Yep. Maybe we should just outlaw water hearters. After all we are bathing in that filty, contaminated,lead infested, hot water.

Hospitals are full of alzheimer patients that they have no idea what is caused by, and a myriad of other maladies of unknown cause. I am not suggesting that hot water tanks are full of poison or even harmful contamination, but YOU are saying that they are NOT. Thank you Doctor Plumber.

Your logic is not consistent, if you don't think there are contaminants in the water heater what your objection to making ice from water that has passed through the heater? Alzheimer's is a genetically inheirted disease

My 50 year old house that I haved lived in for 15 years, is piped with copper lines and the solder composition is unknown to me. Just to try to be safer I run my cold tap water for a few minutes before using it for drinking, etc. per numerous "authorities" that recommend that you do that. I had noticed years earlier that the original plumber had tapped the hot water line for the icemaker and I thought he had obviously made a mistake but didn't think anything much of it. Now we learn that hot water is used for cosmetic purposes.
Both of the original owners of this house died with Alzheimer's disease after having consumed hot water tank ice for 35 years. Is this a coincidence? YES it probably is! But I'm not going to say it doesn't have anything to do with it. Whatever caused their disease is unknown.
All this reminds me of when I was renting a room in Lafayette, La. In a lady's house and the contract pest control tech said he was going to spray my room. I said that I would prefer that he didn't. He replied "Oh, it won't hurt you!" No, maybe not now, but how about in 20 or 30 years?
Water from the hot water tank? "Oh, it won't hurt you!" That's a statement that I would be afraid to make even if it is true.

I would say that the previous owner more likely died from Alzheimer's because he used that new fangle electricity to cook with.

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Originally Posted by hkstroud

Your logic is not consistant, if you don't think there are contaminants in the water heater what your objection to making ice from water that has passed thru the heater? Alzheimer's is a genetically inheirted disease

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From Dictionary.com: Alzheimer's disease:

A common form of dementia of unknown cause, usually beginning in late middle age, characterized by memory lapses, confusion, emotional instability, and progressive loss of mental ability.

It does say UNKNOWN doesn't it? It doesn't say of genetic cause does it?

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Originally Posted by hkstroud

I would say that the previous owner more likely died from Alzheimer's because he used that new fangle electricty to cook with.

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Or maybe electromagnetic waves emanating from 30,000 volt power lines.

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Originally Posted by hkstroud

Yep. Maybe we should just outlaw water hearters. After all we are bathing in that filty, contaminated,lead infested, hot water.

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I hope you're not going to suggest that you're going to go green and recycle that bath water to the ice maker!

Yep from my bath to your ice maker.

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Both of the original owners of this house died with Alzheimer's disease after having consumed hot water tank ice for 35 years. Is this a coincidence? YES it probably is! But I'm not going to sa it doesn't have anything to do with it. Whatever caused their disease is unknown.

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My Gawd! So that's what's been killing off our older residents here in Florida?
They didn't die from old age. They all had the dreaded "HOT WATER DISEASE from bathing in hot water. OK! THAT"S IT!!! From now on hot water's outlawed in Florida. Commonsense has just solved a medical mystry.
He has discovered the root cause of Alzheimer's disease and I'll bet he's not even a doctor. It's been water heaters all along. Way ta go commnon!! And ya can bet yo bippy that your pipe joints were all soldered with 50/50 solder in that 50 year old house of yours.
I dunno much about "dementia" but it seems to me that if you can catch it by association I want to stay away from you. Regards, Tom

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Originally Posted by hkstroud

yep from my bath to your ice maker.

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That retort has already been used.

Well folks, the Plumber/Scientists are shooting me down. Come on over to the HVACTalk forum where things really get hot. Bye.

Interesting post. I stumbled on this topic as I am about to put a fridge with a water line in the former location of a water heater, so both hot and cold lines are nearby. I was hoping to find a clearcut answer on which one to hook to. You all make good points, some I think more relevant than others.

I wanted to throw out another pointless fact. Hot water freezes more quickly than cold.

Can hot water freeze faster than cold water?

Given the ambient room temperature, this probably matters little, if any.

Plumb guy,

The link is correct, I support cold and you can use the hot water connection too, in most states it is connected to the cold supply, so lets use the cold side let this post to rest and the case is closed, Thanks.

John

I don't have an answer for this question. I came across this information by doing Google search. I live in a condo that was severely damaged as a result of a flood last May. My whole first floor had to be torn out to the studs. I just moved back in to my restored condo and have all new appliances in my kitchen. My new refrigerator is the kind that has a water dispenser and it was dispensing hot water at first. I was very concerned because I thought it was something that needed to be corrected and might require a lot of work. However, if I am understanding speedball1's answers correctly, it appears that everything is okay. If that's the case then I am very relieved.

On post#4 of this thread In gave a reason for hooking the ice maker to hot water. For three reeasons.
1) It freezes faster\
2) the cubes aren't cloudy with air bubbles **and**'
3) The water in the ice maker supply wei will cool to room temperature between draws if the supply line is 6 to 10 feet long, I'm not sure about the performance if the supply's shorter.
Here's what I wrote;

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There's a reason we take a ice maker off a hotwater supply. No matter if the ice maker is connected to the hot or cold supply the water that reaches the ice maker will always remain the same temperature, and that temperature is set by the ambient room temperature. Let's follow the water as it leaves the supply on it's way to the icemaker. When installed we usually harvest a few loads if ice cubes to flush out any impurities in the icemaker line. Then the icemaker shuts off the flow of water to the tray leaving the 1/8th ice maker supply full of water that's trapped in the line and there it sets warming up, ( or cooling down) to room temperature until another draw is made.
The run from the supply to the ice maker's usually 6 to 8 feet long so the water trapped in the supply will be ample to fill the ice cube tray.
So! You say. If the water reaches the icemaker at room temperature what difference does it make if we supply from hot or cold?
Would you believe the clarity of the ice cube? Water that sets in a hot water tank deoxygenates so that the ice cubes come out clear while ice cubes that come off a cold water supply have many bubbles that make the ice cube cloudy. And now you know the rest of the story.

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Good luck, Tom

Sorry, Speedball, I agree with commonsense. If anybody hooked my refrigerator to the hot water line, I would not use him again as my plumber and would make sure he rerouted it to the cold water line. Clear ice? Freezes faster? Give me a break, hot water side water tastes really bad. You can drink it if you want, but not me! Besides, the water dispenser would surely be dispensing hot water by the time even one glass was filled in many installations. What about the situation where there is a circulation pump? Or when you are having a party for teens? I have a Hotpoint which does not even chill the water. We sometimes take as much as a gallon out of there. It is not used for ice only.

Hello Jdubya,

Will come to this web site stick around and you will learn more and we will learn from you too, FYI speedball is the master and he is out sick wait, He will respond back to you when he recovers, Thanks.

John

johnterry91: Sorry but I don't know what question you are trying to answer. If hot water being dispensed by the refrigerator can be caused by the refrigerator filter, I sure would like to know how. If a person wants clear ice cubes and doesn't give a rip what they taste like - go for it, hook the thing up to the hot water side. If not, better hook it up to the cold side. Your answer is over a year late - hardly consideration in sorting it out quickly.

Hi,
This is a very interesting discussion, and I'm surprised to learn that hot water is used intentionally for refrigerator hookup. It's like one of those things that goes against our everyday common experience, such as quantum theory.
I moved into a 10 year old house recently and just bought a refrigerator with water dispenser and ice maker. The manual recommended to flush out 3 gallons of water before drinking. Half way through this process, I noticed the water getting really hot. This seems very odd to me, so I did a search and found this website. Our previous house, only 5 years old, had the line hooked up to cold water, so it seems really odd to me to have hot water. Also, I found this hobbyist article during my search, that readers here might find interesting regarding hot vs cold water:
http://www.h2oc.com/pdfs/Refrigerator.pdf
Actually the study mainly focuses on filtered vs. tap water, and is in Missouri, but does show that the hot tap water has a couple more particles in it, probably from the hot water tank.
I'd like to reroute to cold water instead of hot, but not sure how to do this. I'm not a handy person, so I'd probably hire someone to do it, and I'm guessing that would be fairly expensive.
I personally don't care so much about clear vs. cloudy ice cubes. I just don't like the idea of running hot water into a cold refrigerator. I think someone brought up a point about the refrigerator working harder to cool the water. Not sure if true, but seems reasonable. Also, would prefer to have cooler water than hot, especially during summer.

Hi Newfridg and Welcome to The Plumbing Page. At AskMeHelpDesk.com. You're responding to a 6 year old dead thread Look in then upper left hand corner of the first post form the date before you post, Thanks,

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I just don't like the idea of running hot water into a cold refrigerator. I think someone brought up a point about the refrigerator working harder to cool the water. Not sure if true, but seems reasonable. Also, would prefer to have cooler water than hot, especially during summer.

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This is your choice.
However you are wrong in your conclusions. If the icemaker line comes off the kitchen sink it will come to room temperature between draws. This, no matter if the water's hot or cold. So that shoots that a argument down.
As far as nasty sediment the hot water you sick, you both bath in it and use it to cook. So there goes another argument out the window. I still stick by my statement.
1) It freezes faster\
2) the cubes aren't cloudy with air bubbles **and**'
3) The water in the ice maker supply wei will cool to room temperature between draws if the supply line is 6 to 10 feet long, I'm not sure about the performance if the supply's shorter.
Ya just can't argue against facts. Good luck, Tom