Refrigerator not connected to the dedicated water outlet right behind it

[qchero]

I recently moved into a house and found the refrigerator getting water from a 10ft water line connected to the kitchen sink.
But what's strange is that there is a water outlet right behind the refrigerator. And when I turned on the valve the water came right out.

Does anyone have any idea?
Perhaps they wanted to use a single filter for both the kitchen sink and the refrigerator? But then the refrigerator has its own filter anyway...

 

[havasu]

I'm certain that plumbed the fridge to a reverse osmosis system which was installed under the sink. I am now considering this myself.
My neighbor is retired from the water industry, and allowed me to use his PPM tester recently. My water from the tap is about 500 PPM of impurities. I then tested my R/O system under the sink, and discovered it to be 50 PPM. Just for craps and giggles, I opened a 12 oz bottle of Costco bottled water, and it too came in at 50 PPM. I then went to my fridge, with a brand new filter, and discovered that I was reading at 480 PPM, nearly as bad as non-filtered tap water.

Bottom line is the fridge filters are so poorly designed, they really don't remove much impurities and this is why many want to plumb a good R/O quality drinking water into the fridge.

 

[qchero]

Ah, that makes sense. Guess the previous owners took the system away with them, but we will install our one. Thanks!

 

[jeffmattero76]

I'm certain that plumbed the fridge to a reverse osmosis system which was installed under the sink. I am now considering this myself.
My neighbor is retired from the water industry, and allowed me to use his PPM tester recently. My water from the tap is about 500 PPM of impurities. I then tested my R/O system under the sink, and discovered it to be 50 PPM. Just for craps and giggles, I opened a 12 oz bottle of Costco bottled water, and it too came in at 50 PPM. I then went to my fridge, with a brand new filter, and discovered that I was reading at 480 PPM, nearly as bad as non-filtered tap water.

Bottom line is the fridge filters are so poorly designed, they really don't remove much impurities and this is why many want to plumb a good R/O quality drinking water into the fridge.

Havasu - I am unfamiliar with RO systems. Do they require filter changes? If so, how often and what is the cost.

From your measurements, I am not happy paying $50 for a refrigerator filter every 6 months or so, if that refrigerator filter is doing little to nothing.

 

[Jamesplumbing06]

Lol $50 that’s funny. Reverse osmosis filters are much more. But every year. Fridge filter doesn’t filter water for ice. R o system is the best thing for you. Tap a fountain head at kitchen sink too. It does save you on buying bottled water. But likely they changed water supply due to the valve in wall leaking while water is on. Check that before celebrating also.

 

[havasu]

M fridge filter is about $40 every 6 months, and the R/O system has 3 filters that cost about $120 a year. Yeah, very pricey.

 

[TomFOhio]

havasu, check out discountfilterstore.com. You can get filters a lot cheaper for the fridge. I buy ours there. You can
cross over your model number to get an generic filter. They fit and work great on ours.

 

[havasu]

Thanks Tom. Ive seen that site before, and they are $4 more than my local Home Depot for my filter, plus shipping costs.

 

[TomFOhio]

Wow, I matched our model number to what they sell. I purchased to fridge filters for less that 20.00 with free
shipping. I'll have to look at the site again to see if things have changed.

 

[havasu]

Because of this thread, I looked at my fridge filter and saw it was dated July, 2017. They are supposed to be changed out every 6 months. I went to Home Depot and bought a 2 pack for $44 plus tax, so it was about $47. Now I have a clean, new filter.

Does everyone write the date on their filters so you know when to change them?

 

[havasu]

I also just checked my filter at discountfilterstore.com, and a two pack runs $58.99, and at my Home Depot, they were $44 for a 2 pack, so this site is $14 more than just going down the street and picking one up.

https://www.discountfilterstore.com...rigerator-water-filter-replacement-tier1.html

 

[TomFOhio]

That's great, I'm glad that you found a cheaper price. We all like that.

 

[sawsaw]

I'm certain that plumbed the fridge to a reverse osmosis system which was installed under the sink. I am now considering this myself.
My neighbor is retired from the water industry, and allowed me to use his PPM tester recently. My water from the tap is about 500 PPM of impurities. I then tested my R/O system under the sink, and discovered it to be 50 PPM. Just for craps and giggles, I opened a 12 oz bottle of Costco bottled water, and it too came in at 50 PPM. I then went to my fridge, with a brand new filter, and discovered that I was reading at 480 PPM, nearly as bad as non-filtered tap water.

Bottom line is the fridge filters are so poorly designed, they really don't remove much impurities and this is why many want to plumb a good R/O quality drinking water into the fridge.

 

[sawsaw]

FWIW, I've been reading about reverse osmosis for my residence. I learned that system uses a staggering the gallons of water to produce one filtered gallon. Also, it's reported, because of what's removed from the filtered water, that water will leech copper from the copper water lines it runs through...

 

[chiraldude]

FWIW, I've been reading about reverse osmosis for my residence. I learned that system uses a staggering the gallons of water to produce one filtered gallon. Also, it's reported, because of what's removed from the filtered water, that water will leech copper from the copper water lines it runs through...

Some clarifications:
The fridge filters typically use activated carbon. Carbon doesn't remove dissolved minerals (hard water) but what it does very well is remove organic compounds that you can taste and smell. Usually water hardness is not an issue for drinking because you can't taste ppm levels of Calcium and Magnesium but if you are concerned about heavy metals like Lead, Cadmium, etc... then you would want to consider RO. RO systems typically remove 90% of dissolved minerals including heavy metals.
Yes, there are drawbacks to RO. As sawsaw mentioned, they discharge 7-10 gallons down the drain for every gallon of purified water you get out. You can get more efficient ones but they are also more expensive. Removing minerals from the water lowers its pH a bit so RO is more corrosive to pipes but you should never run RO water through anything but plastic tubing anyway. In fact, most RO systems will be shipped with extra plastic tubing that is specially designed for drinking water so that it doesn't impart any taste or smell to the water.
As with the other filters discussed here, RO system costs can vary widely. Culligan will charge $400 or more for a system plus install. Big box stores sell very cheap units but I don't recommend them as they are on the bottom of the quality range.