How to seal small leak in copper line?

[Kelena]

Okay, I am very new at this home repair stuff, but am trying to learn as much as I can. You really have to on the island. I have a water line under my house. A little hole was punched in that water line to tap water from that line to go to my refrigerator for ice and water (yay!). That line is copper and is smaller than a regular water line of course. The fitting is T-shaped and clamps onto the water line. At the bottom of the T is the connection and the line runs out from there and up to the refrigerator through the floor board.

It is at the bottom of the T that water is leaking out, because the connection is loose. Tried tightening it but that doesn't work. Would like to apply some sort of adhesive to secure the water line into the bottom of that T, but I don't want to drink whatever is in that adhesive. What adhesive would you recommend for this? Of should I break down and get a plumber? The little water line just pops right out of the bottom of the T if you tug on it.

[Carey]

(added) is the water coming out of the T area, or out of the area the skinny water line goes in? if it is the area where the skinny water line goes in, check the skinny line, is the cut square & clean (inside the cut, too?) Is there any roughness on the line near the cut? these things can cause the skinny line to not form a good compression seal to the piecing T)

I really hate those line piercing Ts for this reason, if they are attached not right on square with the line, or wiggle a little, they can fail, then you have a hole in your line.

The best fix (if the failure is not on the skinny line compression fitting) is to get a compression T with a reducing leg for the icemaker line, and cut the water line to fit the T (actually smaller that the T, just enough to fit the compression T in, unless there is no slack in the line, then you will need a union & the T....)(compression because most anyone can do it [ but take the time to do it right, so many over-tighten, do not cut a nice right angle, or do not clean the cut well ] & do not have to empty the water out of the line for a solder weld...)

We went with a separate thicker wall SS line running to a refrig outlet box in the wall on our remodel so that we do not have that vague skinny line poking out of the floor or wall just waiting to get damaged & leak...added bonus the outlet has a shut off...just in case...but we are overly cautious, and have had leaks & are trying to make it easier to deal with, as we have noticed all of those little annoying repairs get more annoying as our bodies age....