3 rules to connect a refrigerator
You probably haven’t given much thought to your refrigerator, except for now, as it comes time to replace it with a new model. Maybe it’s finally started to break down, and you need to get a new one to keep your food chilled and frozen. Or maybe you’re simply renovating your kitchen, or have some money saved up to replace that older model with a modern piece of hardware.
Regardless of what your reason is, getting a new fridge, especially if it has 21st-century bells and whistles, means you’re getting more than just a chilling/freezer box. New fridges can pour you a glass or pitcher of water, and they can even connect to the Internet so you can access some functions by phone. If you’re getting a new fridge, and you’re going to connect it, there are three safety tips you should remember.
Safe Water Dispensing From a Replacement Model
One of the nice things about some more feature-filled refrigerators is the ability to fill a glass or even a pitcher with water straight from the fridge itself.
Of course, this requires the fridge be connected to the kitchen plumbing. However, if your old fridge already had this feature, and your new fridge is just a more modernized replacement, you can safely connect the fridge quite easily.
All you have to do in a case like this is rely on the existing work that’s already been done. Somewhere near the fridge will be a connection to an existing water pipe known as a transition connector.
Your old fridge had a flexible pipe that was connected to this part of your kitchen plumbing. Just keep that pipe in place—or replace it with a new one, if you prefer—and ensure it is properly connected to your kitchen plumbing and your fridge.
Safely Getting Ice Without an Established Connection
Of course, if a fridge can dispense water, with a bit of added functionality, it can also freeze that water into ice cubes, so you never have to use an ice cube tray in the freezer again.
But if unlike the first example, your old fridge didn’t have any kind of connection to your kitchen plumbing this will work will need to be done. One option is doing it yourself.
In order to safely do this, you’ll need to take a few steps. First, locate which water pipe is most likely to be the one that will be connected to your new fridge. If you’re lucky, a nearby water pipe under the floor can be accessed by just drilling a hole.
If that’s not an option, look at selecting one of the other kitchen plumbing water pipes in the area, such as the one for the kitchen sink. With the pipe selected, you will need to prepare parts and tools such as pliers, a propane torch, Teflon tape, and a new transition connector. Cut off the water supply, cut a section of pipe, then use the Teflon tape and torch to solder in your new connector. Plug in the flexible pipe.
Get Some Experienced Help
Some people in Round Lake, IL love doing things themselves, but others may not.
If you want the absolute safest way to connect a new refrigerator to your kitchen plumbing if an existing connection is not already there, bring in professional plumbers.
You’ll get timely, high-quality work this way.
