How to Connect an Ice Maker Line on Your New Refrigerator and Save Yourself Over $100

So the time has finally come and you are going to upgrade your refrigerator. Whatever the problem you had with your dear old fridge, it's time to let it go. I'm sure you probably had many memories and even a few cold ones with with it. Hopefully, you owned your old fridge for more than the average 10 years. If you had it for longer than that then you should feel good about that.

Many new refrigerators come with automatic ice makers. The ice maker replaces all those plastic ice trays that you had to fill up a couple times a week and probably spilled when you were transporting them from the sink to the freezer. The automatic ice maker provides a constant flow of formed ice cubes. They drop right into the ice bucket until it is filled up then the lever shuts down the production until those cubes are used up.

There are only a few steps to take when installing the ice maker kit. Instead of paying over $100 to have the company install it, I purchased mine at Home Depot for $12. The copper one is going to be stronger than the plastic line. The plastic line has a chance to get cracks after several years and then you are left with a possible flood and damage to your room.

The directions on the kit that you purchase are easy to follow and can be accomplished by a novice do it yourselfer. It should take you between two or three hours if it's going to be your first time and your unsure. After you purchased the kit at your local hardware store you should read the instructions and make sure you understand the majority of them. Make sure you have the necessary tools. The tools you will need are: crescent wrench, screwdriver, drill and drill bits, and pipe cutter if using copper.

Figure out how you can run the ice kit line the simplest shortest way. I ran mine from the basement just below the kitchen sink and fed it along the basement ceiling a few feet over and went right up my into the hole for my cable for the tv. Make sure you shut off the water supply. The manufacturer recommends that you install the ice kit clamp on a vertical house water line and tighten it until you see the rubber washer expand showing that it's compressed. Do not over tighten it because the line could crack. If it is not tight enough, then you will have a small leak which is ok if you just keep a bucket handy and all you need to do is slowly tighten the connection until you see the small leak stop.

Drill a hole 1/4" or smaller through the hole in the clamp and rubber washer. Connect the end of the ice line to the clamp. Run the ice line over to your refrigerator through any holes or behind any cabinets. Don't connect it to the fridge yet though. Put the end into a bucket and turn on the water supply slowly allowing the new line to flush out bubbles and debris. Shut off the water supply again. Then finish your connections. Throw out the first two batches of ice cubes because they will probably have a new ice smell.