On Thursday, January 14, 2016 at 2:53:08 PM UTC-5, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
On 1/13/2016 10:44 PM, Not an expert wrote:
replying to Roy Fek, Not an expert wrote:
royfek43 wrote:

Hello,
I've recently discovered what appears to look like black algae/bacteria
growing in my Whirlpool refrigerator's water dispenser's reservoir. The
reservoir is clear coiled tubing located on the back of the inside of
the refrigerator.


Most filters should remove the chlorine that is added to tap water to kill
algae/bacteria. Thus the line from the filter to the dispenser would seem
the most vulnerable to bacteria. Changing out the water supply leading to
your refrigerator line will not address this. If your water dispenser will
work without the filter (i.e. has a built in bypass valve) it would seem
to be a good idea to simply leave the filter off for a week or so between
filter change outs to allow chlorinated water to run through the whole
system. Because the level of chlorine in tap water is so low, a quick
flush without the filter probably won't help much.


You have a good point. I'd try to give the container a heavy dose of
bleach, let it sit a couple of hours, they flush. Maybe you can use a
baster to shoot some bleach into the line.

Run a couple of gallons of water to flush it out.

all this is why water and ice dispensers in refrigerators are what I call inconvenient conveniences.

M