How to Clean a Coffee Maker Without Vinegar

With more homeowners avoiding using harsh chemicals for cleaning around their house, vinegar has come out as a well-liked cleaning alternative for most homeowners.

But you will not always have a vinegar container readily available in your house. In addition, some people just don’t like using vinegar for cleaning up because of their preferences.

If you are experiencing either one of those problems, then you should know how to clean your coffee maker without vinegar.

The great news is that there are several options you can use as an alternative for vinegar if you want to effectively clean up the coffee maker. Some of those things might also be readily available around your house.

Other Natural Cleaning Agents Besides Vinegar

  1. Baking soda

This is a familiar item in most homes, which many people keep close at hand for its plenty of uses, including in cooking and cleaning.

Because of this, it may be the simplest alternative way of cleaning a coffee machine without vinegar as you probably already have it lying around in your home.

Baking soda features powerful detoxifying agents, which make it the best cleanup agent.

Steps for follow:

  1. To ensure there’s no debris or dirt, use water to clean out your coffee maker.
  2. Fill the pot using 1/4 cup baking soda, and then fill use filtered water to fill the rest of its capacity.
  3. Run the baking through your coffee maker once it dissolves.
  4. Dispose of the solution of baking soda and run the machine two times its usual cycle with water to get rid of the baking soda totally.
  5. Rinse and dry the brewer thoroughly and enjoy the finest, tasty coffee.

  1. Hydrogen peroxide

This is a common sanitizer that you will probably find in most households. What you may not know is that hydrogen peroxide is beneficial for cleaning a coffee maker.

However, given that hydrogen peroxide may have some side effects like skin irritation, you should take care of using it and keep it away from children.

For safe use, hydrogen peroxide should be diluted with water in the right proportions. Do not use it in its concentrated form.

How to use it to clean your coffee maker:

  1. You should add one part of hydrogen peroxide to a big carafe or bowl.
  2. Pour about three parts of water a carafe and mix with the hydrogen peroxide. If you are using a cup to measure, measure one cup of hydrogen peroxide and use the same cup and measure three cups of water.
  3. After that, add the mixture of hydrogen peroxide and water into the brewer and run a full brew cycle. Dispose of the mixture that will gather in the carafe.
  4. After that, run numerous cycles of clean water through the coffee maker. This will help get rid of any hydrogen peroxide smell or residue.

  1. Lemon juice

You can find fresh lemon juice in almost all households. Apart from using it in your meals, you can also use lemon as a cleaning agent.

Lemon juice has detoxifying, cleansing and acidic properties because of its high acidity level.

In addition, it has greater antibacterial and antiseptic properties than vinegar. This makes lemon juice an excellent cleaning agent for the coffee maker.

Follow these steps to clean your coffee maker with lemon juice:

  1. Get rid of any grounds if there are any in the brew basket.
  2. Use cold water only to run the machine once. This is to get rid of dirt and debris from the inside of the coffee maker.
  3. Take 5 to 7 lemons and squeeze the juice out and put in the coffee pot, together with half a pot of water. You should use a ratio of 1:1 for the water and lemon juice.
  4. Run the coffee maker, allowing the solution of lemon juice to sit for approximately fifteen minutes before you remove it.
  5. Dispose of the solution and run cold water through your machine at least two times. This will help in cleaning out the lemon juice to ensure there’s no funny taste in your coffee.
  6. Use water and soap to clean up the coffee pot’s outer part and you’re done. Keep in mind that you should thoroughly dry all components of your machine after cleaning up.

  1. Mild dish washing liquid

Do you have some mild dish washing liquid in your house? If yes, then it will provide you with the quickest and easiest ways of cleaning up the coffee maker.

And if you’re trying to find out how to clean your machine without vinegar, the best option will be to use mild dish washing liquid.

Steps to follow:

  1. Run clean water through a full cycle to get rid of residue on your machine.
  2. Now get rid of all the removable coffee maker components from the machine.
  3. Use the dish washing liquid to wash the parts in your sink.
  4. Put the parts back together and use water to run a couple of more brew cycles. This is just to make sure there are no residues in the machine and to rinse of any smell or taste of the dish washing soap.

  1. Borax

This is a must-have multipurpose cleaning agent, which you need to always have around. The reason being, it will help with everything from cleaning up coffee makers and refrigerators to floors.

Furthermore, it doesn’t leave any lingering chemical films or smells on your appliances or surfaces.

For this reason, Borax ranks high in your list of options when considering how to clean your coffee maker without vinegar.

Take the necessary precautions when using Borax for cleaning. Rinse it off thoroughly from the item being washed and your hands also.

Also, ensure that it does not come into contact with eyes, nose and mouth and keep it away from the reach of children and pets.

Steps to follow:

  1. Use water to fill up the reservoir.
  2. Add about two tablespoons of borax to the reservoir.
  3. Then run a complete brewing cycle with the borax and water solution in the machine.
  4. Dispose of the water and borax solution and use several brew cycles with clean water for rinsing out the machine to remove any borax residue.

  1. Citric acid

This might be one of the most economical ways of keeping the coffee machine clean. You can use citric acid to make do-it-yourself cleanup solutions, which you can use anywhere in your house.

Additionally, cleaning with citric acid will not leave any smell behind, and for a brewer, you will just require approximately 2 tablespoons per session of deep cleaning.

Though you might not have citric acid lying around your home, it is easily available in most supermarkets and you can also purchase it online.

Knowing how to clean up your machine without vinegar is now simpler than ever using citric acid.

Steps to follow:

  1. To start with, rinse out the machine to get rid of any leftover dirt or grounds.
  2. Add two teaspoons of citric acid to 5 to 7 cups of water. After that, turn the machine on.
  3. After running the citric acid through the machine, use hot water to rinse the machine and run it once more to ensure its 100 percent clean.

Should you clean your coffee maker with bleach? / How to clean your coffee maker with bleach

It is essential to state right away that you should NOT use bleach if you have an automatic brewer. Keep the bleach away from your brewer.

However, it is safe to use a mild bleach solution to clean the external parts of your coffee maker or those removable parts.

A mild bleach solution can help in removing some stubborn coffee stains which other cleaning alternatives may not do effectively.

Steps to follow to clean your coffee maker with bleach:

  1. Take a container and make 4 cups of water and add only 2 tablespoons of bleach to that.
  2. Then carefully mix the bleach into the water.
  3. Use the solution to thoroughly wash the removable parts of your coffee maker such as the exterior and the carafe.
  4. You can use one of the recommended solutions that we have discussed above, such as using lemon juice or vinegar to clean your brewer by running one or more brew cycles.
  5. Rinse all the parts you have washed with bleach thoroughly to ensure the smell and taste of bleach does not remain and that your coffee maker is totally bleach free.

Final Thoughts

Vinegar is a common DIY descaling agent that will work well for most households.

But if you do not like the odor or do not want to risk damage to the metal parts of your appliance by using vinegar, the information above on how to clean up the coffee machine without vinegar will be of great use to you.

Whether you take coffee mainly for the boost it offers you or you totally like trying various coffee drinks, grinds and blends, the taste will matter greatly.

Together with the preventive health advantages of giving your coffee maker a good clean, regularly cleaning up your coffee maker is also good for the taste of your coffee.

It’s important to clean your coffee maker as the finest cup of coffee will easily get ruined by a machine which has not been descaled or deep cleaned in the right way.

Now that you know other options of cleaning your coffee maker without vinegar, you will be able to deep clean the machine to ensure you always get the finest coffee.

Keep in mind that various techniques will work properly for different kinds of coffee machines and it will depend on the level of grime and dirt buildup as well.

For this reason, you may have to try out a couple of these techniques to get one that will provide you with the thorough clean up you need for your choice of coffee machine.

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