And then the water line sprang a leak

Well, Father’s Day was going pretty well around here. Tammy got up and made pancakes and sausages for breakfast (at just after 6 a.m 😮) because Ian and I were going to take part in the BCC ride this morning. There were cards (physical and e-cards) and a couple of bottles of nice whisky.

https://www.strava.com/activities/7336154355

The weather behaved beautifully for the ride.

Then we got home and Tammy had prepared a lunch with cheeses, crackers, fruit and wine. We ate out on the deck until a thunderstorm threatened.

But just as we were retreating, the Vivint system went off. The water sensor in the basement had detected water (near the water heater). Tammy was the first down there, and sure enough, it was raining. But on a hunch, I rolled out the refrigerator in the kitchen and found the root cause. The 1/4 inch line from the water line to the fridge had sprung a leak. Tammy turned off the water main and that fixed it, but we don’t have any water in the house.

I tried to figure out if there was a shutoff, or if there was an obvious way to replace the line. I reached out to my friend Perry from the bike club (who is in the HVAC business) to get his opinion. He’s going to pop over here in a little bit with some tools and bits and bobs to see if we can’t fix this. Otherwise it’s a Sunday evening call to a plumber…

Updated

Perry’s been here. He brought a cap that he used to stop the copper line. There’s no water flow to the fridge, but the water main is back on.

We will have to call the plumber in the morning. Adding a shutoff valve would be a nice touch. Thank goodness for the Vivint water sensor. It would have been better to catch the water under the fridge before it leaked into the basement, but this is much better than finding a flood downstairs.

Updated

The fridge situation is now resolved (somewhat). First thing: at eleven last night, I was lying in bed. You know, that feeling where you’re so tired you can’t sleep? It hit me like a bolt of lightning: I knew where the shutoff was for the fridge. I got out of bed, went downstairs, and sure enough, it was under the kitchen sink. 🤦‍♂️ If I’d figured that out, Perry wouldn’t have had to come over.

In the morning, I called Benner Plumbing and a fellow named Daniel came over just before lunch. He poked around and tried to access the place where the plastic line comes out of the fridge, but it was the same problem I had: there was no way for a grownup to put their hand in far enough, even if they knew what they were doing. He cut the line and then attached a new section, and put it together with the copper line, and we turned the shutoff back on, and it remained dry.

It’s nice to be back to normal, and it was fantastic that the water sensor worked. Otherwise, it might have been “raining” downstairs for a long while.