Oh,................. I was going to suggest seeking a swamp cooler adapter for a "water hose" connection. They use the same "water cooler" hose.. which is where that stuff came from to start with.
You would want to connect it with a "Y" so you could still use a hose.
For mine I connected to the cold water inlet copper tube at the hot water heater with a "saddle valve". It lets you connect to the tubing without doing any plumbing. It clamps on and then punctures the tube and is how many ice makers are added-on. They sell them as icemaker add-on kits, which usually includes 25' of 1/4 poly tubing and the saddle valve... at your local big home improvement store.
So, anyone else following this thread with the same problem... there's your go-to.