Ice Maker input?

I am in the process of remodeling and have replumbed the first floor with PEX (what a wonderful invention.) Our new refrigerator has a water and ice dispensor. The city water in to the water softener and the softened water lines are side by side passing the refrigerator.

My question is - which source for the filtered refrigerator - city or softened water?

Secondary question - perhaps I should find some sort of valve to hook up the 1/4" copper to that allows me to switch between the 2 sources? Then I only have to crawl under the house once to have a choice upstairs? Does such a valve exist, or would I have to kludge one together?

MKB said:

My question is - which source for the filtered refrigerator - city or softened water?

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Sort of a personal choice. Some folks want to avoid the extra sodium in softened water so they don't use it for ice or chilled water. Other folks want to avoid the mineral deposits from extremely hard water so they use softened water for everything.

Speaking from experience, it took several years of use and filter changes to get the hard water taste out of my refrigerator's ice and chilled water system. I used softened water in the 'frige but had a hard time keeping the softener functioning until I added a sediment filter ahead of the softener and then rebuilt the control head. I didn't get the the 'frige's system cleaned out until I moved to a town with naturally soft water.

brasscraft makes a valve for icemakers.connecting toPex I dont know.
To old school I guess.See what they have to offer online.

Our water softener is a Water Boss 900. Supposedly it has a 20 micron, self cleaning, sediment filter built in. Is that sufficient?

My question was due to tales I heard 30 years ago about the 'bad' taste of softened water. Perhaps the sodium was/is the culprit?

I will look up that valve.