Water, Water, Everywhere
It all started simply enough. The fridge we inherited when we bought the house gave out, so we had to buy a new one. Things started smoothly: we found a good option on sale and scheduled delivery for just two days later.
The old fridge had a built-in water dispenser so there was a water line running into the back. I couldn’t easily find that specific valve shut off, so I turned off the water for the whole house and drained the line after the installation team pulled out the old fridge. They got the new fridge into the kitchen but said I needed to put the water line back in and left.
And this is where things took a bad turn. I reasoned that since the new fridge didn’t have a water dispenser, there was no need to put the water line into the fridge. I went into the basement, turned the water back on, and came upstairs.
That’s when I heard running water – it was an open water line that began leaking since it wasn’t connected to anything. I made sure the now running water line was still in the bucket I’d used to drain it originally and went downstairs to turn the water back off.
I attempted to get the water line into the new fridge (which has an ice dispenser), but it’s quite old and I couldn’t get a tight seal without leaking. I then turned my attention to finding the valve for that specific pipe, so I could turn on water to the rest of the house. I located what I thought was it, but after not being used in probably a decade if not longer, the valve was stuck open. I didn’t want to force it, because I wasn’t 100% certain I even had the right valve (there were lots of pipes in that area of the basement ceiling). And if I somehow broke the valve while trying to force it to turn, I could have a bad situation on my hands.
Luckily, I found a plumber who was able to come later that day. He confirmed I had found the proper valve and we got it turned off. Water to the rest of the house was now back on, and by this point in time the new fridge had gotten cold, so all was well.
Who would have guessed that a new fridge would turn into such an adventure?
The author of this article is Tom Lally, Wealth Manager Assistant at U.S. Wealth Management..
Tracking #383391