OMG I hate this fridge. The ice and water dispenser is clearly a component that needs regular cleaning, and Samsung seems to have gone out of their way to make it “a whole thing”. The only component the manual instructs you to clean is the drip tray.
None of the pieces are easily removable. I ended up having to unplug the fridge, remove the screw that held the control panel on, pry it off, unclip the wiring harness to remove it, and set it aside (and clean separately).
Once that was off, the outer ice chute is still not removable without further disassembly of the dispenser unit, and that’s where I drew the line - everything started getting all wire-y and gear-y past that.
Luckily, I was able to pull the water line up/out and clean it really good. With the panel removed, I was able to clean a bit deeper into the ice chute and get it mostly sanitized (had to get some of it from the top/inside the fridge.
Why, Samsung, why is a procedure that should be routine such a nightmare?
Have a Samsung fridge as well. Every time the water/water line gets gross I just run some vinegar through it and let it sit a bit. That cleans it out well.
Cleaning vinegar is always something I forget to pick up at the grocery store.
I’ve seen that recommended a few times when I was looking for cleaning tips. How do you run it through the line? AFAIK, it just uses water pressure from the line and doesn’t pump / “pull” the water into the fridge lines.
Pretty much just get a big bottle of it and stick the water line in the vinegar bottle and put it on top of the fridge. It should siphon through slowly when using the water dispenser. Another option is to use a turkey baster or something to push vinegar into the line but that doesn’t work nearly as well.
Thanks. Makes sense. I’ll give that a shot next time I give it a thorough cleaning. I don’t have it in me to disassemble that again for at least another month.