Answers · Undercounter ice machines
Can You Install an Undercounter Ice Machine?
The short answer
The connections belong to a plumber and an electrician, but Sub-Zero Repair Tacoma takes the call when a newly fitted machine makes no ice, floods the bin or will not drain.
Check in this order
- Measure the opening against your model's guide; the UC-15I wants 15 1/4 inches wide, 34 1/2 high and 24 deep.
- Settle the drain first: gravity needs a quarter inch of fall per foot and usually an air gap, and a drain above the outlet means the drain pump version.
- Have the plumber run a quarter-inch supply line of copper, braided stainless or PEX, with a reachable shut-off and no self-piercing valve.
- Book an electrician for a dedicated 15-amp, 115-volt circuit with a grounded three-prong outlet, ideally in the next cabinet, and no extension cord.
- Once it runs, pour a gallon of cold water into the empty bin; if it has not cleared in a minute, call (206) 472-1140.
Past this line it is a technician's job Sub-Zero Repair Tacoma, (206) 472-1140
Behind the answer
The dimensions come from the UC-15I installation guide; a newer model’s guide overrides them. It also wants 20 to 80 psi at the line, and advises against copper behind reverse osmosis. From the first cycle on, the machine is our work.
Related questions
Who connects the water and the drain?
A plumber, to local code. Sub-Zero wants the drain and the inlet tube plumbed before the machine is connected, and the outlet checked by an electrician for polarity and grounding. Sub-Zero Repair Tacoma, (206) 472-1140, picks it up from the first cycle onward.
Can it be plugged in the day it arrives?
Only if it traveled standing up. The UC-15I guide asks for a full 24 hours upright before power goes on whenever the machine was laid on its back or side in transit. Spend that day confirming the shut-off, the drain route and the outlet.
- Signed
- Marta Fennimore
- Role
- Refrigeration technician — ice systems and water supply
- In the trade
- 12 years
- Holds
- EPA 608 certified
- Checked
- Sep 18, 2026