Refrigerator water line leak

[joshhudm]

Hi all, we had a leak in the basement this morning and traced it to the water line connected to the fridge. It looks like they have a very small flexible copper pipe spiked into the water line on one end and some plastic fitting on the other connected to a plastic pipe going into the fridge. The leak happened at the plastic fitting conveniently hidden atop the hvac duct. What is the best way to remedy this and prevent it from happening in the future. As always any help is appreciated.

[pushkins]

You should be able to tighten the compression nuts to stop a leak. If not you can buy at any big box store a new compression coupling, cut the old one, slip in the nuts (first) then the compression rings, then put it all back together. make sure you use two crescent wrenches or open ended wrench one to hold and one to tighten.

[joshhudm]

Would I be better to run a new line of just one material? I'm having trouble finding the braided lines that are long enough. I need about 20ft. Is a full copper line good enough?

[joshhudm]

So I was able to reach back and feel around. Looks like the plastic piping actually split... So I would prefer to move away from that. Is copper a safe replacement?

[pushkins]

Yes copper is a safe replacement, it will cost you more than the standard 20' kit of plastic tubing ($14 for a complete kit including the saddle from memory). Cannot say I've ever had an issue with the plastic tubing at the fridge it's going to connect to plastic anyway. You should have enough slack in the existing line to cut a few inches off the split end of the plastic and rejoin it.