First winter my mother is widowed, we can't get the humidifier on. Thought maybe the water to it is turned off. I'm on the phone with her and telling her to turn this saddle valve counter clockwise to turn it on.
It goes less than one turn and gets tough for her to turn. She can then go clockwise at least 2 turns with some ease.
Is counter clockwise correct to open it?
How many turns should be needed?
Should she hear water rushing, like when turning on a 1/2 pipe valve?
Is there harm in turning in clockwise?
Best Answer
Saddle valves are terrible as actual valves. They are a cheap/easy way to tap an existing water line, but that's it. After you use them a few times, you just can't rely on the needle to cleanly seal against the punctured hole of the copper pipe, and to cleanly come back out again.
In your case it also looks like there may be some galvanic corrosion on the valve, which might also be corroding around the needle and blocking flow.
Replace with a better valve
There are many ways to do this of course, but it basically means:
If you really can't get any water to come out of the compression valve, then this would be the best way to fix it (and probably never have an issue again).
Use a real downstream valve
You can get away with using a saddle valve.. if you never actually use it as a valve.
Basically, use the saddle valve but put a better valve downstream. In your case, you can use a 1/4" or 3/8" (I can't tell from the photo) compression valve on the flexible copper tubing -- assuming you can get water to come out of the saddle valve.