How do I properly clean and sanitize my home water cooler?
My water cooler also has a hot and cold dispenser, does it make a difference if I keep the machine turned on or should I turn it off? It has been in storage for a few months, and I want to make sure it is very clean before I use it again.
Tagged with: storage • water cooler
Filed under: water cooler
Bleach is the best way to disinfect water products. Vinegar leaves a taste for ever and very hard to rinse out — you waste more water that way. About an ounce in a gallon of water on each side will work just fine. Does not matter whether you clean it while it is plugged in or not. So plug it in fill it up clean it and enjoy again. Just don’t let it heat up for a long time while it is empty — could cause you problems with the heating element.
Pour about 1 ounce of bleach into a gallon of water and use that to clean your cooler.
EDIT: In response to Dale621 below, bleach is basically diluted sodium hypochlorite. It has a low vapor pressure and will evaporate off of any surface. You won’t have to ‘get it out of the inside’. It will evaporate off on its own within a few hours at most.
Run a mixture of white venegar and water throught it(both hot & cold) and then run a few batches of plain water through it until you get it clear of the vinegar smell. You should not leave it plugged in if there is no water in it. You could burn up the heating element for the warm water.
do not use bleach cause it will be hard to get it out of the inside , make a mixture of water and vinagar 1 cup vingar for every gallon of water turn on the coller just to get the hot water side warm then turn it off flush it out by using the hot and cold spikets this will get what ever dirt or build up is on those , take the back plug off the despencer to flush the remaing water out , after that take a water hose and flush it iut with the cap off the back .
oh chit i forgot take it outside to do the draining