[mighty rex]

Stupid IKEA! They sell plumbing products (in my case, an Enskar faucet) which are UNUSABLE out of the box!

Go ahead, install those faucets... until you go to hook up the water. What gives? Oh, that's a 3/8" tube; you'll need a compression fitting to adapt to your 1/2" supply lines coming out of your wall.

BUT WAIT.

It looks like 3/8. It feeeeeeeeels like 3/8. It is all chromey shiny and pretty! BUT IT'S NOT 3/8". It's ten millimeters, because IKEA IS SWEDISH.

Now sure, you could simply blame America for not getting on the metric bandwagon decades ago, but that would be un-American! It's up to everyone else to adapt to US! Yeah! Fookers!

Save yourself the trip(s) to IKEA, plumbing supply houses, and Home Depot. No one is going to have a 10mm>1/2" adapter. Luckily, this guy has a solution, and there's an even sweeter one in the comment section if you have advanced skillz.

http://fromsteve.blogspot.com/2006_0...e_archive.html

I should point out that IKEA Emeryville gives no warning, no information, no parts of any kind to address this issue. I suggested they put up a sign, and was told "Ha ha, that'll never happen."

[splatgirl]

Um, yea. Try figuring out how to McGuyver a whole houses' worth of European plumbing fixtures. I only almost killed two fat, redneck older white man-salespeople in the process of making all my stuff work.
I could probably give a memory recall inventory of the plumbing fitting aisle of every home improvement and hardware store within a fifty mile radius of my house.

I never had to resort to barbed fittings and screw clamps...with enough time spent examining the contents of the brass fitting bins, I've found that there is always something that will either adapt the existing Euro water line to work directly or adapt the existing line to a separate, North American water line that can then be connected to the shutoff.
I haven't installed any IKEA faucets but I have dealt with all manner of Euro stuff in two different houses and I really think there's a more elegant solution than that blog post. Can you post a pic of what it looks like out of the box?

[mighty rex]

Alas, mildly drunk and not able to find the parts, no.

HA HA!

However, you are correct.... I don't think I'll be using barbed fittings and pipe clamps. The technique I do like is soldering a 3/8" brass fitting to the 10mm Ikea supply tube. However, rather than drilling the fitting larger, I'm going to try shaving down the tube with sandpaper. Just getting the chrome off seems to be about halfway there.

When I have it together, ready to solder, I'll take some pictures. I AM peeved however, that I've had to buy fittings and a blowtorch and solder stuff, at an additional cost of $37 to the original $80 fixture price. And that's assuming it all works out and I'm done now.