Yuck in Refrigerator Water System

[whirlcool]

A few days ago we noticed that some junky looking white silty stuff was coming out of the water dispenser in our 2001 Whirlpool refrigerator. We have an external water filter to remove chlorine and lead and other muck from the water.
So today I changed the filter and bled off about 5 gallons of water thru the filter before hooking it up to the refrigerator. Now we are getting tons of this junk out of the water dispenser.
We use this dispenser on a daily basis, coffee, dog water so I am sure that the water is exchanged on a daily basis. The water coming out of the kitchen tap is just fine.

It kinda looks like shredded white paper toweling that has been washed in a Shredmore. It's gross.

Has anyone seen this phenomena before and how do you get rid of it?

 

[sudsmaster]

I've seen blue sediment in my old GE SXS, which apparently was a copper compound from the copper water line. That fridge didn't have a filter, and the blue stuff pretty much stayed in the translucent plastic water hose coils inside the fridge.

On the current KA SXS, haven't seen any grunge come through.

I suspect what you are seeing is lime scale of some sort. It can look like lint or shredded tissue. Since you're in Texas, I'm assuming the water there is fairly hard. Was there some change at the water company/service that resulted in freeing up accumulated lime scale in your lines?

Other thought is that the filter itself is defective. Make sure it's installed with the water flow arrow in the correct direction...

 

[mielabor]

If the white stuff is a slimy substance it probably is a film formed by bacteria that has detached itself from the walls in your dispenser. This film is forming everywhere on objects that are continuously submerged in water. It can be prevented by regular disinfection with chlorine or with hot (boiling) water.

 

[maytagmark]

I have a 2002 model and never use the water dispenser,only ice,I tried the water once and didn't like the taste,I guess it's that big roll of plastic tubing it goes through,when I first got it I saw that roll of tubing behind the crisper and thought it was an instalation kit,then realised it was there to cool the water to the dispenser,you might have to replace the tubing to get rid of the lime scale or whatever is built up,its just plastic tubing,shouldn't cost much,I prefer my Brita water pitcher to that water that comes from that dispenser,even though I don't use mine the water still looks clean,I had guests this past weekend and they used the dispenser with no complaints,I said there is filtered Brita water in the fridge and they said this is fine,I guess I'm just picky,I quit buying bottled water,Auqufina is my favorite,but all those plastic bottles in the landfill and they say the bottled water is not much better than tap. Mark

 

[whirlcool]

That's what I was thinking, that it may be some kind of bacteria in the water reservoir or in the refrigerator line. I wonder if it's harmful? We have plenty of lime in our water here, so it most likely is lime scale.

I was thinking of taking the reservoir out and putting in some Clorox and water and letting it sit overnight. But how to get the bleach and hot water thru the tubing to the front is a mystery.

 

[mielabor]

Is there no cleaning procedure described in the manual? I think hot water is not an option here since there are plastic parts involved. At my work we have a water cleaner that has a special cleaning program for which it uses chlorine tablets. We have to run this program approximately every month. Our machine automatically signals the need for disinfection.

 

[rp2813]

I checked "applianceblog.com" and there were a few posts about junk in the water line/reservoir but the only suggestion was to replace all of it.

 

[whirlcool]

Looking at the water reservoir the tubes going in and out of it seem to be molded on to the reservoir. It looks like one piece of plastic. Since the water system runs on the water pressure from the plumbing I cant figure out a way to put any bleach into the system.
The users guide doesn't mention anything at all about maintenance of the reservoir either.
I looked at the applianceblog website and couldn't locate the links that were mentioned by Ralph.

 

[rp2813]

Allen, you really have to sift through the posts on the applianceblog site. Select the link for Whirlpool refrigerators and you'll find 19 pages worth of posts about various issues. I think I found the closest ones to your situation towards the end of them, like on page 17 or 18.

But why bother? Nobody there could offer much besides recommending replacement of the entire reservoir and related lines.

I put an aftermarket in-line filter on my mid 80's Whirlpool. Since there wasn't any way to install the filter on the outlet side of the reservoir, the charcoal from it began to accumulate on the bottom of the reservoir. I figured it wasn't doing any harm and it didn't end up in the water or ice that was being dispensed, but I think maybe Whirlpool (and other makers?) switched to coiled tubing to eliminate the whole reservoir sediment issue. The KA I have now uses the coiled storage system which I guess eliminates any issues with charcoal sediment accumulating.

Ralph

 

[aquarius1984]

Interesting-

Our Stainless Steel Samsung American fridge has ice and filtered water on tap. I often wonder how to clean out the water tubing, nothing but clean water at the minute but I do wonder. I always wonder how much to drain out the system before I use the water too after going on holiday. I dont like the idea of it having maybe a litre or 2 inside thats been sat for a while. The filter is very good and it tells you on the lcd display when to change it, been going 6months and no signal yet. Rest of my family use the water plenty. Crewe has pretty awful tasting water I find, life has been better for my cold water consumption from 0 glasses of it a day to 1. Prefer tea and coffee as my fluid intake or no added sugar cordials which I make up with the chilled water and ice. I would never bother filling our kettle from it being in soft water too and besides its chilled water. Probably makes having a 3kw kettle for fastness a tad pointless. Rob

 

[whirlcool]

But why bother? Nobody there could offer much besides recommending replacement of the entire reservoir and related lines.

Because I like reading these things for myself. There may be additional information I could pick up on. But thanks for telling me about the applianceblog website.

We are seriously thinking about replacing the entire refrigerator. It's been noting buy a lemon since we got it, and I'll tell you the next one WON'T be a Whirlpool. I'm so tired of having to pump hundreds of dollars in repairs in this thing every single year.

 

[DADoES]

To be fair, Whirlpool refrigerators are largely very reliable. Yours may have some engineering glitches, or maybe it was built on a Friday.

My grandmother's Whirly is 20+ years old, never had any repairs other than replacing the ice maker because the mold deteriorated from water conditions. The ice maker wasn't factory-installed, I added it years after she bought the unit. The water valve quit working last year but I haven't done that repair (I have a couple spare valves, but it's on carpet and moving it for access to the back is not a fun thing and she rarely uses ice any more). RJ's 23-year-old Whirly was replaced a few months ago after the door liner cracked badly and is NLA. It never had any repairs and even still had the original ice maker. My Whirlpool-built KA is 10 years old, also no repairs. My parents had a Whirly (I still remember the model number, EET201PKWR3), never any repairs, replaced with a KA when a lightning surge killed it. Hmmm. These are all top-freezer models. Maybe the SxSs are more problematical.

 

[whirlcool]

I ran some diagnostics on the fridge' today and determined the following:

The crap that comes out of the water dispenser doesn't come out of the icemaker. We melted a large bowl of ice today and it the resulting water was totally clear confirming that it is a problem with the water reservoir as the solenoid switch (that was replaced earlier this year) is a two parter, one valve for the water reservoir and another valve to the ice maker. The water destined for the ice machine comes directly from the solenoid and doesn't go anywhere near the water reservoir.

I looked up the part and the new reservoir comes with all the tubing already connected to it. I would have to take out all the existing tubing plus the water reservoir on the refrigerator to replace it. Plus $57.95 less shipping is kinda costly. I seriously don't know if I want to screw around with it. I can just see me ripping out all the tubing that goes into the backwall of the refrigerator and no being able to get the new stuff thru there.

 

[rp2813]

Allen, I have to agree with DAD on this one. My experience with Whirlpool refrigerators has been positive overall. My garage fridge is an early 70's WP top freezer model that I purchased used in '93 and it's still quietly purring along keeping things nice and cold. My mom's 1975 nearly BOL Coldspot SXS made by Whirlpool is still going with only minor repairs years ago (evap and condenser fans--I changed both out myself and replacement parts have outlasted the originals). These two you could chalk up to things not being made like they used to, but I also had a mid-80's 25 cf WP side-by-side that I bought used in 1990. I think it was a casualty of a power surge related to Loma Prieta back in '89 and the compressor had been changed out. It ran louder and more often than either my garage fridge or my mom's but never needed a single repair. When a door hinge broke a few years ago, I decided the fridge wasn't worth fixing. I was tired of hearing it run all the time. So I replaced it with a brand new WP-made KA 25 cf SxS in stainless. It's quiet, attractive, isn't always running and so far it hasn't needed any repairs in the few years I've owned it. I also love the glam electric eye system for controlling the ice maker.

I can understand how you might not ever want to buy a WP fridge again after what you've experienced. There are other makes that I'm sure perform well but you'll need to shop carefully to be sure you're not buying a rebadged WP.

 

[whirlcool]

I admit that this one was a lemon, but I find it hard to justify another Whirlpool after this one. What happens if we get another lemon? But then again, I am positive that all manufacturers create a lemon from time to time. The refrigerator we had before this one was a 1969 GE side by side. No problems at all with it. We still would have had it but we decided to let it stay at the last house and we felt it was time for a more energy efficient model.

The jury is still out on this one. At least it still cools and makes ice nicely. We could just live with that for awhile.