water kit for refrigerator

I've been thinking of buying this fridge that comes with a water supply box that comes in the freezer compartment of a top freezer refrig. The salesman said that I could hook it up myself if i purchase a water kit at any hardware store. I asked if they sold them, he said no which I thought was unusual. He said it runs about $15. and comes with a copper tubing. Now, my concern is if I "diy" would those copper tubing come long enough and is it easy to connect as he said? next to the fridge is my dishwasher which in turn is connected to my sink next to it. I can't think how I am going to bypass the dishwasher to get it to the sink. He said the kit comes with a gadget that when you put on the tubing, it punctures it so as to get water flowing.

Reply to
Noel
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Very easy hookups. Many kits have poly tubing which is a bit easier to work with and generally sufficiently durable.

For "bypassing" the dishwasher you just run the tubing directly under it. Dishwashers have space under them for their own connections and a

1/4" tube to the fridge water will pass through just fine.

The gadget mentioned is a saddle valve. They are illegal under some plumbing codes (MA comes to mind) and not the ideal solution, though they do generally work fine and I've used them on occasion. The better option if you have basic plumbing soldering skills is to install a "T" and a regular shutoff valve with a 1/4" compression type output ($5 or so).

Another thing to consider is installing a filter in line to the fridge. The fridge probably has it's own filter setup, but I find those filter cartridges are a fair amount more expensive than the cartridges for inline filters. The fridge filter usually has a bypass plug that you can install if you don't want to use the in fridge filter. If you have one of the nice little under counter RO filter units you can readily feed the fridge water from that and have really nice fridge water and ice.

Pete C.

Reply to
Pete C.

Personally I never liked those poly lines. I always liked the braided hoses a lot better.

Reply to
Mikepier

I've never seen a braided hose of any kind used to feed water to a refrigerator, only in short hookup applications under a sink or toilet. Refrigerator feed lines are typically at least 6' long, usually a lot longer to get to the water supply and all the braided hoses I've seen are less than 2' long. Also lately I've seen a lot of "bogus" braided hoses that are a plastic hose core as you would expect, but have a plastic outer braid masquerading as a stainless braid.

Pete C.

Reply to
Pete C.

Fluidmaster, as well as other companies out there, make them as long as 10 feet.

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Reply to
Mikepier

That's longer than I've seen before, but still too short for any of the fridge water connections I've had to make. Of course if you run a "real" water line (i.e. 1/2" copper) to the fridge location and install a shutoff valve there with an appropriate output connection then you'd only need a couple feet. The fridge hookup kits normally have like 20' of tubing, expecting you'll need to fish it some distance before you reach a water line you can tap.

Pete C.

Reply to
Pete C.

Please read the instruction manual on how to connect up the water pipe. Please check if a there is a warning about using self piercing saddle valves. Most icemaker kits come with self piercing saddle valves which usually dont allow for a big enough water flow. (saddle valves are OK but they usually want you to use the ones where you drill a hole in the pipe). Read the manual and use what is recommended

Reply to
jmagerl

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