How to Deep Clean your Coffee Maker

Have you lately felt that your coffee is losing its freshness or aroma? This is a frequent occurrence if you are a coffee drinker; however, the solution is often easy.

The right coffee maker cleanup and maintenance is the best way of keeping your coffee tasting just as mouth-watering and fresh as when you first bought that new brewer.

Over time, you might realize that your best coffee maker isn’t working as expected, getting hot, or not dripping well.

This is because of the excess grime, which is sticking on the inside of the coffee maker. This will need thorough cleanup with water and vinegar, a process referred to as descaling.

You can clean your coffee maker using various household items, and most people use vinegar because of its deep cleaning, powerful properties. But rinsing with vinegar is not the only way of cleaning the coffee machine.

If you just try using water for cleaning up the coffee machine, you are not cleaning it enough. The reason being, it does not remove the limescale build up on the brewer’s inside.

Well-known DIY descaling agents include lemon juice, baking soda and vinegar. Additionally, you can buy a formulated descaling solution at a store or online.

Coffee machines should be deep-cleaned and descaled to remove the build-up of “hard water” and limescale inside the brewer.

Nothing can mess up a morning faster than a nasty or otherwise bitter cup of coffee, and the culprit is usually a coffee machine that is due to deep cleaning.

Ensure you use a descaling agent to provide your brewer frequent deep cleanups to keep the coffee tasting delicious and fresh every time you brew it.

A coffee machine does lots of work and has lots of hands touching it, making it prone to bacteria and germs in the kitchen.

Mold and bacteria like flourishing in moist surroundings, and your brewer offers such environments easily.  The key to the best descaling agent is its high acid concentration.

Here’s how you descale using a bit of baking soda and white vinegar:

1. Start by mixing equal parts water and vinegar, and then brew. After finishing, brew once more with only clean water for rinsing any remaining solution away.
2. Use some baking soda and a soft sponge to get rid of deep stains from your coffee pot. If the stains remain, you can mix 4 cups of water and 2 cups of baking soda in the pot, and allow it to sit overnight.
3. Use warm, soapy water to wash the coffee pot, brew basket and reusable filter after every use.

How often should you clean a coffee maker / Do you have to clean a coffee maker after every use?

Most households will have a coffee maker as one of their kitchen appliances. Coffee makers will vary in brands, colors, sizes, and functions. So, what makes this brewer special?

A clean coffee maker saves you time and money

Well, not only is the coffee maker convenient but you can also get the finest tasting cup of coffee from these machines.

In addition, it will help in saving you the trip from a coffee outlet and save you a lot of money from buying a cup of coffee from your coffee shop daily.

The long-term financial effect of buying a cup of coffee from a coffee shop as opposed to making your own cup at home should not be underestimated.

David Bach, the author of the Automatic Millionaire, Smart Couples Finish Rich and the Latte Factor amongst other books illustrates this clearly.

He notes that making small savings like the few dollars spent buying coffee a day can accumulate to almost a million dollars over a lifetime.

So, if a clean coffee maker can consistently deliver a great tasting cup of coffee and save you the $3 to $5 you would spend if you had to buy the coffee from a coffee shop, then let us perfect our coffee machine cleaning skills. In this context, it seems cleanliness is linked to wealth.

Cleaning depends on the model of the machine

There’s an array of coffee makers in the market like espresso coffee maker, drip coffee maker, French press, one cup coffee maker, etc.

Each kind comes with its own effects and uses on coffee. What makes these coffee makers similar is that they all need to be cleaned after a specific time or period of use.

Any type of appliance in our housed needs cleaning. With a coffee maker, you want the coffee you brew to stay fresh always.

For this reason, you will have to clean up the coffee maker to get rid of hard water remains and old beans debris on the brewer.

A clean once or twice a month

Having said that, cleaning up your coffee machine doesn’t necessarily mean you need to do it after each use.

Actually, the recommended time for deep cleaning the coffee maker is at least a month.

But, the more you use the appliance the more you have to clean it up too. If you use the brewer daily, and more than once a day, you have to clean it up at least two or three times a month.

You’ll also find a coffee machine that comes with an indication of whether it’s time for cleaning. This is a good feature as it alerts you when it is time to take action as opposed to having to take a guess on whether your machine is due for a clean.

The basket needs a daily clean

You should also note that the coffee maker’s brewing basket has to be cleaned after each use as it gets damp and is susceptible to the buildup of mold.

Soft or hard water?

The last thing to take into consideration is the kind of water you use. If you don’t soften the water then you need to clean up the machine regularly.

If you aren’t knowledgeable about water softening or water filtration, it’s a process where you get rid of the minerals or ions such as magnesium and calcium, which makes the water hard.

If you use hard water you should clean up the coffee machine regularly. The reason being, the minerals in it may leave residues and even stains on the glass.

There are lots of ways you can soften water like purchasing a softener, using a small ion exchange filter to place on the faucet, or by boiling it.

Recap on how to clean your coffee maker

Now that you know how often you need to clean up the coffee maker, you might be wondering how to clean it up properly.

Reading articles on how to clean a coffee maker or how to clean a coffee maker step by step are a good place to start.

If you’re unsure of how to perform the cleaning task then do not worry as it’s much simpler than you think. If you already know how a coffee maker operates, then you should do practically the same steps for cleaning it up properly.

• To start with, it’s still essential that you check the coffee maker’s instruction manual for cleaning instructions to avoid damaging it during the cleaning process.
• Placing a clean filter inside the coffee maker’s filter basket, for those coffee makers that use disposable filters or remove any coffee grinds from the reusable filter and rinse it with plain water.
• Next, pour half water and half plain white vinegar on the machine’s reservoir. Turn your coffee machine on and run it the same way you brew coffee.

• Next, empty the pot of half water and half white vinegar, and use plain water to repeat the process twice. This is a very crucial part as it can help in getting rid of the vinegar taste that you would not want anywhere near the coffee you are brewing.
• After cleaning up the coffee maker’s interior and exterior, just place the filter basket and pot into the dishwasher.
• Lastly, you should use a soft, wet and clean rag for wiping the outside to get rid of any coffee grinds and debris.

Final thoughts

Coffee is not only mouth-watering but it’s also the best way of lifting your mood and boosting your energy each morning.

With the different coffee shops and the number of different instant coffee brands these days, still, owning a coffee maker is the most affordable and convenient way to drink fresh coffee in the comfort of your house.

When having this appliance, you need to know how often it needs cleaning and the right way of cleaning it too. And the pot and brewing basket needs cleaning after each use.