Opal Icemaker + Water Line
After much research I bought an Opal Icemaker to get loads of that sweet, sweet nugget ice. I looked for commercial solutions but the price gap is pretty big. So we settled for the Opal. After getting it running for a couple weeks, the refilling of the water was getting annoying. There is a side tank available for $60, but that just kicks the can down the road. What I really wanted was to hook this up to a water line. And luckily I have a water line to my fridge right next to where we put the Opal.
So this basically installs very similarly to the tank, except its hooked up to a water line so it never runs out. You take your water line and put it in the top and secure with the ferule and fitting supplied.
Because of how the opal worked, there was no way to do something similar to other Kuerig type setups as the reservoir is not really accessible without making the whole thing look like a Frankenstein. I searched all over, but any of my googling for "opal water line" ended up with just links to the side tank.
Luckily my friend sent me an image and an amazon link to a valve reservoir thingy, but we weren't able to find it again. So that led me to write this up, so others can live a life of endless nugget ice!
I ended up getting this for roughly the same price as the official side tank:
So this basically installs very similarly to the tank, except its hooked up to a water line so it never runs out. You take your water line and put it in the top and secure with the ferule and fitting supplied.
If your water line is plastic, use a plastic ferule
Once that is set up and leak free, just insert the RIGHT hand tube from the back of the Opal (the same one used by the tank installation) into the bottom of the new Valve Reservoir Assembly. The next bit threw me off, but in hindsight was a duh moment.
You need to keep the water level in the Valve Reservoir Assembly at or below the water level in the Opal reservoir (under the ice bin). So the Valve Reservoir Assembly ends up being set pretty low.
I used some Rare Earth Magnets and Gorilla Glue to attach the assembly to the Opal.
Since then, I haven't even thought about it. The Opal is continuously fed from the water line and there's always a bucket of nugget ice waiting.
| Use Tube B |
You need to keep the water level in the Valve Reservoir Assembly at or below the water level in the Opal reservoir (under the ice bin). So the Valve Reservoir Assembly ends up being set pretty low.
I used some Rare Earth Magnets and Gorilla Glue to attach the assembly to the Opal.
Since then, I haven't even thought about it. The Opal is continuously fed from the water line and there's always a bucket of nugget ice waiting.
