Why Does the Water Taste Weird From My Refrigerator?

You take a sip of your refreshing water only to find it tastes a little off. Maybe your refrigerator water dispenser tastes salty or tastes of chemicals. Whether it's a constant bad taste or just happens occasionally, figuring out why the water from your fridge tastes weird is necessary to help you fix the situation.

Before you try to figure out how to fix your refrigerator, make sure the bad taste is actually caused by the appliance. It might be a water supply issue that causes water to taste bad when it comes into your house. In that case, there's not much you can do with your refrigerator to fix the issue.

Taste the water from your tap to see if it also has a strange taste. You can also determine if the water flavor is coming from the fridge by unhooking the water supply line to the fridge. Fill a glass of water from the supply line before it enters the fridge to see if it already tastes funny. If it does, the issue is somewhere in the supply line. If it tastes normal, you know your strange odors or flavors are coming from inside the fridge.

Fridge water dispensers include a filter to remove some of the chemicals and other materials in the water. If your carbon filter water tastes bad, it could be time to change the filter. If you've gone over the recommended time, there could be impurities getting into your water glass that change the flavor.

Most models have indicator lights that tell you when it's time to change the filter. If yours doesn't, a good recommendation is changing it twice per year. How often you use the dispenser is also a factor in the frequency. If the refrigerator water tastes bad after changing the filter, you might need to run a few glasses of water through it.

If you have a brand new refrigerator, you might notice a strange taste in the water from the dispenser. The water lines could have debris in them from the manufacturing process. The water filter might also need to be flushed.

Grab a pitcher and run several pitchers of water through the system. Test the water after running several pitchers' worth of water to see if the flavor improves. You might also need to discard the first one or two bins worth of ice in your new refrigerator, according to LG. If the water lines have impurities in them, the ice might taste strange as well.

Lack of use can cause water from the dispenser to taste funny. If the water sits in the lines for an extended period, it can take on an unusual flavor. When it has been a while since you last used your water dispenser, run a few glasses through it to flush the lines and get fresh water flowing.

Sometimes the source of the strange flavor comes from your ice cubes. If the water has impurities in it, the ice might take on the same flavor. Other factors can also make the ice taste different. If the ice takes on an unusual flavor, it can make your water or other drinks taste strange when the ice melts into the drink.

If you have a water softener, it might affect the flavor of the ice. The water softener can cause ice to taste funny because of the chemical changes that happen when the water freezes even though you don't taste anything different in the water.

Another potential cause of flavor changes in ice is food. Odors from food stored in the freezer can permeate the ice and give a faint food taste. If you can smell a strong food odor in the freezer, look for the source and remove it or put the food in a more protective wrapping to control the odor.