Cleaning Water Dispenser on Fridge.

[Mat C]

Hi,

I've got a fridge with a water dispenser which hasn't been used for quite a while, not I've gone on a bit of a health kick, I thought I'd start using it again. However, whenever it's used the water is full of particles/floating things! I guess the pipes need cleaning as they'd been standing for a couple of years, all plumbed in just not used. I've tried running loads of water through, this has made it better, but not to a standard I'd actually drink!

The ice maker has been in use continuously, and that is fine, I filled a glass with ice and let it evaporate, no nasties were seen!

So, any thoughts on how to get the pipes clean?

Cheers

Mat

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Mat C" saying something like:

Test tube cleaners or similar - you know the type of thing, bristles twisted on a wire, available in all sorts of flexibility. If the pipework is too twisty, can you disconnect it and fill it with a solution of sodium hydroxide /borax / bleach?

[Broadback]

When I had a boat the fresh water tank tended to get gunged up, I found bicarb a good solution (pun unintended. Mind you there were no convoluted pipes to worry about, just one about 22mm diameter.

[Owain]

Denture cleaning tablets?

Owain

[OG]

When the children were little we had a bottle of Milton's (1% Sodium Hypochlorate), and we used a dilute solution of it for many years after for cleaning and desmellifying bottles, flasks,food containers and the like.

Owen

[Mat C]

Thanks for the suggestions guys, the trick I think is going to be getting the cleaning stuff down the tube. There's a decent length of piping leading to the outlet, which goes around in a large loop a number of times at the back of the fridge, to cool the water. The only way I can thing to get this stuff in would be with a syringe.. Any other thoughts?

Cheers

Mat

[GMM]

I'd second Owen's Milton suggestion - It's the recommended way of cleaning things like camelbak water bladders. Of course, if it's scale-type stuff, you might be better off with something acid like vinegar - maybe each of them in turn would do a job. Whatever you use, if you fill the reservoir, then run enough through, won't it fill the tubes/loops so it can be left there for a bit to do its job?

[Tim Downie]

I think it's a plumbed in fridge. No reservoir.

Tim

[damduck-egg]

If you have a pub nearby that you visit enough to be known as a regular ask if they can let you have a drop of the beer line cleaner. Gives you an excuse to go down the Pub. If that is not an option then a baby bottle steriliser such as Milton may work. Boat Chandlers and and Caravan supply shops will often have products designed for potable pipe cleaning as well.

G.Harman

[damduck-egg]

Pump up Garden sprayer that has Not been used for noxous substances or has been very well cleaned if it has. G.harman

[<me9]

A dollop of household bleach is just as effective.

[EMD]

May I ask whether you ever cleaned the dispenser......in a similar position myself and wondering what to do..

[ARW]

On the anniversary of the Battle of Gettysberg....

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

Was that when the original post was made then? Brian

[ARW]

Possibly

[Vir Campestris]

No, it was only in 2010.

Andy

[Owain Lastname]

There are probably Tick-Tock millionaires now who weren't even born in 2010.

Owain