Cost of plumbing a fridge?

DubLad69

We are looking to get an American Style Fridge Freezer with a built in Ice/Water dispenser. However, we do not have a water line for it.

Would it be an expensive job to have a water line run from the sink to the fridge? The sink and fridge are on the same wall (a plaster board wall), but about 4 meters apart with a door in-between. We would need the line to be hidden in the wall.

Is this a big job, or is it something that is doable?

You could do it yourself. It's a line and a connector from the sink connection

Man with broke phone

Can the floor be lifted? Is it already tiled?

yabadabado

Very straightforward job and easy enough to diy.

Edit :when you say a door in between are they in the same room or opposite sides of the one studded wall ?

Man with broke phone

yabadabado wrote: »

Very straightforward job and easy enough to diy

Cutting a wall and running a pipe around a door frame and patching it up so that it looks untouched? Surely it would depend on your skills and the level and speed you want it done.

DubLad69

Man with broke phone wrote: »

Can the floor be lifted? Is it already tiled?

Floor can't be lifted, already tiled and has underfloor heating so I would be afraid to dig in there.

Its in the same room, just further down the wall.

Would it be more of a job for a plasterer than a plumber? Since it would need to be put into the wall?

Tell me how

You could do it yourself, but, if in doubt, get someone who is familiar with it.

Cold line feeding kitchen sink is generally direct from mains so will have to isolate that at the shutoff outside and your joint will have to withstand this pressure.
Will need a T-Piece and a length of flexible pipe and I would suggest putting a shutoff valve on the line feeding the fridge for future convenience.

Expect fittings would cost about €50 (if plastic) and the same for an hours labour if someone can literally walk in, do it and leave and doesn't have to make a second trip or anything.

If you know an apprentice, they should be able to do it for about €100, all in. Whoever does it, watch and learn and you may be able to tackle similar in future.

Edit, is the wall exposed between the sink and the fridge location or would cabinets hid the pipe?

Outkast_IRE

I don't think half the responses to this are taking account of the fact it sounds like there is a door between the sink and the fridge so it's may not be as simple as running it behind the cupboards in plastic Pipe .

You may need to run a pipe from above and drop it in the stud .

You will only get a correct price on this from someone visiting to price it .

Man with broke phone

Tell me how wrote: »

You could do it yourself, but, if in doubt, get someone who is familiar with it.

Cold line feeding kitchen sink is generally direct from mains so will have to isolate that at the shutoff outside and your joint will have to withstand this pressure.
Will need a T-Piece and a length of flexible pipe and I would suggest putting a shutoff valve on the line feeding the fridge for future convenience.

Expect fittings would cost about €50 (if plastic) and the same for an hours labour if someone can literally walk in, do it and leave and doesn't have to make a second trip or anything.

If you know an apprentice, they should be able to do it for about €100, all in. Whoever does it, watch and learn and you may be able to tackle similar in future.

Edit, is the wall exposed between the sink and the fridge location or would cabinets hid the pipe?

An apprentice will chase a wall around a door frame, drill the studs, run a half inch pipe, put the plaster board he has cut out back on and apply filler and a bit of paint then isolate the water and connect the pipe at both ends, test and put his tools back in his mammies car in an hour and for a 100 euro. Have you got his number I have a start for him monday.

DubLad69

Man with broke phone wrote: »

An apprentice will chase a wall around a door frame, drill the studs, run a half inch pipe, put the plaster board he has cut out back on and apply filler and a bit of paint then isolate the water and connect the pipe at both ends, test and put his tools back in his mammies car in an hour and for a 100 euro. Have you got his number I have a start for him monday.

How much would you expect to pay someone for this? An apprentice or fully qualified?

Man with broke phone

Is the floor concrete or timber, can you lift the tiles under the fridge and under the sink and fish the pipe from A to B and throw the tiles back down so nobody will know.

Tell me how

Man with broke phone wrote: »

An apprentice will chase a wall around a door frame, drill the studs, run a half inch pipe, put the plaster board he has cut out back on and apply filler and a bit of paint then isolate the water and connect the pipe at both ends, test and put his tools back in his mammies car in an hour and for a 100 euro. Have you got his number I have a start for him monday.

Do you know all that is required?

My post was on the premise that it was a typical kitchen installation with fridge and sink on same wall surrounded by units.

JustAThought

Man with broke phone wrote: »

An apprentice will chase a wall around a door frame, drill the studs, run a half inch pipe, put the plaster board he has cut out back on and apply filler and a bit of paint then isolate the water and connect the pipe at both ends, test and put his tools back in his mammies car in an hour and for a 100 euro. Have you got his number I have a start for him monday.

Y but you son’t want your house looking like a 1980’s jigsaw.
OP - I was buying a fridge this year & was thinking about a big american style freestyle one with icemaker. Then I started asking about what ones broke down or what the most common return complaint was... turns out its the icemaker. I’d check maybe online for reviews or ask your local salesguys before I go digging up underfloor hearing and knocking pipes up & through walls.


Also a friend of mine has/had one - very fancy - it always spat out about 6 icecubes and after a few drinks they were out of ice or had to save some of the ice into a tub and then put it back in a freezer compartment! It drove them crazy & wasn’t the sexy all american beer drinking man-fridge they had planned

Tell me how

DubLad69 wrote: »

How much would you expect to pay someone for this? An apprentice or fully qualified?

You could put up a picture so people can more accurately see what the location is like and what is required but I would suggest calling a local plumber and asking them to quote.

You can then discuss the quotes and what they said is required on here but asking for a blind price here could lead to people being out by a factor of 10.

Man with broke phone

DubLad69 wrote: »

How much would you expect to pay someone for this? An apprentice or fully qualified?

Depends how clean you want it done. You could lift a board in the room above and run a pipe up the wall into the ceiling and down the other side. You would need to cut some wall and maybe drill some studs. This then leads to whats on ghe wall and how well you want it patched up. A decent domestic plumber will do that to a standard. A professional plasterer should do it so that it looks like it was never touched. He would probably want 100 euro for the patch up.

About 50 for pipe and fittings, I wouldnt really be bothered doing it for less than 300 or 400 with a plasterer. Its a thankless task, Id run a pipe across there without the door frame for a call out charge and parts to be honest but the door ads a load of hassle.

Is the wall at the sink tiled? Even more hassle

Is the fridge wall to ceiling, can you get a pipe connection from the bathroom or hotpress.

DubLad69

Here is what we are looking at. So the fridge will be going in just to the left side of the door.

I have heard that people have had problems with them alright, but we are set on getting one, just need to be sure that we are getting the right one, and that going for one that requires plumbing isn't a bad idea.

I'm hoping that I could get it done for under €700 with it looking like nothing has changed or that any work was done.

wush06

Tell me how wrote: »

You could put up a picture so people can more accurately see what the location is like and what is required but I would suggest calling a local plumber and asking them to quote.

You can then discuss the quotes and what they said is required on here but asking for a blind price here could lead to people being out by a factor of 10.

This will solve a lot of what can be done by you and what cannot be done by you.

Man with broke phone

And now we seem to have a skylight with no room above so an absolute wall destruction. Full wall replaster aswell seen as its a nice kichen and look like a person who likes their kitchen nice.

Id try ny best to take the pipe connection from anywhere but that sink.

Padre_Pio

DubLad69 wrote: »

Here is what we are looking at. So the fridge will be going in just to the left side of the door.

What's above it?

Just thinking if there's a bathroom on the second floor could you drop a water pipe down to the fridge?

Or instead of chasing around the door, could you run a pipe up the wall, behind the press, over the ceiling and drop it right above the fridge?

DubLad69

Man with broke phone wrote: »

And now we seem to have a skylight with no room above so an absolute wall destruction. Full wall replaster aswell seen as its a nice kichen and look like a person who likes their kitchen nice.

Id try ny best to take the pipe connection from anywhere but that sink.

There is a water connection in the room right behind the sink for the washing machine if that makes it easier? I wouldn't be able to get a photo without taking the washing machine out. Behind the washing machine there is also shut off valves for every pipe in the house. I wouldn't really mind how that wall ends up.

Directly above it is a storage room, with an ensuite beside it, but the ensuite is fully tiled, so I would have thought that'd be an even bigger job.

Tiercel Dave

Two questions that will help,
What's overhead, rooms or attic space?
If attic, how far away is you 'cold water storage tank'?

DubLad69

Tiercel Dave wrote: »

Two questions that will help,
What's overhead, rooms or attic space?
If attic, how far away is you 'cold water storage tank'?

Above the area where there fridge would be is the landing and a storage room. The cold water tank is up in the attic, over across the other side of the house.

Cakerbaker

We have a Bosch American Fridge Freezer that doesn’t have an ice / water dispenser but does have an inbuilt ice section. It does have to be filled manually but we always have ice and have a lot more freezer space as the ice / water dispensers take up a huge portion of the freezer space. Might be an option if the plumbing becomes an issue

Man with broke phone

DubLad69 wrote: »

There is a water connection in the room right behind the sink for the washing machine if that makes it easier? I wouldn't be able to get a photo without taking the washing machine out. Behind the washing machine there is also shut off valves for every pipe in the house. I wouldn't really mind how that wall ends up.

Directly above it is a storage room, with an ensuite beside it, but the ensuite is fully tiled, so I would have thought that'd be an even bigger job.

Can you get a connection from the ensuite sink and run it in a small bit of conduit or step out a skirting board a half inch or so to put the pipe in and run it over to where the fridge is. Then you could drill the tile here and it would be covered in the boxing.
From below you could cut a small patch in the ceiling and try fish the pipe down the wall. You could cut the wall anywhere the fridge covered. This would lead to a situation not needing too much clean up.
Still its not an easy job for the outcome of having a half inch pipe moved that little amount. Id say filing the ice cube tray up once a month and leaving it forgotten in the freezer would be alot less hassle.
Whatever the price it will seem too much.

Outkast_IRE

If it was me i would be looking at running it from above.


The finishes in your current kitchen are pretty clean and patching up and painting unless done by a top top professional is going to look a dogs dinner in that setup .



If your tank is in you attic you have Mains to that which probably runs through a hot press or similar so there may be scope to connect to the mains in the hot press lift a few boards and drop into the stud behind the fridge and hide the vast majority of the work.



My last option would be trying to run it across the kitchen .

That was a bigger job thatnI was picturing in my head. Not a diy job

jenneyk19

500 euro

JoChervil

It has to be connected to mains because it is where drinking water is coming from. And ice is for consuming. You can't drink water from a cold water tank. It is only for a bathroom use.

But because the distance from your fridge is quite far from your kitchen sink, so I think you will have this ice made from water stored in a connecting pipe anyway, so not fresh anyway.

So maybe it would be better to think about any container you could fill manually hidden on the top of the fridge or somewhere upstairs, which would feed your ice maker? But locating it downstairs would be easier to fill from the kitchen tap.

deandean

I'm fairly sure that the water supply to that fridge is only a 6mm pipe. Not a 1/2" pipe. Maybe you could chase the wall and put the 6mm pipe into the chase.

Payton

I know a few people who have the American fridges, they are a ball ache. So you know they give trouble and you'll buy it are willing to spend a few hundred on getting it plumbed in knowing it's not going to give you ice/cold water?

Padre_Pio

deandean wrote: »

I'm fairly sure that the water supply to that fridge is only a 6mm pipe. Not a 1/2" pipe. Maybe you could chase the wall and put the 6mm pipe into the chase.

If it's only 6mm I'd take the skirting and door frame off and route a channel into the back of it.

Man with broke phone

Padre_Pio wrote: »

If it's only 6mm I'd take the skirting off and route a channel into the back of it.

Im not sure the wife would be impressed with skirting running across the bottom of the door. Bit of a trip hazard.

Padre_Pio

Man with broke phone wrote: »

Im not sure the wife would be impressed with skirting running across the bottom of the door. Bit of a trip hazard.

Sorry, I edited the comment above.
I mean up and around the door frame. It looks to be about a half inch thick, could take a 6mm groove in the back, then lay in some flexi pipe.

DubLad69

Padre_Pio wrote: »

Sorry, I edited the comment above.
I mean up and around the door frame. It looks to be about a half inch thick, could take a 6mm groove in the back, then lay in some flexi pipe.

I'll look into that. That's probably my best bet now.

Outkast_IRE

Padre_Pio wrote: »

Sorry, I edited the comment above.
I mean up and around the door frame. It looks to be about a half inch thick, could take a 6mm groove in the back, then lay in some flexi pipe.

Not a bad idea at all , just dont try and bend the 6mm pipe too tight or it will kink.


The downside of this idea is the water will be very cold in the pipe in winter and will probably condense a little on the outside of the pipe, if its in contact with skirting and door frame the wood in it will absorb the condensate and may stain or rot over the years.

Padre_Pio

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Not a bad idea at all , just dont try and bend the 6mm pipe too tight or it will kink.


The downside of this idea is the water will be very cold in the pipe in winter and will probably condense a little on the outside of the pipe, if its in contact with skirting and door frame the wood in it will absorb the condensate and may stain or rot over the years.

You can buy this stuff, super flexible.
https://ie.rs-online.com/web/p/coil-tubing-without-connectors/6862671/

Then get a 6mm router bit and route the groove, leaving enough of a bend so the pipe doesn't kink, push the pipe into the groove, then run tape to hold it in place. The tape would stop air getting near, so you shouldn't get condensation.
All wood absorbs and releases moisture. You'd have to be very unlucky to get noticeable damage.

copacetic

Looks like you have a lovely kitchen there, American fridge will ruin the look of it and they are nothing but trouble in my experience. They don’t even have that much space I know a fair number of people who have had them and gone back to a normal one. Why not try one of those counter top ice/water dispensers for a while and see do you really use it?

Sleeper12

copacetic wrote:

Looks like you have a lovely kitchen there, American fridge will ruin the look of it and they are nothing but trouble in my experience. They don’t even have that much space I know a fair number of people who have had them and gone back to a normal one. Why not try one of those counter top ice/water dispensers for a while and see do you really use it?

I've been using American fridges for over 25 years without issue. First one lasted over 20 years. As for size and space, it depends on what you buy. The come in different sizes. Obviously the cheaper ones are smaller than the more expensive ones. The one we have now holds more than an under counter 3 drawer freezer and the fridge holds more than the standard fridge.

Filtered Ice, crushed ice and chilled water on demand. With the money saved from bottle water they actually pay for themselves. I couldn't live without it at this stage

aido79

If it was me I'd probably just forget about the American fridge as it seems like a lot of hassle to get it plumbed. What about something like this since you seem to have plenty of worktop space?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/3in1-Maker-Dispenser-Water-Display/dp/B07HMBK2CK

Tiercel Dave

JoChervil wrote: »

It has to be connected to mains because it is where drinking water is coming from. And ice is for consuming. You can't drink water from a cold water tank.....

But the feed to the tank will be potable water so it could be sourced there.....

Tiercel Dave

JoChervil wrote: »

It has to be connected to mains because it is where drinking water is coming from. And ice is for consuming. You can't drink water from a cold water tank.....

But the feed to the tank will be potable water so it could be sourced there.....

Sleeper12

Tiercel Dave wrote: »

But the feed to the tank will be potable water so it could be sourced there.....

2 floors above the fridge though. Far easier taking from kitchen sink pop off skirting & architrave & running it that way

embraer170

You can get American fridges with integrated water tanks. It would save the whole plumbing effort.

Markcheese

Does it need a drain pipe as well ? The feed should be relatively easy , you might even be able to use 10 mm copper which would be easier to hide .. ( check the book for the fridge ) .

Deub

I would question putting the fridge there at all. It is a bit of a trek from the sink (you have to go around the counter) and I imagine the stove is close to where the sink is.