How To Clean Water Drip Tray On Fridge

How to Descale Your Refrigerator Water Tray

1 min read April 2, 2015

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Have you noticed the tray of your refrigerator's in-door water and ice dispenser lately? You may worry there's no remedy for that white, chalky build-up, but getting rid of it is actually easier than you think!

I immediately fell in love with the in-door ice and water dispenser in our refrigerator when we bought our house 9 years ago. It was so convenient! But then, over the years, I watched in frustration as calcium deposits from water drips slowly built up into a white reside in and around the water tray that no amount of soap and elbow grease could eliminate.

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The damage after 9 years.

Shortly after insisting to my husband that we will never buy a refrigerator with an in-door water dispenser again, I began to wonder if vinegar would be an option. After all, I use it to descale our coffee maker when it gets hard water calcium build-ups, why not our water tray?

We decided to put it to the test!

First we pulled the removable grid from the tray and soaked it in a shallow dish filled with vinegar, making sure the grid was completely covered.

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After just one minute, nine years of hard water build-up was already easily separating from the plastic! We let the grid soak for a few more minutes and then rinsed it clean.

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In the meantime, we filled the water tray with vinegar to let it soak and wiped around the walls of the dispenser with a rag dipped in vinegar. Again, after just a minute or two the vinegar had loosened all of those stuck on, stubborn calcium deposits!

Who knew it could be so easy?

We finished by rinsing everything clean, and soon our refrigerator's in-door water and ice dispenser was looking as good as the day it was purchased.

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In less than 5 minutes we were able to erase 9 years of frustration with just one basic household product. I wish all home improvement projects could be this quick and simple with such a major impact!

Dusty Rogers is the blogger, mother, maker, decorator and drinker of the wine at All Things G&D - a lifestyle blog where home décor, DIY and organization, healthy meals and kid-friendly snacks, party planning and entertaining all happily play together in the sandbox. Dusty lives in Madison, WI with her husband Greg and their daughter Kate, and she spends her days balancing high maintenance tendencies with a desire to keep things simple.