ᐅ American-style refrigerator

Hello everyone, I am the new member from Frankfurt Hausen.
My wife wants an "American-style refrigerator,"
and she will get one, but it requires a water connection.
Who has experience with this?
Can I use a copper pipe up to the water tap?
If yes, what diameter should it be?
Do I need to use sealing paste or hemp fiber for the seal?
Thanks 😎

Modern side-by-side refrigerators usually come with a short length of tubing. The "South Koreans," for example, mention about 2 meters (6.5 feet), meaning somewhere between 2 to 3 meters (6.5 to 9.8 feet). This is usually enough to reach the sink. If you need to run additional tubing, the smallest diameter will suffice. The water inlet for the refrigerator is typically no larger than 5 mm (0.2 inches).

There are models with water connections and others without. Those with water connections usually have an ice maker and a water dispenser.

There are also side-by-side refrigerators without a direct water connection but with an ice cube maker—they use tanks instead. So: everything is possible.

We came with a 3-meter (10-foot) hose but only needed 0.5 meters (1.6 feet).

American side-by-side refrigerator – a “troublesome topic”

Well – actually a nice topic, but the search turned out to be surprisingly difficult.
First, you need to decide whether you want one with a direct water connection, one with a tank, or one without a water dispenser.

At first, we favored the model with a direct water connection. For this, an additional pipe would have had to be installed due to the planned location. We were also warned that if the water dispenser is rarely or never used, there could be issues with “standing water.”
We then chose the model with a tank because after some thought, we concluded that the water dispenser probably wouldn’t be used that often. I prefer sparkling water, and my wife drinks juice rather than water. But we didn’t want to give up the dispenser entirely.

There are other criteria to consider as well:
First and foremost, the price. Depending on the manufacturer and features, there can be huge differences. I set a budget that I was reluctant to exceed.
Then the energy rating. To make the decision easier, you can calculate the price difference between, for example, A+ and A++ ratings and then figure out how many years it would take for the A++ to pay off. In the end, we chose the A++ model because it was on sale and within our planned budget.
Storage space: How much room is available in the fridge compartment compared to the freezer.
Small details: There are so many little things that make a side-by-side fridge especially appealing. The ice dispenser (my wife doesn’t like very cold drinks); a door compartment for beverages; a door shelf where you can take out breakfast items without opening the entire fridge (I would have liked this, but it would have blown the budget).

As I said – it’s a topic one can discuss endlessly. We ended up buying ours in a neighboring country about 5 months before the house was completed (since then it has been standing in our hallway, waiting for the moving company).

And which model was finally chosen?

We still need to make a decision.