How To Clean a Coffee Maker
Does the coffee from your automatic coffee maker suddenly taste a bit weird? Does it take longer than usual to brew a pot? Do you see dark brown stains inside the glass carafe? Does the water dribble and spurt, instead of continuously flow out? If you said yes to any of these questions, then it’s time to clean your coffee maker.
Too often when a coffee maker starts acting up, people simply toss it out and buy a new one. But that’s not only wasteful it’s usually unnecessary. In most cases, you can revive a failing coffee maker with a thorough cleaning. And here’s more good news: cleaning a coffee maker isn’t much more difficult than brewing a fresh pot of Joe.
Start by putting a clean filter into the filter basket. Next, fill the reservoir with a 50/50 mix of water and distilled white vinegar. Turn on the coffee maker and let it run through a complete brewing cycle. Once done, dump out the water-vinegar brew and fill the reservoir with plain water. Run through another brew cycle. When done, repeat the process: empty the carafe, refill the reservoir with plain water and run the brew cycle one last time. It’s important to run at least two water-only cycles to eliminate the vinegar smell and taste.
💡Substitute two denture-cleaning tablets for white vinegar. The effervescent tablets will remove most stains.
An alternative to vinegar is to use baking soda, which does a great job of cutting through dirt, grease and coffee stains. Mix two cups of warm water with ½ cup of baking soda; stir to dissolve the baking soda. Place the glass carafe on the base. Pour the diluted baking soda solution into the water reservoir and turn on the coffee maker. Allow it to run through a complete brewing cycle.
When the cycle is done, rinse out the carafe, fill the reservoir with plain water and run the brewing cycle again. Repeat to run a second water-only cycle to flush the coffee maker clean of all baking-soda residue.
Finally to keep your coffee maker brewing great coffee, be sure to clean it once a month.
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