We had a customer bring us a brand new built in ice maker that their plumber had tried to install. During the installation all of the customers faucets and valves were destroyed and began leaking profusely. No one at the scene understood what happened but they assumed it was ice maker related since it happened when the plumber had finished making the water connection and turned the new ice maker on. KAPLUEY!!! Water was squirting everywhere! The customer had the plumber disconnect the unit and hauled it to our shop for analysis. Good move!
Upon inspection my technician discovered that the plumber had ignored the water valve connection fitting that was in full view sticking out of the rear panel along with the installation directions located on the inside of the ice maker. Instead he chose to remove the compressor cover panel and proceeded to cut into the copper tubing line from the compressor that carries the refrigerant (many people mistakenly call refrigerant “Freon”, which is actually Du Pont’s trade name for refrigerant – like Kleenex brand facial tissues) between the condenser and the evaporator! Once he cut the refrigerant line, obviously ignoring the hissing, pressurized refrigerant spewing out of the copper pipe, he soldered a fitting to the copper and then fastened the water supply line to the ice maker refrigerant line. He turned on the water and then, of course, turned on the ice maker at which time the compressor roared to life and pushed the water with great force into and through all the plumbing valves and faucets in the house, needless to say causing a huge mess.
Upon inspection my technician discovered that the plumber had ignored the water valve connection fitting that was in full view sticking out of the rear panel along with the installation directions located on the inside of the ice maker. Instead he chose to remove the compressor cover panel and proceeded to cut into the copper tubing line from the compressor that carries the refrigerant (many people mistakenly call refrigerant “Freon”, which is actually Du Pont’s trade name for refrigerant – like Kleenex brand facial tissues) between the condenser and the evaporator! Once he cut the refrigerant line, obviously ignoring the hissing, pressurized refrigerant spewing out of the copper pipe, he soldered a fitting to the copper and then fastened the water supply line to the ice maker refrigerant line. He turned on the water and then, of course, turned on the ice maker at which time the compressor roared to life and pushed the water with great force into and through all the plumbing valves and faucets in the house, needless to say causing a huge mess.