Why aren’t you wondering how to clean a coffee maker?
You wash your sheets and towels. You deep clean your bathroom. And you even meticulously weigh out your ground coffee for your morning cup of gold. You might even know the coffee golden ratio off the top of your head.
Cleaning (also known as descaling) your coffee maker is the best thing you can do for your trusty drip machine. I’m going to tell you why it’s so important to clean your coffee maker, how to clean your coffee maker, and what to avoid in the process.
Cleaning your coffee maker is easy and a lot less taxing than cleaning under your couch. If you have a toddler, you know what I’m talking about.
Why You Should Clean Your Coffee Maker
I’ve talked about the importance of your coffee water temperature, why you should use filtered water, and how to grind your coffee beans. All of these factors play into the final taste of an excellent cup of coffee.
Have you ever thought about why you should clean your home drip coffee maker?
Cleaning your coffee maker can improve the taste of your morning cup of coffee. My home coffee maker gets a thorough workout almost every day around here. But does it get dirty?
Of course, it does. We all wash the coffee pot. You might even run the basket holder and reusable filter through the dishwasher once a week.
But that’s not enough. If you live in an area with hard water, you can run into mineral deposits on just about all the parts of your drip machine.
Mineral deposits are also called scaling. These deposits can dramatically change the flavor of your coffee. The 2 main deposits that most people run into are magnesium and calcium. These 2 minerals are most commonly found in harder water.
Hard water is ideal for making coffee because magnesium can enhance the flavor compounds found in coffee.
But after time, this buildup can not only change the flavor of your brewed coffee, but it can begin to clog the inner working of your coffee maker.
But have you ever thought about what kind of shape the side of your coffee maker is in? There could be mold and additional calcium and magnesium scale on internal workings as well.
Don’t fret — I have a solution for you:
Deep clean your coffee maker at home.
It’s easy and takes a couple of hours with lots of hands off time.
Step by Step Guide to Cleaning Your Drip Coffee Maker
Now that your interest in doing a deeper clean on your coffee maker has hopefully made your to do list (ideally towards the top), you need to go ahead and do it. I’m only specifically talking about how to clean a drip coffee maker. I will write about how to clean the rest of your brew gear in other posts.
I usually clean my drip coffee around every 3-4 months because of the high use, and my water leans toward a higher mineral content. If you don’t use your drip coffee maker as often or have softer water, you may find it less necessary to clean it as often.
If you have a function on your drip coffee maker that tells you when to clean it, then this is when you should be cleaning your coffee maker. This function usually has a light that comes on when the machine senses mineral or mold deposits.
Here’s what you’ll need to clean your drip coffee maker
- Clean water. The tap is fine.
- Distilled white vinegar. I like this one and usually buy a large jug always to have it on hand. Make sure to use food grade distilled white vinegar when cleaning your coffee maker. Anything that is “industrial grade” is going to be corrosive for your machine.
Steps to Clean Your Coffee Maker
- Clean all removable parts from your coffee maker. I usually send it through a dishwasher cycle or hand wash. This is to ensure that you’re starting with as little coffee debris as possible.
- Fill your coffee pot with equal parts of distilled white vinegar and water. For example: if your coffee holds 12 cups of water, fill the pot to 6 cups mark with vinegar and the last 6 cups with water.
- Pour the vinegar solution into the reservoir on your coffee maker.
- Run a regular brewing cycle.
- Halfway through the brew cycle, turn off the machine. You’re going to let this sit for 1 hour but no longer than 2 hours. This step should loosen the mineral build ups and any mold deposits (yuck).
- When the hour wait time is up, turn the brew cycle back on to complete the water flushing out your brewing system.
- Remove the coffee pot and pour out the used vinegar solution.
- Wash all the removable parts of your coffee maker.
- Fill up your coffee pot and again and run clean water through another brew cycle. Let the coffee maker cool and repeat this process another 2-3 times. Be sure to let the machine cool between cycles.
- If you notice (like I did) a lot of black floaters in the water in the coffee pot, keep repeating this process until the water brews clear. If it keeps happening, you may need to wipe out the water reservoir. Coffee grounds and other sediments can build up here.
- Enjoy your newly clean and descaled drip coffee maker.
Descaling and cleaning your drip coffee maker is easy once you know what you’re doing and how it works. I was astonished at how much better my drip coffee tasted after I did this the first time. Just like washing your sheets or doing a deep clean of your kitchen, descaling your drip machine makes a world of difference.
Now that you’re 100% adulting let’s talk about what NOT to do when cleaning your drip coffee maker.
What Not to Do When Cleaning Your Coffee Maker
You now know that descaling your coffee maker is much like making coffee, just 2 ingredients — water and white distilled vinegar.
But what about introducing other cleaning solvents or steps into your cleaning process?
No. Keep it simple. The above method is proven time and time again to do the job and not leave behind any unwanted flavors or chemicals.
Here’s a list of NO’s when cleaning your drip coffee maker:
- Don’t use bleach. Never use bleach to clean your drip coffee maker. Bleach can leach into the glass coffee pot and the plastic part of your machine. No one wants bleached flavored anything, especially their coffee.
- Don’t use baking soda. This seems like a great and affordable way to clean your coffee maker. Heck, it’s what I use to clean my garbage disposal when it gets a little smelly. Never use baking soda to clean your drip coffee maker. The baking soda can leave behind a residue or even clog up the inner workings of your drip coffee maker. It’s fantastic to clean your coffee pot to remove the scale left behind or stains, but I would never use it in a descaling project.
- Don’t use harsh chemicals. Cleaning your drip coffee maker is actually a very delicate project. They’re designed to run water through, not harsh chemicals. A “kill it with fire” approach will leave a broken machine in its wake or toxic residue in your maker.
My main philosophy on cleaning drip coffee makers is to stick to what works and keep it simple. The inner workings are delicate yet simple. Stick to the above step by step guide and only use fresh water and distilled white vinegar when you do a deep clean (or descaling) of your machine.
What About Self Cleaning Coffee Makers?
Some coffee makers are outfitted with self cleaning options. I have no personal experience with this kind of technology. So I did some sleuthing for you. It doesn’t look good.
Most other coffee blogs and consumer buying sites give a thumbs down to self cleaning coffee makers. The problem is that you can’t really self clean your machine like doing it yourself. Without introducing a vinegar solution to descale your drip coffee maker or remove mold, you’re just not going to get a through cleaning of the inside of the machine.
It seems to me to be the same process sans the vinegar solution. This seems like a mark up that doesn’t do much for cleaning. I would steer away from self cleaning drip coffee makers when deciding if that extra function makes it worth the price tag.
Like the making of coffee, cleaning and descaling your coffee pot should be simple. There’s no need for extra bells and whistles when it’s just a vinegar and water solution and some time to let things sit and let the solution to do its magic. Maybe read a book or watch an episode of that Netflix show you’ve been meaning to catch up on.
Conclusion
Doing a deep clean of your drip coffee maker is needed and easy to do. If you use the above guide and don’t get crazy with the cleaning solution ingredients, you should be good to go. I promise you this will change your coffee maker routine, and your taste buds will thank you.