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I’ll start by saying I know saddle valves are evil, but am trying to avoid replacing it right now.

Our fridge has had poor pressure since we moved in. I just found the saddle valve for the water supply in the basement ceiling, and was going to try to close and reopen it in case of a small clog. I feel like I’ve been turning forever and it is not stopping. There is no leaking water, and the distance from T Bar to pipe doesn’t seem to be getting smaller.

Can a saddle valve break where the valve stem keeps turning, but it doesn’t open or close any further?

Chrifry
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The valve should be replaced if for no other reason than if you have a leak you can't shut it off. You have 3 basic choices. Install a new saddle valve ( I wouldn't do this), cut out the pipe where the saddle valve was and solder in an an appropriate "T" fitting, or shut off the water, cut the pipe and install a "SHARK BITE" T. The shark bite doesn't require soldering and can be installed even if the water is still dripping out of the pipe.

mikes
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Saddle valves are frowned upon by the powers that be. Possibly for just such a reason as yours; valve spins.

The possible cause of the endless turning that doesn't stop are the threads on the stem have stripped. The valve is made of brass or copper; very soft metals.

The repair is to replace the valve either with a similar one (not recommended) or with a a ball valve.

With the ball valve you'd have to sweat in the proper sized fitting (1/2 inch copper I'm guessing) and reduce down from he ball valve to the (1/4 inch ) supply tubing. Ball valves give a quick and positive action to control water flow. Their not evil either.

ojait
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Yes

Then can break (likely stripped stem threads btw) and fail to open or close after that. If it is copper tubing it should be rather easy to shut down the supply somehow and hack that POS out of there. You could replace it with an "inline" compression shutoff as a simple alternative:

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I personally wouldn't do that though. I would solder the tubing together so nobody would ever need to go searching for a hidden fitting, then attach a quality ball-valve shut-off at the stub-out location adjacent to the appliance.

Jimmy Fix-it
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