have to buff it like crazy to get a good flow of solder on it.
Another method is to use Shark Bites. Those can be buried. They slip on and provide a mechanical connection without solder or wrenches.

Dremel tool with a wire wheel works great for this.

I was just looking at those Shark Bite fittings in the Home Depot web site. Never seen them before. Are they any good? There is one exactly as I need it.

I think I will go with robbin's suggestion of a tee and putting the shutoff valve inside. However the transition to 1/4 needs to be outside since it has to go through a 6 inch concrete wall and go around a doorway inside. Chipping up a groove in the ceramic tile floor and underlying concrete base across the doorway is not an option. This is not an American wood frame and drywall house but a typical concrete and cement block house you will find in Puerto Rico.

Still will think a bit about the soldering part. I could learn how to do it but honestly I have never needed to do it before.

I was just going to suggest that you look at those! They are great, much better than a compression fitting and easier than soldering. I see no reason not to use those for your application.

You can use shark bites but I would not cover the joint with soil. Instead I`d use sand or pea gravel. Just in case it starts leaking..

That sure looks like 3/4" pipe, if its the house main its probably not 1/2".

You`ll need to shutdown the water pressure and see if that union will unscrew, you will need it for clearance to get the sharkbites in. I would recommend exposing the pipe 12" minimum in each direction for access.

That is probably soft copper, and may not accept a sharkbite, depending if it was bent on installation. I would highly recommend cleaning (sandcloth) and lubricating each end before applying the sharkbite.

-j

The main at the meter is 5/8" but everything after the main shutoff (the one inside my property, not on the meter box at the sidewalk) is 1/2".

I am planning to just cut this union away. That would be cutting like 2 inches of the pipe which means that I must use the longer slip tee fitting. And yes, I will need to dig out a few feet from the right side in the picture in order to be able to slightly bend the pipe a bit to make room for fitting the tee in. The other side goes under a sidewalk.

That doesn't look like 1/2 to me either but perhaps it is (what is the OD). You will possibly have a problem as the two pipes don't line up. You probably need to dig out enough to try to get alignment with the two.

I know it is not 3/4. There are no 3/4 pipes here anywhere. But tomorrow I will check to make sure.

Alignment won't be a problem. I can dig enough to the right to free the pipe and be able to get it into proper alignment.