I was starting to get a sore throat too.... turns out, when I took out the empty 5 gallon container to put on a new one, I saw green stuff on top of the plastic cap on top.

I tried to spin the cap counterclockwise (and it does spin), and tried pulling on it but it doesn't seem like its coming off. Any ideas?

I thought about pouring boiling hot water in there and then just running out all the water in there, but my friend said the steam might welcome more bacteria. We also considered running clorox through it but that doesn't really sound like a good idea, but then again I don't see any other way?

 

diluted colorox.
then rinse.

 

yeah let the clorox sit there for a while. then run lots of fresh water through the system.

 

So, now the water has a slight metallic taste to it now. When you look inside the cooler, there appears to be a big metallic drum which I'm guessing is leeching into the water.

I may have messed up because I used hot water (not boiling but really hot) to flush it then later used room temperature water. I ended up running about 4 buckets of water through the cooler. What now?

 

buy new water cooler.

 

Drink tap water?

 

werd^

 

I clean coolers at work and we use bleach. Put some in, fill it up and let it sit. Rinse a few times. Although they aren't starting with mold in them already.....

 

how much is a new one?

 

One mans trash is another mans sore throat.
Throw it out if it cant be cleaned.

 

Now I'm wondering where I got my sore throat from.

 

If it's anything like the coolers I work on you can take the spigots and handles off my simply twisting them off. Once that's done you can actually take off the top and remove the storage tub all together. Then you can really scrub them out and maybe even put them through the dish washer.