Subzero refrigerator plumbing

[JeffreyWisc]

We are rehabbing a house as our "dream home." We have a built in Subzero fridge arriving on the 15th. I have to run a 1/4 inch line for the ice maker/drinking water setup. We didn't originally know the unit we ordered had these features. By "we" I mean my wife. I have access in the basement to either run the line from softened or non softened cold lines.

Subzero suggests using a hard water line, but they say either soft or hard water is fine.

As you can see in the diagram, they have specific areas for both electric and plumbing. The electric is done already to their specs.

Two questions...

1. Would you run hard or soft water? Both are filtered with a whole house filter and will then be further filtered by the fridge internal filter.

Given the diagram, can I just run my 1/4 line through the 1/2 inch area that the are extends onto the floor? That is what I take this to mean, anyone interpret it differently? The shaded area is where the plumbing has to be, pretty generous area

Thanks in advance!

 

[MicEd69]

Personally, I would run "hard" water to the refrigerator. And follow the instructions from the manual.


So, you can either come into the refrigerator area from the wall in that 3" x 18" space, or through the floor in that space keeping the hole in the floor not more than 1/2" from the wall.

What is funny is that the written instructions indicate that a copper line is not recommended for this application, yet the first item shown as a water supply material is a copper line. LOL.

 

[JeffreyWisc]

Personally, I would run "hard" water to the refrigerator. And follow the instructions from the manual.

View attachment 41407
So, you can either come into the refrigerator area from the wall in that 3" x 18" space, or through the floor in that space keeping the hole in the floor not more than 1/2" from the wall.

What is funny is that the written instructions indicate that a copper line is not recommended for this application, yet the first item shown as a water supply material is a copper line. LOL.

I agree with your assessment, thank you for your time. As expensive as this fridge was, it is shocking how bad the manufacturer's materials are. If you call there, their "techs" are pretty much clueless on anything you'd really want explained.

I shudder to think what will happen when we have a problem.

Can I please ask why your preference would be to plumb it to hard water?

I had an experience with a water softener when I was a kid that somehow malfunctioned and we ended up with random and occasionally heavily salt tasting ice cubes! That sucked, that was why I was leaning toward the hard water.

 

[MicEd69]

I agree with your assessment, thank you for your time. As expensive as this fridge was, it is shocking how bad the manufacturer's materials are. If you call there, their "techs" are pretty much clueless on anything you'd really want explained.

I shudder to think what will happen when we have a problem.

Can I please ask why your preference would be to plumb it to hard water?

I had an experience with a water softener when I was a kid that somehow malfunctioned and we ended up with random and occasionally heavily salt tasting ice cubes! That sucked, that was why I was leaning toward the hard water.

For the very same reason! My parents built a new house and had a water softener installed. I never liked the "slick" feel drying off after a shower.

But as you indicated, at times, quite often, the taste of the ice was not at all good. It was a little funny to me that the water didn't have as bad of a taste as the ice, or the melted ice did. We didn't have an automatic ice maker back then, just good old ice cube trays. I guess it had something to do with the phase changes in the water.

 

[JeffreyWisc]

For the very same reason! My parents built a new house and had a water softener installed. I never liked the "slick" feel drying off after a shower.

But as you indicated, at times, quite often, the taste of the ice was not at all good. It was a little funny to me that the water didn't have as bad of a taste as the ice, or the melted ice did. We didn't have an automatic ice maker back then, just good old ice cube trays. I guess it had something to do with the phase changes in the water.

In the house I am redoing I flipped the kitchen 180 degrees in terms of where the appliance area was. Originally the cold water line to the kitchen was hard water, we changed it to soft for the sink. However my hard water line for the old sink location, I just capped and now I can just use that. It's pretty close. I bought a kit with 1/4 OD pex (I guess, it's grey) type material. I am thinking I will add a 1/4 turn shut off in the basement on the old 1/2 cold line and then just a reducer of some sort. I am not a plumber at all, and I have a master plumber doing the majority of the work. He will be coming back to finish his work on the bathrooms and kitchen mid next month and the fridge is due to come before him, so I think I can handle this part.

 

[Twowaxhack]

If your curious about your ice cubes then read this.

I frankensteined a Scotsman ice machine I found by using unconventional parts. It’s makes beautiful ice. Parts are unbelievably expensive for under counter ice machines.

https://scotsmanhomeice.com/the-scotsman-difference/

 

[JeffreyWisc]

If your curious about your ice cubes then read this.

I frankensteined a Scotsman ice machine I found by using unconventional parts. It’s makes beautiful ice. Parts are unbelievably expensive for under counter ice machines.

https://scotsmanhomeice.com/the-scotsman-difference/

That would be cool to have one of those. My aunt and uncle had a house in the Florida Keys and they had their garage made into a guest room. Outside of the room, they had an actual hotel ice maker. It was so hot down there in the summer when we would visit, we'd always have an iced drink.