copper kinks to easy and adds difficulty moving fridge to clean.
my plastic line goes thru a plastic fitting in floor which allows the extra line to be in basement area when not needed for moving fridge out. plastic may kink but remove kink it works fine again, copper will need replaced.
My hubby and I hooked up the plumbing on our first ice maker. Saddle valve, extra length of copper tubing to coil behind the fridge and allow it to be pulled out without damaging it. It was our first plumbing job. Nothing to it. That particlar kitchen was on a slab and a door between the fridge and water supply. We laid the tubing against the threshold across doorway. With all the traffic through that door, we never had a problem with it.
Our most recent ice maker was hooked up by plumber. He advised hooking it to the hot water line; said it makes for less cloudy ice. Works fine. Same extra length of tubing, in a large coil, to allow room to pull out the fridge without kinking tubing. This one has tubing passed through side of kitchen cabine with small hole drilled for it. Water heater is underneath a corner cabinet (condo) and wh accessed from utility closet outside our unit.
So what if it is cheap? Just drill a hole and use a hose clamp.
When the plastic hose to my humidifier (same hose as provided for ice makers) sprang a leak, it sprayed into the file cabinet that was nearby in the basement. Fortunately, only tourist information for the most part got wet.
I use braided stainless steel lines for the ice maker, dishwasher and clothes washer (and toilets, and sinks, and...). The braided stainless steel is the best of both worlds. It's quite flexible and won't fail catastrophically. The icemaker and dishwasher lines are pulled back downstairs and tied up with tie wraps.
Saddle valves suck. WHen I added shut-offs for all the wet rooms I replaced the freezer saddle valve with a ball valve and appropriate reducers. It was a piece of cake.
Our fridge has a water filter built in so the ice isn't all that cloudy, not that I care much about cloudy ice (we usually crunch it up ;) AFAIC, hot water for an ice maker is wasted energy. The hot water will never make it to the ice maker anyway.
Yo're right. That would be a problem.
This does't solve the problem that plastic starts to leak on its own. Both my humidifier and a friend's ice maker. Mine was definitely not kinked, not bent more than it was when it came with the humidifier, and not abrading against anything. The hole was 5 inches from anything. (I didnt' see the details of my friend's ice maker, but it's fortunate she was having a party in her basement when it started to leak. Sometimes she didn't go down to the basement from Sunday night to the next Saturday.
That sounds good. It's worth a few extra dollars not to have water spraying around the house, maybe for 2 weeks if it happens when one is on vacation. 3 months if your a snowbird or a world traveler.
Were I a snowbird or world traveler all the water to unnecessary rooms would be shut down. In particular any water to appliances would be shut off, though even a toilet can crack.
Isnt hot water often contaminated by the heater tank somehow? I was told by someone to never drink from hot faucet
Well even being gone for 9 hours is reason enough to want hoses not to leak.
I saw inside my hot water heater recently. I'd concur with that advice. Icky freakin mess of mineral deposits in there....
-- Todd H.
True enough. It's a matter of convenience vs. safety. Assuming the chances of a failure are linear with time, it makes sense to shut things off for long periods (little inconvenience, more risk) than for short periods (much trouble, less risk).
Then there is the wear issue on shutoffs. Most aren't made to be used every day, particularly gate valves (YOY do they use gate valves for the main supply?).
Perhaps. I've heard of some nasties growing in them. Every few months someone will post about a smell in the hot water. The fix is normally bleach in the hot water tank (since I don't have one...).
I'm not too worried about minerals. They all came from the cold water. ;-)
Thanks for all the responses folks. Definitely a lot to read through and consider. To address a couple issues that were raised, I guess the line from the nearest water supply would need to run a few feet down into the crawlspace, about 12 feet under the kitchen, and a couple feet back up to behind the fridge. My main concern is the potential for freezing of pipes/tubes running through the crawlspace. We're in the Washington DC area and it does get mighty freezy down there sometimes. That said we do have the hot water supply and exhaust from the dishwasher running through there.
There are doors on either side of the room between the sink and fridge, which pretty much precludes staying inside the room. It would be easy enough to work in the crawlspace, but if the line were ever to freeze and crack, it could be a long time before I became aware that I was leaking water into the crawlspace.
-Scott
Actually if you had a leak, the resultant pressure drop would preclude you from having any new ice, so you would know sooner than you think. Wrap the pipe in some insulation, and don't worry. If your water pipes under the house are not insulated and don't freeze, then you're not likely to have a problem with a new pipe.
Missed that one.
I wonder how much pressure that water jugs can take before they explode?
EMWTK
YOY?
I get mixed up which are gate valves and which are the other? The valves beind my clothes washer for instance have to be turned more than one revolution to go from wide open to fully closed.
And yet I'm told the instructions for all washers say to turn the water off after each use, and some people do laundry every 2nd day, or even daily if they have diapers to be washed.
Why, oh why.
That's a gate valve. Ball valves are quarter turn. The valve I used has a single lever that controls both the cold and hot water to the washer. Unfortunately, down is on and right is hot.
Yep. It's a good idea to take the pressure off the control valves in the washer. It's harder for the hoses to leak when the water is shut off too. ;-)
DAMHIKT but, most unscratched plastic five gallon bottles can handle
100psi with no problem; the real issue is keeping the lid on.HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.