On Mon 18 Aug 2008 02:32:53p, dooozie told us...



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I was just told by a plumber that the way my ice maker is hooked up is
illegal. It is a plastic tube attached from the back of the refrigerator
through a hole in the wall down to a water source in the basement. He
told me that they now require some sort of a box in the wall behind the
refrigerator. This is the first time I have heard of such a thing. What
can anyone tell me about this? He quoted me $600 to install the box.
Does
this seem like a fair quote?

No, he's way overpriced. I don't know if it's code where I live, but all
new homes do have the box in the wall with a valve where the tubing is
connected. That said, it's not really necessary for proper operation.
However, it is a very good idea to have a separate shutoff valve for the
feed to your icemaker. It is nice to have the box because it has a
recessed cutoff valve mounted inside. You could probably do the job
yourself for just the cost of the box and perhaps an extra shutoff valve.

Just for kicks, I should relate the Rube Goldberg job I had to do to feed
my icemaker in a condo I once owned. The only water source was the cold
water line under the kitchen sink. It was a galley kitchen with the fridge
located on the wall opposite the sink. The floor was concrete slab with
ceramic tile, so no hope of going downunder.

I connected the plastic line to the cold water line with a saddle valve,
then fed it horizontally through several banks of cabinets to the end wall
which had a archway opening into the hall. I fed it up through the upper
cabinets, then out the front corner of the end cabinet. to cross over the
doorway, I covered the line with a hollow quarter-round, where it met with
a pantry on the opposite wall. The line was then routed through the pantry
which was adjacent to the fridge. I put an in-line shutoff valve at that
end so that I could turn it off just before connecting to the fridge. I
couldn't trust the saddle valve under the sink, as they are notorious for
leaking if turned off once they're installed.

I'm sure I violated ever code they might have, but it worked like a charm
for years without incident. Hope you can picture the installation. :-)

--
Wayne Boatwright

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Date: Monday, 08(VIII)/18(XVIII)/08(MMVIII)
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