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I stopped pulling fridge doors to swap water lines and started using a 3 dollar tube of silicone grease
Everyone on the truck keeps saying you have to pull the whole door on a French door fridge to change a water line that's cracked. I did that twice on the same Whirlpool model in one week and each teardown ate about 90 minutes plus a wrestle with the hinge shims. What actually fixed it was a 3 dollar tube of plumber's silicone grease, the clear stuff, not the white pipe dope. I pulled the line loose at the quick connect, cleaned the old o ring with a rag, gave it a thin coat of grease, and pushed the line back in until it clicked. No door removal at all using the access panel in the back. That was 6 months ago and the customer called once just to say the ice maker finally stopped spitting. I know the old guard will say grease makes the o ring slip off the barb, but I've done maybe 40 of these since and not one callback. Has anyone else been greasing quick connects, or am I the only one doing it this way?
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webb.xena28d ago
Wait you said the old guard worries grease makes the o ring slip off the barb. Has that actually happened to you on any of those 40 jobs, or is it just something guys repeat without ever seeing it? I'm curious because the quick connects I've messed with hold the line with a little locking clip, not friction on the barb, so grease shouldn't matter either way. What I'd really like to know is how you're cleaning the o ring without nicking it, since a rag on a tiny ring seems like it could do more harm than good. Are you pulling the whole fitting out or just wiping it in place?
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