Fridges with ice makers: which ones need a water line

An ice maker built into a fridge is easy to buy and awkward to install. Most Australian kitchens have no water point in the fridge cavity, and putting one there means a licensed plumber and a hole in a cabinet. So the first question is not which fridge. It is whether the ice maker needs mains water at all. Of the 26 listings we could source, 10 say it does not and 16 say it does.

The split, and what each side costs

The 10 non-plumbed listings cover 7 distinct models, because three Hisense models are listed by two retailers each. The 16 plumbed listings cover 16 models, with no duplicates.

• Non-plumbed brands: Hisense, LG, Samsung, Bosch. Published prices run $1,477 to $3,499.
• Plumbed brands: Samsung, LG, Westinghouse, Fisher & Paykel, Haier, Electrolux, Hisense. Published prices run $1,899 to $4,999.
• Not needing a plumber does not cost more. The two ranges overlap almost completely and the cheapest fridge in the register is a non-plumbed one. The premium here is paid for size and finish, not for the tank.
• Fisher and Paykel is plumbed or nothing. All 3 Fisher and Paykel listings here need a mains connection, and the brand offers no non-plumbed ice maker anywhere in the range we checked. If you cannot plumb, that brand is out.

Non-plumbed does not mean no water. It means a refillable tank inside the fridge that somebody has to top up by hand. Nothing in any listing states how often, and only 3 of 26 state how big the tank is.

Non-plumbed: the 10 listings

Ordered by price. These are the harder ones to find, because retailer filters rarely expose the distinction and the model codes rarely make it obvious. "More than one" in the ice column means the listing dispenses more than one form of ice, usually cubed and crushed.

Prices and specifications checked 9 September 2026

Every one of the 26 listings in this register dispenses ice and water. Not one is ice-only, so if you want ice without a water dispenser in the door, this category does not offer it and a benchtop machine does.

Plumbed: the 16 listings

These need a cold water point in the cavity. Several listings state the connection must be made by a licensed plumber and none publishes what that costs, so treat it as an unknown on top of the sticker price. The Samsung SRF5300BD appears here for the reason above.

Reading LG model codes

LG encodes it. Across the 6 LG listings here, every model code with an N in the letter block after the dash is non-plumbed, and every one without an N is plumbed.

• Non-plumbed: GF-LN700MBL, GS-N599PL.
• Plumbed: GS-D600PLC, GF-L700PL, GF-L500MBL, GF-V900MBLC.

The pair to watch is GF-LN700MBL against GF-L700PL: same series, near-identical capacity, one letter between a fridge that needs a plumber and one that does not. This is a pattern across the LG listings we hold rather than a rule LG publishes, so use it to shortlist quickly and still read the specification line.

What none of these listings tells you

This category publishes far less than the benchtop one, and the gaps are consistent enough to be worth stating as facts in their own right.

• Ice output: 0 of 26. Not one listing states how much ice the machine makes in 24 hours. Every benchtop machine does. See the ice output register for what that number looks like when it is published.
• Noise: 0 of 26. No decibel rating on any listing, from any brand, at any price up to $4,999.
• Power draw: 0 of 26. Star ratings and annual kWh appear on some listings, but a watts figure does not, so a fridge cannot be put into the running cost register on the same basis as a bench machine.
• Tank size: 3 of 26. Hisense HRCD483TSW at Appliances Online (5 L), Hisense HRSBS633BW at The Good Guys (4.5 L), Bosch KFI96AXEAA at Winning Appliances (4.5 L). Note that two retailers list the same Hisense models and each publishes a tank size the other one omits, so it is worth opening both listings for the same fridge.
• Ice storage: 2 of 26. Hisense HRCD483TSW (2.4kg), Samsung SRF7500SB (3.1kg). For everything else, how much ice the fridge holds at once is simply not published.

The same fridge, two retailers, two prices

Three Hisense models are stocked by both The Good Guys and Appliances Online. Checked on the same day, on identical model codes, Appliances Online was cheaper on all three.

Retailer prices checked 9 September 2026

The two retailers also disagree about the fridges themselves. For the HRSBS633BW, The Good Guys publishes 730mm deep and 1790mm tall against Appliances Online's 716mm and 1795mm; for the HRCD483TBW it is 698mm against 685mm. If your cavity is tight to within 15mm, neither published figure is good enough and you should measure the fridge in a store.

Which one, for what

• No water point and no plumber budget. The non-plumbed table above is the whole shortlist: 7 models. The cheapest published is the Hisense HRCD483TBW at $1,477. Start there and work up on size.
• You want to see the tank size before buying. The Hisense HRCD483TSW at Appliances Online is the only listing that publishes both tank volume and ice storage. It is the best-documented non-plumbed fridge here, which is a different claim from the best.
• You already have, or will pay for, a water line. The plumbed side is bigger, covers more brands, and starts at $1,899. You also stop refilling a tank, which is the actual daily difference between the two.
• You want ice more than you want a new fridge. A benchtop machine costs a fraction of any fridge here, publishes its output, and can be moved. If the fridge you own is fine, buy the machine instead. See the ice maker register, or the arithmetic against bagged ice first.
• You care what the ice is like. Fridge dispensers make cube or crushed ice and nothing else. If you want soft chewable pellets, no fridge in this register makes them. See what each machine actually makes.

Common questions

Can you get a fridge with an ice maker that does not need plumbing?

Yes. Of the 26 listings in this register, 10 state that the ice maker runs from a refillable internal tank with no mains connection, covering 7 distinct models from Hisense, LG, Samsung and Bosch. They are not a premium product either: the cheapest fridge in the whole register, at $1,477, is one of them. What you give up is convenience, because somebody has to remember to top the tank up.

Why does a fridge advertised as non-plumbed still say the ice maker needs plumbing?

Because on some models the two features are fed differently. The clearest case in this register is the Samsung SRF5300BD. Samsung Australia headlines a "Non-Plumbed Built-in Water Dispenser" on the product page, and the specification line on the same page reads "Auto In-Freezer Ice Maker (Plumbed)", footnoted with "On demand ice from the auto ice maker is subject to the unit being plumbed". Both statements are accurate about different parts of the fridge: the water dispenser is tank-fed and the ice maker is not. With no water line you get the water and not the ice. Read the ice maker's own specification line, not the dispenser headline.

How much ice does a fridge ice maker make in a day?

Not one of the 26 listings we checked publishes a figure. Every benchtop ice maker sold in Australia publishes a rated output in kilograms per 24 hours and no fridge in this register does, so there is no way to compare the two on the number that matters most for ice. Only 2 of 26 listings even publish how much ice the bin holds. If output is your reason for buying, that is an argument for a bench machine, where the figure is at least published.

Is the same fridge cheaper at one retailer than another?

Yes, and the gaps are not trivial. Three Hisense models in this register are listed by both The Good Guys and Appliances Online on the same day, and the difference runs from $22 to $341 on identical model codes. The two retailers also publish different cavity dimensions for the same fridge, so measure your own space rather than trusting either figure.