Cleaning The Coffee Maker

I love my coffee. What I don’t love is the off-taste that ruins a good cup of coffee when the machine needs cleaning.

There’s oil both naturally present in the beans and also added by the coffee makers when they roast the beans that build up in the coffee machine over time.

The oils in the coffee beans go rancid, and small bits of residue left in the coffee filter start to spoil which results in a very unpleasant cup of coffee in the morning.

The good news is that cleaning your coffee maker- the pot, the filter and the inside of the machine itself is a snap. You don’t need any expensive or specialty cleaning products- just plain white vinegar that you probably already have in your cupboard already.

How To Clean The Coffee Maker With Vinegar:

• Fill your sink with warm soapy water.
• Wash the coffee pot, the lid, the coffee filter and any other removable items with soft nylon bristle brush.
• Use the green side of a scrubby sponge and make sure any oily residue on the coffee pot has been removed completely.
• Rinse the items with warm water to remove any soap residue and place on the counter.
• Unplug the coffee maker and using a sponge go over the exterior of the machine to remove any drips of coffee or other stains.
• Dry the machine with a soft clean towel.
• Fill the coffee pot 1/4 full of vinegar and then up to the top of the pot with plain cold water. On a 8 cup coffee pot this would be 2 cups vinegar and 6 cups water.
• Pour the vinegar and water cleaning solution into the water reservoir in the coffee maker.
• Reassemble all the the pieces you have just washed. Put everything back in it’s normal place in the machine.
• Plug in the coffee pot and turn it on to start the brewing cycle.
• The coffee maker will go through it’s brewing cycle and the smell of hot vinegar will fill the air. (Open the window if this bothers you.) As the hot vinegar is brewed, the acids will work to dislodge any build up that has occurred on the inside of the coffee maker.
• When the brewing cycle has completed, carefully pour the hot vinegar down the drain and repeat this process once more time using 2 more cups of vinegar and 6 cups of fresh cold water.
• After the 2nd vinegar cycle, rinse the coffee pot completely with fresh cold water and fill the water reservoir with clean cold water only. Run the clean water through the coffee maker in a brewing cycle.
• When the clean water cycle is finished you can do a sniff test to see if any vinegar remains. It should be gone, but you can run another cycle with fresh water if you want to be extra careful.

Removing Hard Water Spots:

If you live in an area with hard water, white spots accumulate in your coffee maker from high mineral content naturally present in the water, which can eventually cause your machine to run slower and your coffee have a different taste.

Vinegar will dissolve mineral spots, but you can also use denture tabs;

• Just drop two tablets in the coffee pot and fill with water
• let the tabs fizzle out then pour in the reservoir
• Put a filter in the basket and run a cycle through the coffee maker.
• Run two more cycles using plain water.