Particles floating in whirlpool filtered water.

Okay - we have had this same problem for around 6 weeks - We called a service repairman to come out and he said that these "floaties" are harmless bacteria. We should disconnect the filter and flush the system by using 1 gallon of water a day (wasting it) after the chlorine in the water is allowed to build up again then the "floaties"- bacteria- will go away---- gross :-( We will see if it works---

It seems that the molded plastic water reservoir is breaking down due to the chemicals used to treat the tap water coming in. Most manufacturers have gone to using a coil of tubes in place of the reservoir. You can read more about it below. This had me going for about 3 days! I hope this helps.

http://www.appliance411.com/faq/white-particles.shtml

I have this same issue with my GE Profile that's 4 years old. My kids noticed tiny little floating what look like fibers from like the carpet or a sweater. So fine you definitely wouldn't notice them without good eyes and the right cup. Maybe 2 or 3 floating in a cup of 5 oz of water.

I thought at first it was the filter. Filter was only about a month old. Put the bypass in and it wasn't the filter - still getting particles. Ran water from the other taps in the kitchen and no particles found in the general water supply. Unplugged the water supply from the back of the refrigerator and ran a gallon of water from the supply line - no particles.

I decided whatever this is originates in the refrigerator. I flushed the lines with straight white vinegar, letting them sit overnight. I went to home depot and rigged up a pump sprayer for this purpose specifically. I saw an increase of particles the next day in the water. Instead of a couple, maybe a few dozen. I continued flushing, and saw the particle count drop off.

So then I switched to a gallon of water with a half cup - cup of bleach and pushed this through the line. After letting this sit for a number of hours, the results were much more impactful. The size and quantity of the material increased. It seems to have the consistency of tiny remnants of plumbers tape - but black in size. Anyone would be noticing these in their glass of water. I continued to flush. The process lasted 2+ days. I was really concerned about how much of this bacteria / mold had built up in the reservoir. After searching everywhere, and finding nothing but the wrong answer, I finally located the reservoir in the door behind the dispenser itself for my particular model of the GE Profile - 2 French doors with freezer below. To my surprise, the reservoir tubing looked pristine. This made me feel a bit better. I didn't pull the hoses because I didn't want to render the refrigerator any less useful than I had already. Eventually the volume of contaminants decreased to the point of diminishing returns. Keeping the refrigerator pulled out of its home for days on end just isn't feasible. I did one final flush of vinegar, letting it sit for the better part of a day before reattaching the water supply line.

For good measure, I pulled some ice from the ice maker (I dumped the old ice) so I could see what the situation was in there. I smelled the ice cubes - they smelled like bleach - I melted a cup down found lots of these black contaminants present there too. Good news is some amount of bleach and vinegar (alternating - DO NOT MIX) reached the ice make line too, hopefully getting a good purge there.

So far, so good. I'm not noticing any contaminants in the couple of gallons I flushed through the system. However, I'm planning to NOT reinstall the water filter for a little while, as I feel it strips the chlorine from the water, enabling these contaminants to grow. In the future, leaving the bypass in for a week or two between filter changes is probably a good choice. There's not a good answer on where these contaminants originate, but a lot of the online articles indicate they come from hands and splashes from dirty water containers onto the nozzle of the water dispenser, and work upstream from there, as the dispenser stays moist so much of the time. It's something I'll definitely pay more attention to as far as regular cleaning and sterilization.

The water is actually safe to drink. Let the same COLD water warm up for a few minutes and this should ease your concerns.

Large white flakes are a result of having hard water that. Normal, smaller flakes are precipitated salts like Magnesium, Calcium or Manganese that dissolve in warmer water. As long as the water is WARM, you'll likely never see the salts. However, COLDER WATER causes the salts to bond making them easier to see. What is see gives us an uneasy feeling though we are simply witnessing physics and thermodynamics: thermophysics.

Most water filters remove the larger particulates. However, salts are much smaller particles and can not be removed by most basic refrigerator filters. Hence the reason it is hard to convert sea water to drinkable fresh water.

IF this continues to be a concern, considering investing in a "Water Softener" system capable of removing the Magnesium, Calcium, Manganese, and other salts that exist in our water.

Ullshit, I have a brand new whirlpool junk one week old , flushed 22 gallons of water through it And it still has floaters. My old Frigidaire flushed out with 3 gallons when I would install a new filter. It is ducking junk. No one will help They stole my money.

We had the same problem with the ice when it melted. The water came out crystal clear but the ice cubes were cloudy white and when melted, there were little "floaties" in the glass. It was like this for over 3 years and we didn't get much help from Frigidaire. We have very hard water as well, and connected the fridge line before the water softener so we didn't have to drink salt water. We had a reverse osmosis filter installed yesterday and no more floaties...they are completely gone and the water and ice is great!