Not having a water dispenser isn't too tough to find but I searched a lot to find a frig without the ice maker. Very few don't have that wart. Though I really liked the 4 door Samsung with the option to make 3 compartments freezers, (and especially liked it being marked down from $2500 to $700) but it annoyed me that for the most part 1 full section was lost to the ice-maker and water dispenser. Yes, I know they don't have a tank in there for water, but I haven't seen any using copper pipes. Every one I've seen uses plastic tubing and a plastic tube to connect the water to the unit. Sooz, it's been a long time now, but basically take the thing apart as much as you can and wash that stuff away. He used his "miracle cleaner" that had this odor of... salad? Vinegar takes that crust off the stainless and plastic quickly and effectively. And I guess I should clarify, I DID drink water from a garden hose, but never the stuff that was sitting in the hose! I ran it a while to get the hosewater out of there and would have to do that with a refrigerator unit. Even my cousin, who was so proud of his new frig with icemaker quit using the ice for drinks. He agreed with me that bad water makes bad ice, just like bad water makes bad coffee. The only thing he used that ice for was to dump in the cooler when he headed to the lake. Annie, the only way I know to clean out the frig dispensers is to disconnect the water supply line, and these days most often they're those dang vampire couplers, then flush the system with bleach. And I highly doubt anyone ever has, or will. Triciae, too bad about the flood, but it reminded me of when a friend's place flooded from a broken washer hose. All the totes floating around in the basement and her little foo-foo dog on top of one of them. I wanted to call her Gilligan after that! :)

Can you not put your softener on by-pass so that you are not putting this brown water through your plumbing and filter water systems while waiting for the repair?

1) Do service the water softener. It's not working right. 15 years is a long time. Your media is almost certainly toast, but I would suggest complete service on the rest of the unit also. Probably a couple hundred bucks. This is unavoidable. Service it or replace it. However, your problem will not go away unless you do one or the other. 2) Highly recommend 30-micron particulate filter upstream of the water softener. Easy and cheap. I agree with your RO tech. Your problem is upstream. Fix that and your RO system will require filter-change maybe once a year or so.

Ionic exchange water softeners remove the ions that make water "hard" - mainly Ca and Mg. They're called ionic exchange systems because they replace (trade) the hard Ca and Mg ions with/for "soft" Na (sodium), or in some cases K (potassium) ions. The problem is, even though sodium is an element essential to normal plant growth, plants utilize it in only very minute quantities, and it quickly becomes very toxic at anything more than trace levels. At least try to find a tap that offers a source of water before it goes through the softener. There usually is one, and it's not a big deal to install one if there isn't already one you can utilize. Al