Comments on: How to Clean a Water Cooler

By: Lori

Lori — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 18:28:34 +0000

I have the same problem as Rick. What are these little white flakes?!

By: matt

matt — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 06:25:01 +0000

The white flakes are a form of algae called water mold. It grows in dark wet places. I’m in the swimming pool industry and water mold is quite common in pools; they use non chlorine sanitizers. Chlorine is the only sure fire way to kill water mold. If you are seeing the white flakes that means that it has clogged the plumbing walls so that it is actually shooting out because it may be closing up the plumbing tubes. Just do the cleaning with bleach several times and that should take care of it.

By: Donna

Donna — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 03:09:09 +0000

Rick, I have the same problem. I got my cooler from a physician’s office who was remodeling. It sat up for a while. I have done the vinegar/water solution as well and even wasted a 5 gallon bottle. I figured after 5 gallons ran through, it would all be gone. I guess I am going to try the bleach solution and see if it gets me anywhere. If it works I will post and let you know.

By: Dean

Dean — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 12:48:15 +0000

Oh dear. Never use bleach. Your water will taste awful and it is a pain to keep rinsing through; same goes for vinegar. Lemon may taste OK, but it’s not going to clean very well!

Buy a CoolerClean home kit. It contains a cleaning chemical that is flavorless, odorless, and does not need to be rinsed out afterwards. Google it.

Note: I am in no way connected to the makers of CoolerClean, I just hate seeing bad advice on the net.

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 01:00:05 +0000

I have white flakes that come out of my water cooler while dispensing water. I do have an older cooler and I wondered what it might be and how to clean the cooler and get rid of these. Any feedback would be appreciated!

By: Jowhena

Jowhena — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 19:37:30 +0000

You can buy a water cooler cleaning kit. It works good..

By: Angela

Angela — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 17:06:50 +0000

I am trying to clean my Sunbeam Water Cooler, I have tried the vinegar and it did not work. The easiest way for me to describe the taste is to tell you it taste like hose water from outside. It is gross! I have tried everything to clean this. I am not sure if I should try the bleach or not, I have soaked the parts and cleaned each one individually. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

By: Frank

Frank — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 21:44:11 +0000

The issue of using vinegar is that even though it is slightly acidic it will not disinfect as well as bleach and being an acid will tend to attack the seals in any valves in the system.

The key to disinfecting with bleach is to use the proper dilution ratio (1 tblspn/gal water) being careful to mix the solution thoroughly before running it through the water cooler. Those that have a residual taste or odor probably did not mix the solution properly or have an internal reservoir holding the cleaning solution and will take longer to dilute it enough until the taste is no longer present.

By: Dan

Dan — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:08:47 +0000

My booklet tells me to use water with lemon juice and now I have noticed that there is some build up inside of the system. It tells me to not use bleach because I have a hot water and cold water?

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 22:31:14 +0000

I’ve seen suggestions that vinegar should be used instead of bleach. Both would leave an odor. Which one is easier to remove?