Refrigerator Installation: Your DIY Guide

Kitchen Plumbing and Appliance Installation

We’ve come a long way in terms of what kitchen appliances can do. It used to be that the hardware we had in a kitchen did just one thing, and subsequently only required one connection. Sinks needed to be hooked up to your kitchen plumbing. Stoves needed a gas connection, while refrigerators needed proximity to an electrical outlet so that they could keep food chilled or frozen.

Refrigerator Water Line and WiFi

Today, things are a lot more complicated, and hardware like the refrigerator has become a nerve center of the kitchen. You might never have thought you’d need an Internet connection for your fridge, but today, you do, especially if you want to check your fridge by phone, play music from it, or even consult the to-do list that’s on the LCD screen! But aside from computer functionality, your fridge can now also pour a glass of water, or instantly give you chilled ice cubes for a drink. But how does it do this? We’ll go over the steps.

Modern fridges include the option of making their own ice, so you don’t have to get an ice cube tray, fill it with water, and put it in the freezer section for a few hours. Now you just stick your glass under the dispenser and get as much ice as you want.

However, this does require a bit of extra work. The water to freeze that ice has to come from somewhere, and that means your fridge will require a water line. In other words, a direct connection to your kitchen plumbing.

If your previous model of fridge already has this functionality, you’re set! Just move your new fridge in place, and hook up the existing flexible water pipe to it, and you’re done, your fridge is ready to go after a test run to make sure everything is okay.

Getting Water

Of course, beyond the ice cube dispenser is the more basic function of getting cool water from a fridge. Modern units have dispensers where you can stick in a glass or even a pitcher and get cool water that’s ready to refresh you or be stored for later use.

The problem here is, if you don’t have a previous kitchen plumbing connection, you’ll have to make one. So how do you do it?

The first step is locating a suitable place to make a connection. If a water pipe is nearby, you may be able to go into the basement and drill a hole in the floor where your fridge is so that a flexible water pipe can run down and connect to the pipe. If your home layout doesn’t allow for this, you’ll need to stretch a pipe to existing kitchen plumbing fixtures like a sink.

When you’re at a pipe you can use, you’ll need to cut off the water supply and make sure you have tools ready like pliers, Teflon tape, a copper transition connector and a propane torch. Cut the water pipe, install the copper transition connector, then use the Teflon tape and torch to solder it into place. Now plug the flexible pipe into the connection, and you’re done.

Get Help From A Professional Plumber

If you’re not comfortable with doing this yourself, and you live in Mesa, Phoenix, Scottsdale, or nearby areas of Arizona, don’t hesitate to call experienced, certified professionals to help!

Plumbers do this kind of work all the time and can ensure that you get quality results for your new fridge and your kitchen plumbing.