Saddle Valve Removal Plumbing Tutorial

Here we have a saddle valve that was put on the wrong pipe by somebody and these things over time will leak and really, there is no reason to leave it there. So, what we want to do is replace it with a coupling. The way that we're going to do that is first we are going to drain it. (Of course, prior to opening this up we want to make sure that we have closed off the water supply that goes up to it.) With a bucket underneath, we open up this valve. We empty the water and then we're going to take a screwdriver to it. Loosen that and then you can just undo it by hand. Remove it, cut it, put in the coupling and you are done. So, now that we have loosened it up, we can just by hand remove one of the screws and it will come right out. OK, you see there's a hole there. That's where the saddle valve was piercing the pipe and that's exactly where we're going to do the cut. So, we can use the pipe cutter to make the cut; or we can make the cut using just a little saw. Of course, more water is going to come out when we do that, so we should expect that. We are going to let most of the water come out, after cutting the pipe a little bit and finish cutting it, once all of that water is out, just so that we don't get so wet. If the saddle valve was on tight, as most of them are, you may want to cut just on the other side of that hole, so that you have a really nice and clean connection on both sides of that coupler that you are going to be putting in there. Now, you want to clean that up, that cut with may be some sandpaper, with something else, whatever you want to use to deburr it. A 100 sandpaper works great for me, so that's what I am doing here. Now that you have cleaned up both ends of the pipe on the inside and out and deburred it properly, make sure that the coupling fits and it is the way you want it before you prime it and put the glue on. So, here I have already applied the primer that's appropriate for the glue that I'm going to use. Most PVC glues require a primer I have applied it to both ends of the pipe, as well as to the inside of the coupling. The only thing that's left to do is to apply the glue. So, there we have it. The coupling is in place, properly secured. We pushed it, a quarter turn, and then held it, so that there is no push out. The job is done.