ice and water dispensers - discuss

[simpsongal]

As I dream about a new kitchen, I'm wondering about the best methods of getting ice and filtered water.

Are the fridge built in ones fine?  Have you had a good experience? I think my mom's is so-so, the water dispenser is slow, the ice isn't exactly plentiful and tends to freeze up.  At a vacation house the floor was buckling b/c people clearly spilled and didn't clean up.  A piece of me is enticed by the idea of maximizing fridge and freezer space by having the ice/water elsewhere in the kitceh (we could make a space in the pantry, or near the mudroom for running out the door/sports.

We have a standalone ice/water dispenser at work that's AWESOME - quick, and the ice is that delightful nugget shape.  I looked and they're price though (like $5K for a commercial grade one).  

There are a lot of non commercial, standalone ice and water dispensers on the market (whether you buy in a combo or separately).  Thoughts or experiences on those?  I guess I could get a nugget icemaker (which I've heard are loud) and a water bottle filler.  We'd need a water line for it.....   

[Susie]

I've been thinking about this too, because I now have a (relatively small volume) RO system installed under the kitchen sink, with a secondary faucet.  We installed it using the opening in the granite that once upon a time held a built in soap dispenser.  We don't directly drink the RO water, but we use it for the coffee pot, espresso machine, and humidifiers to eliminate salt build up in those small appliances, and to water my orchids.  We have very hard water, and all of those things (small appliances and orchids) struggle to tolerate the salt buildup.

We still use through the door fridge water, because it's cold.  We used through the door ice until the dispenser broke.  With our kitchen layout, where you have to stand to use it puts you right in the way of a traffic pinch point.  It's not ideal, but I don't have a better answer.  The flip side is that the peninsula counter is really close to the fridge which is handy for putting away groceries or after meals with leftovers.

The one thing that's a firm NO from me is a water dispenser that's inside the fridge.  We had one in our fridge in the last house, and it leads to the door hanging open forever while filling a glass.  Through the door is a storage space tradeoff, but worth it to me.

[definitelyO]

We have our water and ice dispenser on the outside of the fridge door. The water is fine - no issues. The ice... well - it frequently freezes as it's on the door (from what I can tell) vs. inside the unit.

we have another fridge with an ice maker in the freezer (bottom drawer) but no water dispenser. We use a brita pitcher and it's a pain as every time you get 2 glasses of water you have to top it off. We have friends that have a stand alone ice maker - both counter top and built in and they LOVE them - they make the sonic type of ice.

[dr.girlfriend]

We have ice and water on the outside of our fridge door, and I love it. It does cue us to change the filter relatively regularly which is I guess a bit expensive, but probably not compared to any other water filter etc. We have not had big problems with the ice freezing up -- maybe once or twice a year we have to open it (very easy to do) and break a big chunk up but not something regularly. I do keep a dishtowel on the floor to wipe up spills. It was not a problem before but then I got water bottles with a smaller neck and ice spills over the edge sometimes.

If we have a big party or something I do get a separate bag of ice, as it will run out. I had them run a water line in our laundry room when we were doing our renovation -- the fridge in there currently does not have ice/water but we plan to get a new fridge for the kitchen and then move the old fridge in there and we will have ice/water available in two places which might be nice for parties as well.

We have an LG fridge; not sure the model but we got it when our son was in kindergarten and he's in 8th grade now so it's been awhile. The only downside is it has the water thing so that you can fill up pitchers -- you're supposed to put the glass up against the lever and push and it fills from a little spout way above where the ice comes out. Any guest gets confused about where the water is going to come out -- they put the glass under the ice spout and press the water button with their hand and it spills on the floor initially, even if I warn them. I have a beverage dispenser (?) that I fill up for parties now for water just to keep people away from the fridge, lol.

[mpm]

We’re in the very early stages of kitchen planning, and like all things I think it really depends on how much you use and prioritize these items. I don’t even like ice in my beverages so an ice dispenser is a very low priority for me in our planning. Our space is also small and I like how visually a cabinet-paneled refrigerator can make a small space feel bigger so that’s going to be one of our priorities. We have an in-door dispenser now and I don’t think it’s any better tasting or significantly more convenient than a Brita pitcher.

[momin2013]

We have a 10 year old Samsung fridge ::gasp:: that has water and ice on the outside and it works great. The ice is used less frequently but water is used all day long for everything from glasses for drinking to filling the kettle/coffee reservoir. The ice once in a while clumps up a bit in the icemaker and you just need to pull it out and clear it but NBD.

You do need a water line for it - in both of our last houses the basement was unfinished when we moved in so that was very easy to get added.

[hazelden]

I don't care for in door dispensers for ice/water because I feel like they take up too much room. We have a fridge where you just grab ice right from the freezer, there's a button for "ice plus" for times when you need a lot of ice, it's supposed to freeze ice quickly and I think it workswell.

My friend was just telling me that her fridge has a pitcher inside the door that automatically fills, which sounds nice - it still has the door option for ice and water too. It's probably like this one

[CrazyLucky]

I have a fridge similar to dr.girlfriend, maybe even the same one. I very much like having the water dispenser on the door, but like someone else said, it's pretty slow. And while colder than tap water it isn't *cold* so we still keep a Brita in the fridge. I don't like the ice dispenser. It constantly melts a little and then refreezes, so it gets stuck and I have to open the fridge, bang on the ice holder to knock it loose and then try again. This happens every day. Next time we get a fridge, I do not want one where the ice is in the door. I've seen some where the ice is in a compartment inside the fridge, not on the door, and I might be interested in trying for that.
One thing I do really wish we had is the third door/drawer. It seems like it's hard to find things sometimes!

[devonpow]

I’m anti ice and water dispensers - our ice line to the fridge broke while we were away and caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage to our house. The water mitigation company we used said it’s not uncommon because some piece they use is super crappy (I don’t know what - it was a sub zero fridge so wasn’t a cheap fridge either).

We use a GE profile nugget ice maker thst we just keep on our counter and use a Brita for water. Maybe not helpful.

[devonpow]

Oh and the nugget ice maker is LOUD. We are used to it now and don’t notice it anymore, but it’s definitely the drawback to it. The ice is so good though lol

[origami]

I want to like the door dispensers but they keep breaking. I’ve had a Samsung and 2 GEs that all had different issues. We turned off the water line to our current fridge because the drip basin doesn’t drain even after 3 service appointments. I agree with the pp that the mechanics take up too much space on the inside, especially on a French door fridge. We just use ice cube trays now and I wish I could get rid of the whole thing.

[deadwing]

I was excited to have a fridge with a water dispenser/ice maker. It worked for a while, but as far as I can tell, the water pump is mostly dead. It will trickle water out at a drip. I bought a big Zero water filter/tank (it holds about 1.25 gallons) that I keep in the fridge now. My water is ice cold, so I rarely use ice. It fills a cup very quickly. When I last used built in one, it was taking about 5 minutes to fill a 16oz bottle. I fill my 20oz Yeti in seconds from the Zero.

[cmeon]

May 19, 2023 6:59:19 GMT -5 deadwing said:

I was excited to have a fridge with a water dispenser/ice maker. It worked for a while, but as far as I can tell, the water pump is mostly dead. It will trickle water out at a drip. I bought a big Zero water filter/tank (it holds about 1.25 gallons) that I keep in the fridge now. My water is ice cold, so I rarely use ice. It fills a cup very quickly. When I last used built in one, it was taking about 5 minutes to fill a 16oz bottle. I fill my 20oz Yeti in seconds from the Zero.

Fridge dispensers don't use pumps (that I'm aware of, I suppose there may be some special case out there, hah)- they operate with a simple valve. Most slow water issues are filter or tubing related, though, and both are easy fixes.

[deadwing]

May 19, 2023 14:12:13 GMT -5 cmeon said:

May 19, 2023 6:59:19 GMT -5 deadwing said:

I was excited to have a fridge with a water dispenser/ice maker. It worked for a while, but as far as I can tell, the water pump is mostly dead. It will trickle water out at a drip. I bought a big Zero water filter/tank (it holds about 1.25 gallons) that I keep in the fridge now. My water is ice cold, so I rarely use ice. It fills a cup very quickly. When I last used built in one, it was taking about 5 minutes to fill a 16oz bottle. I fill my 20oz Yeti in seconds from the Zero.

Fridge dispensers don't use pumps (that I'm aware of, I suppose there may be some special case out there, hah)- they operate with a simple valve. Most slow water issues are filter or tubing related, though, and both are easy fixes.

Interesting.  Based on the sound, I assumed a pump was involved.

[k3am]

Our old fridge had two ice makers - one in the door, one in the freezer. Seemed stupid until one broke. When we replaced it, DH was adamant that we get another with two. Seemed stupid again.. until one broke.

I'm not a fan of the in door stuff based on speed - I almost always prefer to just scoop it out from the freezer and use the sink to fill up my glass with water.

[simpsongal]

May 18, 2023 15:53:21 GMT -5 devonpow said:

Oh and the nugget ice maker is LOUD. We are used to it now and don’t notice it anymore, but it’s definitely the drawback to it. The ice is so good though lol

very helpful - all of this is.

We use our Britta a ton and not much ice. But we like ice it’s just bc we have an old fridge and 2 ice cube trays.

It seems like appliances are going lower and lower quality. So I’m leaning towards the fewer bells and whistles the better. Something to think about for sure.

[mrsukyankee]

We have a water & ice thing in our fridge. I tend to drink tap water (it's fine) but if I want colder water, the fridge water is good (yes, it's slower, no I don't care). The ice dispenser is fabulous.

[magpie]

We have a water dispenser on the fridge door, but the icemaker is just a drawer you scoop from in the freezer. Ultimately, we chose this model because we had a tight space and this was the only water dispenser option in the size we could fit. I like it a lot because I use the water all the time (I love cold water!) and we don't have to deal with a clogged ice dispenser or ice cubes shooting onto the floor (I'm sure there are ice dispensers that don't do this, but all the ones I've used regularly had these issues). It also doesn't take up very much room form the fridge door. Previously, we had a fridge with the water dispenser inside the fridge and that was fine, but I like it in the door better because it's super easy to get a glass of cold water.

[ssmjlm]

I have a kid who wants ice cold water. It is 100x easier for her to get it herself from the fridge and she doesn't have to open the door, so then I don't have to hear the alarm because she forgot to shut it (which doesn't happen often, but one less thing, ya know?).

We also have the autofill feature which is a lifesaver when you're trying to fill up a water bottle to prep for school the next day or to take on the weekend. Sounds weird, but I can just place, hit the button, grab snacks/bags, it dings when it's done, and head out.

[libbygrl109]

We opted for an in-the-door ice and water dispenser on our new fridge. We love the convenience. The water does come out pretty quickly, we’ve never had the ice clog, and it tells us when we need to change the filter.

My mother has an inside-the-fridge water dispenser and it’s just OK. I don’t like having the door open the whole time to fill a glass, and it’s awkward to get anything larger in there to fill.

[libbygrl109]

We opted for an in-the-door ice and water dispenser on our new fridge. We love the convenience. The water does come out pretty quickly, we’ve never had the ice clog, and it tells us when we need to change the filter.

My mother has an inside-the-fridge water dispenser and it’s just OK. I don’t like having the door open the whole time to fill a glass, and it’s awkward to get anything larger in there to fill.

[twinmomma]

Related question: How do you clean out the in door ice and water dispenser? We just bought a new house and it's been sitting empty since January. There's hard water from the well and we can see there's stuff caked up in the dispenser. Is there a way we can run some kind of cleaner through it somehow? Or is it just no longer functional for us?

[doctoranda]

Interesting fact: in the fridge in our rental (forgot brand) when you would replace the water filter the fridge would dispense water a LOT faster. So when our water started to come out slow we would replace filter. In our newly purchased home the fridge is not plumbed yet and so we now use a Britta and ice cube trays. It turns out the fridge does not have a water dispenser but it does make ice. Husband is sad about it, I think a Britta works just fine (but I am European ;-))

[deadwing]

May 19, 2023 14:12:13 GMT -5 cmeon said:

May 19, 2023 6:59:19 GMT -5 deadwing said:

I was excited to have a fridge with a water dispenser/ice maker. It worked for a while, but as far as I can tell, the water pump is mostly dead. It will trickle water out at a drip. I bought a big Zero water filter/tank (it holds about 1.25 gallons) that I keep in the fridge now. My water is ice cold, so I rarely use ice. It fills a cup very quickly. When I last used built in one, it was taking about 5 minutes to fill a 16oz bottle. I fill my 20oz Yeti in seconds from the Zero.

Fridge dispensers don't use pumps (that I'm aware of, I suppose there may be some special case out there, hah)- they operate with a simple valve. Most slow water issues are filter or tubing related, though, and both are easy fixes.

So I just got a new fridge today... and when they dropped off the new one, they took the WATER PUMP out of the old one and left it for the water line guy to deal with because my shut off valve was faulty.  The pump tickled something in my brain and I finally remembered this thread.  So at least some refrigerators use a water pump.

[cmeon]

Aug 16, 2023 11:15:15 GMT -5 deadwing said:

May 19, 2023 14:12:13 GMT -5 cmeon said:

Fridge dispensers don't use pumps (that I'm aware of, I suppose there may be some special case out there, hah)- they operate with a simple valve. Most slow water issues are filter or tubing related, though, and both are easy fixes.

So I just got a new fridge today... and when they dropped off the new one, they took the WATER PUMP out of the old one and left it for the water line guy to deal with because my shut off valve was faulty.  The pump tickled something in my brain and I finally remembered this thread.  So at least some refrigerators use a water pump.

Interesting! Do you have low water pressure, or reverse osmosis or something weird like that? I know they add booster pumps in situations where the water source doesn't have the necessary PSI. Another thought- thr compressor (or compressors, in some cases) are technically pumps- but they're not part of the dispenser system (they are part of the cooling system). I think it would be unusual to refer to them as a pump, but maybe? Lol

Do you know the make/model # of your old fridge? If we can find a schematic for its parts, we may be able to solve this yet!

[deadwing]

cmeon I took a picture of a label with the dimensions and probably the model # of the old fridge before I went shopping, but I've deleted it. It was a counter-depth Frigidaire model that was probably between 7 and 12 years old. That's all I've got. It was built into the fridge, not an external device. I do not have a reverse osmosis filtration system or low pressure or anything else weird to my knowledge. I replaced it with this: www.frigidaire.com/en/p/kitchen/refrigerators/french-door-refrigerators/GRQC2255BF

[cmeon]

Aug 16, 2023 12:32:19 GMT -5 deadwing said:

cmeon I took a picture of a label with the dimensions and probably the model # of the old fridge before I went shopping, but I've deleted it. It was a counter-depth Frigidaire model that was probably between 7 and 12 years old. That's all I've got. It was built into the fridge, not an external device. I do not have a reverse osmosis filtration system or low pressure or anything else weird to my knowledge. I replaced it with this: www.frigidaire.com/en/p/kitchen/refrigerators/french-door-refrigerators/GRQC2255BF

Oh well! Thanks for the update, your fridge looks great and I hope it serves you better than that last weirdo (haha)!