If you use it every day, you should clean your coffee maker weekly. This is so that hard water deposits, lime, and dirt don’t build up in the brew basket and reservoir. If you don’t clean your coffee machine, eventually it will take forever to brew your coffee, and the results will be less than satisfactory. It may also cause long-term damage or leaks and at worst require you to ship your coffee maker back to the manufacturer. Cleaning your coffee maker the right way will go a long way in promoting a long and useful lifetime for your machine.
How To Clean Your Coffee Maker – Tips & Advice
Cleaning Supplies
You will need water, white vinegar, paper towels and a spray bottle. If you don’t have a dishwasher, you will also need a dish brush and dish detergent.
The Inside Of The Coffee Maker
First, rinse out the carafe. Then fill it to capacity, using a mix of half white vinegar and half water. Pour the solution into the reservoir. Put a clean filter in the brew basket, and turn on the coffee maker. Let about half the solution brew, and then turn off the machine and leave it for about an hour. This allows the vinegar to work on lime and hard water deposits, and it will also loosen any buildup on the carafe and in the basket.
Turn the machine back on to allow the rest of the solution to go through. Of course you won’t want your morning coffee to taste like vinegar, so dump the solution, rinse the carafe, and then run two cycles of water through the machine. Keep in mind that rapid changes in water temperature can cause a glass carafe to crack, so make sure that the carafe is completely cooled before you fill it with water.
The Basket and Carafe
The best way to clean the basket and carafe is simply to run them through the dishwasher along with your regular load. Of course not everyone has a dishwasher, so you can also use a round dish brush and dish detergent. Simply squirt a bit of water into the basket and carafe, and add detergent. Pay attention to the flow guide in the basket. Then rinse the basket and carafe, and put them in a dish drainer so that they can dry.
The Outside Of The Coffee Machine
This is where your spray bottle comes in. Mix up another solution of half water and half vinegar inside the bottle, and use it to clean your coffee maker on the outside. Spray the outside, the warming plate and the basket holder generously. Let it sit for about ten minutes, and then wipe with paper towels. You don’t need to rinse.
See how easy it is? Now your coffee maker is all clean, and ready to serve you for another week. Just make sure to clean your coffee maker once a week, and you’ll have great-tasting coffee every time.
