when a glass of water and ice melts, there is stuff in the bottom of the glass. what could this be ? i do have a water softener on city well water. but where we used to live, chicago city water, and a different fridge, we had the same problem. so is this typical of icemakers ?
the first fridge we made them by hand with pitcher filtered water. now, an automatic in the fridge. no filter. i am thinking about an inline. but i don't want to do that and have it not fix the problem.
You haven't said what kind of "stuff" is in the cubes. I assume that if you run a glass of water from the tap and leave it set on the counter for a few minutes you do not see anything in it? Assuming it's only in the ice, and it's "flecks", it's most likely calcium carbonate, and I can't say for sure because I have not dealt with it myself, just have known a few others who have, but do not believe that it is harmful at all. I remember someone saying they had ended up bypassing the softener for the ice maker, but not sure I would do that as it seems like it could lead to wear on the valve. You might check your water hardness though and see if you could possibly throttle the softener back a bit. Otherwise, you could try a filter, but, as you mentioned, you might do that and not see any change.
We get that in our ice and it is mineral accumulation. We have a softener but trace amounts still remain. As the ice evaporates in a frost free freezer, the minerals are left behind. We don't go through a lot of ice and the ice in the bottom of the tray can often be there for months (often, the wife just reaches into the tray and grabs cubes from the top rather than use the dispenser.). It hardens into a lump and only the cubes in the centre get picked up by the auger. I dump it all out every couple of months, clean it and start over.
i tested water form the tap, nothing. i ran water from the water supply on the fridge, the first 1/2 glass had a little, the second full glass had none. i also melted some ice in a glass, see pic.
i got to thinking, it could be deposits that are building up in the system, because we use not much ice and no water, the system doesn't get flushed . so i have started doing that. and it may be degradation of the plastic line from the salt water. we can not change to none softened water, it tastes bad.
Some minerals precipitate (settle out) from the water when it freezes. The effect is worse if the ice sits for a long time and the ice sublimates (evaporates directly to vapor), so there's less ice, but all of the minerals remain.
so, basicly, a filter will do nothing ? loaded question i know. saying this, my softener gets out a lot of the minerals in the city well water, and actually makes it taste just like nothing. and then the little salt that is in it from the softener.
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