First, you need to find your refrigerator’s water inlet valve. It’s usually hiding behind the bottom kickplate, like a shy monster under the bed. You’ll have to crawl on the floor, and I promise you will find crumbs from that sandwich you ate in 2019.
Once you’ve located the valve, you will realize your fridge has been mocking you this whole time. It has a little plastic cap that says, “Remove for ice maker.” That cap is not a suggestion—it’s a dare. Remove it and a tiny spring will fly into the void of your kitchen, never to be seen again. Pro tip: do this inside a clear plastic bag.
The Copper vs. Plastic Showdown
Now you need tubing. You have two choices: copper, which is tough like a boxer, or plastic, which is flexible like a yoga instructor after three cups of coffee. The internet will tell you copper is more durable, but it’s also the kind of metal that will kink if you look at it wrong. I once tried to bend copper tubing and it kinked so badly it looked like a paperclip that had been in a bar fight.
Plastic tubing, on the other hand, is forgiving. It will snake behind your fridge like a lazy python, and you can cut it with a pair of scissors. Just don’t use your wife’s good sewing scissors. I learned that lesson the hard way, and now I buy my own scissors in secret. They’re my lucky tubing scissors now.
