# Ice maker is tapped into the hot water line...



## cbzdel (May 11, 2010)

i have never seen it.. but in my opinion it it would be fine.. 99% of the time the it would never even see hot water.. I mean the ice tray takes what a 1/4 of a gallon at the most, I am sure it takes more than that for the hot water to reach the faucet. The only time you may get hot water if if you are doing dishes or cooking or something and the water in that line is already hot once the freezer kick on.

It may have just been easier to tap into that line?

But again I see no problem with it.


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## Mike Swearingen (Mar 15, 2005)

I have heard of people deliberately tapping an ice maker water supply into a hot water line because there is a theory out there that says that it "freezes faster than cold water".
I don't buy that, but I have seen it mentioned from time to time on various DIY sites. Pesonally, mine has always been tapped into the cold line.
I agree with cbzdel. It really doesn't matter that much. You're going to get cold water out of the end of a hot line at first probably almost all of the time that the ice maker calls for it. Not worth changing.
Mike


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## COLDIRON (Mar 15, 2009)

I would never leave a ice maker tied into a hot water line Why? It just does not make sense and it's wrong. Cold water only change it. Quite a few people out there think hot water freezes before cold water ..Wrong cold water freezes faster facts are BTU ratings. Cold water is already ahead of hot water because you have to lower the temp to start freezing process it takes less time to lower cold water temps than hot water.

By the way that was a very good question.


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## hawks81 (Jul 6, 2010)

Thanks for your helpful advice! I agree with everything all 3 of you have said 100%. I just wondered if there was a reason someone would have done it and a frozen line was one thing i thought of. Obviously if you guys have never seen it then it's not normal. 

The only other thing I could have seen as a reasonable thought would be that hot water has less minerals in it than cold water (I maybe be wrong) and therefore would keep the ice maker a bit cleaner from mineral deposits?


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## McSteve (Dec 8, 2009)

It's probably not a big deal, but around here at least (Minneapolis, MN), we're told to consider hot water as almost non-potable, especially for children. Something about hot water having more lead leeched from solder joints, and other badness from sitting in the tank. We've always been told to only use cold water for drinking/cooking, and to let it run for a while to get water that hasn't been sitting the pipes.

If it were me, I'd probably try to move the icemaker tap to a cold water line. Something about freezing hot water just seems... inefficient.


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## drtbk4ever (Dec 29, 2008)

Actually warmer water can sometimes "Begin" to freeze faster than colder water. Read attached Scientific American article.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=is-it-true-that-hot-water

Whether this applies to your icemaker is anyone's guess. But personally I would prefer to see it connect to the cold water line.


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## COLDIRON (Mar 15, 2009)

Never happen in a standard environment , it's just a couple wacky Scientist writing Baloney.


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## drtbk4ever (Dec 29, 2008)

Wow, nice post.


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## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

Lets be considerate to all members.


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## COLDIRON (Mar 15, 2009)

changed answer, desired not to reply with what was written. Sorry to ofend you.


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## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

Some guys do tap into the hot water line under the though that the hot water will have left alot of the waters sediments in the water heater tank. Which in turn will alow the water to freeze faster. Since minerals/sediments, have the tendency to slow down the freezing process.

Take 2 glasses of the same amount of ROOM temp water. Add 1 teaspoon of salt to one of them. Put them both in the freezer. Check in 30 ,minutes. And you will see the one with salt in it isn't freezing/icing up yet. Depending on how much salt. The water must drop to a temp of 20°F to freeze.



But, tapping into the hot water line to freeze faster also won't work just because its hot. Since the water in the water line will cool off to room temp while the maker is making ice, and either way, most of the time you end up with room temp water going into it.


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## COLDIRON (Mar 15, 2009)

The salt works the other way around in a glass full of ice and water.. put thermometer in the glass of ice and water until it reaches 32 deg then start pouring salt in and it will go below 32 deg. due to the quick melting of the ice and evaporation.


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## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

Has to have ice for the salt to melt. To lower the temp quicker.

Thats how we made ice cream a long time ago.

Remember, water freezes at 32°F. And ice thaws at 32°F.

There is only 144 BTUs difference between a pound of 32° ice, and a pound of 32° water.


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## rjniles (Feb 5, 2007)

When I re-plumbed my house last year with PEX (had PB), I purposefully connected my ice maker on the hot side. 

Here is my rational:

The ice maker will never actually get hot water as the piping is too long.

I have a well and very hard water, lots of iron and calcium. With the icemaker on cold water I used to get very cloudy ice. Now the water heater precipitates out some (or a lot) of the minerals and my ice is clear.

The lead argument for me is not a consideration as I have no copper or solder in my system.

Works for me.


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## dave53 (Jul 12, 2010)

Homes with a water softener will always have soft water plumbed to the water heater. You shouldn't drink a lot of softened water unless you need more salt in your diet.


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## Mike in Arkansas (Dec 29, 2008)

A former appliance repair person told me to use hot water for the ice maker because the ice would be less cloudy. Never tried it so can't confirm.
About hot water freezing faster than cold I can only say this. If you put a cube tray of cold along with a cube tray of hot in a freezer, they will freeze at the same time because the heat contained in the hot tray will give up it's heat to everything in the freezer including the cold tray.


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## hawks81 (Jul 6, 2010)

lmao..... i wasn't aware that I was asking such a controversial question!!!! :laughing:


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## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

hawks81 said:


> lmao..... i wasn't aware that I was asking such a controversial question!!!! :laughing:


It could be weeks before an agreement is reached. :laughing:


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## COLDIRON (Mar 15, 2009)

hawks81 said:


> lmao..... i wasn't aware that I was asking such a controversial question!!!! :laughing:


I told you it was a good question. I had the vibe when I saw it.:yes:


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## hawks81 (Jul 6, 2010)

In response to those refering to hot water making clearer ice because of less minerals, from my hvac schooling and being a aquarium hobbyist, isn't cloudy ice cubes from cold water caused by the fact that cold water holds a much greater quantity of oxygen and it is the oxygen that makes it cloudy?


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## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

Oxygen content has a bearing. But its not the only cause of cloudy ice.


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## MikeyD58 (Mar 17, 2012)

*Ice maker tapped into hot water line...*

I know this is an older post, but the reason I originally did it was because I didn't originally have an ice maker and I had tapped the dishwasher into the hot water. 

Then when I added an ice maker, rather than redo the plumbing I just added a "T" to the existing shutoff to save some steps. 

I just now upgraded the refrigerator which now has ice maker and in-door water. So while I figured the amount of water needed to make ice wouldn't be an issue, now that we're also drinking water from that line, I wanted to see if there was anything wrong with it. 

Glad it turns out that it's not an issue. Thanks everyone.:thumbsup:


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## Alan (Apr 12, 2006)

COLDIRON said:


> I would never leave a ice maker tied into a hot water line Why? It just does not make sense and it's wrong. Cold water only change it. Quite a few people out there think hot water freezes before cold water ..Wrong cold water freezes faster facts are BTU ratings. Cold water is already ahead of hot water because you have to lower the temp to start freezing process it takes less time to lower cold water temps than hot water.
> 
> By the way that was a very good question.


People are misinterpreting that because what actually happens is that the the hot water cools at a faster rate than the cold when you take the entire timeline into account. The temperature drop per second overall is greater. BUT once that hot water reaches the same temperature as the cold water, there's no magic juice in the hot water that makes it freeze faster from that point.

:whistling2:

I don't know how people get "Hot water freezes faster" from that, though.

:huh:


In response to the OP : I'd change it. You're going to eventually have the risk of getting anode rod particles flaking off and getting into your icemaker filter and plugging it up pretty quickly. That's if the particles don't plug up the tiny 1/4" water line first.


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## beenthere (Oct 11, 2008)

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/hot_water.html


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## Doorman54 (Feb 22, 2012)

All I know is when I push the lever for ice.....it comes out!!
When I look in the bin its full. 

For the record mines on the cold water line under the sink


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## MikeyD58 (Mar 17, 2012)

Alan said:


> People are misinterpreting that because what actually happens is that the the hot water cools at a faster rate than the cold when you take the entire timeline into account. The temperature drop per second overall is greater. BUT once that hot water reaches the same temperature as the cold water, there's no magic juice in the hot water that makes it freeze faster from that point.
> 
> :whistling2:
> 
> ...


Well, I had my last icemaker connected to the hotwater for at least 10 years with no issue, if this one clogs before then, so be it.


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## COLDIRON (Mar 15, 2009)

Wow, History repeats itself. It's nice to know we can go back in time and see what people's responses were. I often do that looking for answer's.

"Cold water freezes before Hot water"


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## jaydevries (Jan 29, 2012)

ok so then does water boil faster when you add salt to it  or is it the food cooks faster since it boils at hotter temp.:thumbup:


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## hammerlane (Oct 6, 2011)

Before tiling kitchen floor we disconnected the old saddle valve and 1/4" copper tubing that was being used to feed the refrigerator in kitchen. This saddle valve was attached on a cold 3/4" water pipe in basement.

I wanted 1/2 copper ran up thru kitchen floor with a:
ball valve shutoff in basement and 
1/4 turn shutoff behind the fridge...similar to photo. 

In basement, after we cut out the section of 3/4" cold line to eliminate hole from saddle valve piercing, I was ready to install a 3/4 x 3/4 x 1/2 "T" so that the 1/2" branch of the "T" would supply the fridge. My buddy was ready to install a 3/4 coupling to repair the cold line because he wanted to cut into the hot water line to supply the fridge.

At first I thought he was bustin balls. Says thats how its suppose to be. When I realized he was serious I told him he's nuts. He told me to check the fridge manual. We stopped production, wife was yelling because water was still off but according to the Maytag manual: see photo below



Dont know what it means but is from Maytag refrigerator manual:


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## Hardway (Dec 28, 2011)

COLDIRON said:


> The salt works the other way around in a glass full of ice and water.. put thermometer in the glass of ice and water until it reaches 32 deg then start pouring salt in and it will go below 32 deg. due to the quick melting of the ice and evaporation.


 
making ice cream by hand.:thumbsup:


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