Your ice smells like the freezer, not the water

Musty-smelling ice almost always comes from the freezer or the ice maker itself, not your water supply.

The usual culprits are mold and mildew inside the maker, old food smells absorbed by the ice bin, or a stale water filter. Ice is basically a sponge — it picks up whatever odors are floating around the freezer. If you haven’t used the maker in a while, everything inside has had time to go stale.

Fix it in one pass. Dump the old ice, wash the bin with warm water and dish soap (or a vinegar solution), and wipe down the inside of the ice maker with the same. Run a few batches of ice and throw them out. If your machine has a water filter, replace it — that’s a common one people forget. Then flush a couple of glasses of water through the dispenser.

If it still smells after that, check the water line itself and look for any mold you might have missed. A small box of baking soda in the freezer helps absorb lingering odors going forward.

Don’t just add fresh ice on top of old — that’s how the smell never goes away.