Ice tastes of whatever it has been near. Because it sits uncovered in a compartment full of food for days, it acts as a fairly sensitive record of the freezer's contents, the state of the filter and the age of the water in the line. Fixing the taste is a process of elimination rather than a single repair.
Work Through It in This Order
- Dump the bin. Ice that has sat for weeks sublimates and concentrates odours. Discard it, wash the bin in warm soapy water, rinse and dry it fully before it goes back.
- Change the filter if it is due or nearly due. An exhausted carbon cartridge stops removing taste and can add one of its own. Purge several gallons afterwards and discard the first two or three batches of ice.
- Look at what is stored uncovered. Onions, garlic, fish, strong cheese and anything in an open container will migrate. Sealed containers solve more taste complaints than any part.
- Check for spills. A small leak that has dried under a drawer keeps releasing odour into circulating air. Clean with warm water and a little baking soda rather than a strongly scented cleaner, which becomes the next problem.
- Consider the household water. Taste it from the dispenser and from a kitchen tap. If both are off, the issue is upstream of the refrigerator and a filter change will not be the answer.
Specific Flavours and What They Usually Mean
A plastic or chemical taste in a new refrigerator, or right after a filter change, normally clears once several gallons have run through. A musty smell tends to point at a drain or a spill rather than at the water. A metallic taste often follows a long period with no use, when water has stood in the line: run a few gallons and discard a couple of batches. A chlorine taste with an overdue cartridge is the straightforward case for a filter change.
What Needs Looking At
Taste problems that survive a new filter, a clean bin and sealed food storage sometimes come from a drain that is holding water, mould where a gasket seals, or in older units a slow leak. Those are worth a proper look. Book ice maker service and describe the flavour: musty, chemical, metallic or simply stale. It sounds vague but it points in genuinely different directions.