Water for refrigerator.

[sirineou]

It has being a few months since we build our house in Khon Kaen, after it was build we had to return to the US and have not being back there yet.We will be coming back in a couple of months for a short time and plan to fully retire there on or about next spring.

We have city water connected to the house, but because I have not spend much time there I am not sure of its quality.The water first goes to a holding tank from where it is pumped in to the house.

The Question:  We are looking to buy a refrigerator, in the 30-60,000 bht price range and many of them have a water and ice dispenser.  Is an ice and water dispenser worth the extra cost?, will we ever use it? I am mostly concerned with the water supply to it. Not sure I can trust the water supplies safety for consumption. would an RO system feeding to the refrigerator be a practical solution? any other ideas?

Thank you

Edited July 20, 2018 by sirineou
typo

[KhunBENQ]

26 minutes ago, sirineou said:

Is an ice and water dispenser worth the extra cost?, will we ever use it?

No.

No.

To my opinion.

 

Buy a big conventional fridge.

There is a good selection in the range up to 12000.

(incl. deep freezer compartment of course)

 

I use ice sold by the shops since years (made by small factories).

Dirt cheap and never had an issue from that.

For convenience I store a bag full in the deep-freezer.

 

Never would I use tap water for any intake/consumption.

You could use it after sophisticated filtering/disinfection (UV). But when will that invest return?

 

Clean water in 20 liter bottles for cooking is dirt cheap.

We drink bottled water, glass bottles bought in crates, Singha brand.

24 bottles of 0.5 liter, 60 Baht.

It's a return empty crate/buy full crate system at many mom&pop shops (same like the 20 liter water bottles).

Edited July 20, 2018 by KhunBENQ

[NanLaew]

IMHO fridges with water/ice dispensers were more trouble than they were worth when I had them in the US. When needed, it was handier to grab bags of ice at the convenience store rather than use stale ice from the fridge's icemaker. Water dispensers can be fickle and susceptible to getting buggered up with debris in the supply. The plumbing was also prone to leaks if mains pressures got out of hand. If you insist of having them, then I recommend that you do install a 3-part water filtration system on your new place.

 

1 - A PP (plastic) particulate filter on the water main coming in, about 800 baht, change filters (200 baht) once a month or more frequently if there's a municipal water disruption and the water is really mucky. This keeps the water in your storage tanks as clean as possible.

 

2 -  A paper particulate filter on the outlet side of your water pump (pressurizing the house water supply). Filters housing around 500 baht and replacement cartridges around 300 baht. Swap these monthly or sooner if the pump starts fast-cycling (indicative of blocked outlet).

 

3 - Put a 2-part (PP & carbon) or 3-part (PP, GAC, carbon) water faucet type filter on any of the taps in the house used for food preparation or drinking. These start at around 800 baht (2-piece) to 1400 baht (3-piece). Replace cartridges every 3 months or so.

 

Assuming your new water dispensing fridge is near a water main (it would need to be), you could put 2-part faucet-style in-line filter in the feed. You can get the fittings to change from the faucet-style outlet to a simple input-output style at hardware shops and water filtration specialists. 

[Artisi]

RO water has some good points and some bad points and is worth the time to read up on it.

 

As for connecting an RO system to your fridge can't see any problems provided you have the enough water pressure to drive the RO system and it can operate automatically on demand. 

 

I opted not to go with a supply fed system - as it only takes a few minutes to replenish the holding tank within the fridge probably once a day in summer and every second day or so in the cooler periods -  at high demand times I usually have an extra ice-tray in the freezer as a back up. 

[moontang]

30k for a fridge is pretty dumb in the US but would be off the map silly here.  Minimize the number of expensive electrics..as stated, you can do fine under 12000.  I just paid 6700 for a two door Toshiba inverter.  Never had a fridge with such consistent temps, and doesn't make a bang, when the compressor turns on.  I would go a little larger for a house.

[Just Weird]

31 minutes ago, sirineou said:

It has being a few months since we build our house in Khon Kaen, after it was build we had to return to the US and have not being back there yet.We will be coming back in a couple of months for a short time and plan to fully retire there on or about next spring.

We have city water connected to the house, but because I have not spend much time there I am not sure of its quality.The water first goes to a holding tank from where it is pumped in to the house.

The Question:  We are looking to buy a refrigerator, in the 30-60,000 bht price range and many of them have a water and ice dispenser.  Is an ice and water dispenser worth the extra cost?, will we ever use it? I am mostly concerned with the water supply to it. Not sure I can trust the water supplies safety for consumption. would an RO system feeding to the refrigerator be a practical solution? any other ideas?

Thank you

"I am mostly concerned with the water supply to it. Not sure I can trust the water supplies safety for consumption".

Why would you think that, any evidence?  Thailand's water supply is perfectly safe and potable.

[KhunBENQ]

Fully safe. Few exceptions

Picture from Khon Kaen, end of May.

 

https://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/1041116-black-tap-water-in-thailand/

 

Edited July 20, 2018 by KhunBENQ

[sirineou]

2 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

Buy a big conventional fridge.

There is a good selection in the range up to 12000.

(incl. deep freezer compartment of course)

 

I use ice sold by the shops since years (made by small factories).

Dirt cheap and never had an issue from that.

For convenience I store a bag full in the deep-freezer

Wife wants a French door refrigerator,(I couldn't care less)  I looked for refrigerators at the Home Pro and for a refrigerator on the 20.5Q size range the seem to be in the 30-45.000 range  . 

As far as buying ice, I am not sure I can trust that they will always use clean water, same goes with those resealable bottle water. I am not sure that they will always clean the bottles, and that ,with the face saving culture in Thailand, that if a contamination problem occurred , they will take responsibility and discard it or keep their mouth shut and sell it.

[sometimewoodworker]

The ice maker on our fridge freezer decided to commit Seppuku a couple of weeks ago, so until we get the part fitted we have to buy ice.

 

my advice, don't buy ice. The problem is that by the time you get it home is has started to melt so when you get the ice out you get 1 big lump that has to be broken up.

 

the ice cubes made by the fridge stay as individual cubes.

 

the ice is safe enough as are the big refilled water bottles, though we do drink water from the 1 time use bottles , the big ones are reserved for cooking and ice making.

[sirineou]

7 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

The ice maker on our fridge freezer decided to commit Seppuku a couple of weeks ago, so until we get the part fitted we have to buy ice.

 

my advice, don't buy ice. The problem is that by the time you get it home is has started to melt so when you get the ice out you get 1 big lump that has to be broken up.

 

the ice cubes made by the fridge stay as individual cubes.

 

the ice is safe enough as are the big refilled water bottles, though we do drink water from the 1 time use bottles , the big ones are reserved for cooking and ice making.

do you use ice cube trays to make ice cubes  with your big bottle water or is it an automatic ice maker, if an automatic ice maker how do you feed bottle water to it?

[UncleTouchyFingers]

I just have a 7,000 Baht RO system with a little tap on it. Fill up old plastic water bottles and put them in the fridge. Usually have 7-8 liters in the fridge nice and cold at all times. Dont even use ice. But if I wanted to I would just buy some cube trays pop them into the freezer using the RO water.

 

Clean drinking water at all times, on tap. Best way to go.

 

You lose ALOT of pressure going through the RO system though, and there is quite a bit of waste water produced by the RO system. Im not sure if you could use the RO water pressure to power/supply your fridge. 

[sometimewoodworker]

23 minutes ago, sirineou said:

do you use ice cube trays to make ice cubes  with your big bottle water or is it an automatic ice maker, if an automatic ice maker how do you feed bottle water to it?

We use the built in ice maker, as the fridge was under 20,000 (I've forgotten the price as it's about 8 years old) it uses a water tank that holds around 2 litres of water that you fill by hand , it is the first thing you see when you open the fridge so topping it up doesn't get missed.

 

It isn't fast but is non stop so usually we have enough.

 

Its one one of the things that once you have one you realise just how convenient it is. When we got it I didn't know you could get one that is plumbed in, now we have it I don't think that I would use one that was directly connected and even if I would SWMBO definitely would not. She doesn't trust the village water for anything other than washing. She will wash rice in it because it gets cooked afterwards. 

[sirineou]

5 minutes ago, sometimewoodworker said:

We use the built in ice maker, as the fridge was under 20,000 (I've forgotten the price as it's about 8 years old) it uses a water tank that holds around 2 litres of water that you fill by hand , it is the first thing you see when you open the fridge so topping it up doesn't get missed.

 

It isn't fast but is non stop so usually we have enough.

 

Its one one of the things that once you have one you realise just how convenient it is. When we got it I didn't know you could get one that is plumbed in, now we have it I don't think that I would use one that was directly connected and even if I would SWMBO definitely would not. She doesn't trust the village water for anything other than washing. She will wash rice in it because it gets cooked afterwards. 

That's interesting. Did the refrigerator come with the bottle that you manually fill , or is it something that you riged?

[sometimewoodworker]

3 minutes ago, sirineou said:

That's interesting. Did the refrigerator come with the bottle that you manually fill , or is it something that you riged?

It's built in, I'm visiting SWMBO's friends this weekend so not at home now, I can take some pictures tomorrow or Monday.

[sometimewoodworker]

Gives a good overview we have the flexible type 

[sometimewoodworker]

On 7/21/2018 at 7:06 AM, sirineou said:

That's interesting. Did the refrigerator come with the bottle that you manually fill , or is it something that you riged?

it holds about 1 litre