How to Clean Coffee Maker

Don't like to clean? Who does? And a topic like 'How to clean coffee makers' isn't generally that high on most peoples to-do list.. But your bestest little buddy in the kitchen needs cleaning too you know!

A build up of old coffee oils, and minerals from hard water will slowly build up in your coffee pot and in the pipes inside your coffee machine. This will really effect the taste of your coffee, not to mention being pretty unhealthy.

Below you will find 7 easy steps on how to clean coffee maker, as well as links on cleaning coffee pots, cleaning coffee maker with vinegar and other cleaning tips. Cofee pots, thermal carafes... anything else you can think of...

Actually, if there are things that you like to clean, that you can't see on our site, we'd love your input. Just click here, and you can share you ideas with the world through our CoffeeMakers411 community.

7 Steps - How to Clean Coffee Makers

1. Discard old coffee grinds and rinse your filters and pots/carafes out in hot water.

2. Next add the vinegar and water mix. We've found the easiest mix is roughly 1 part white vinegar mixed with 2 parts fresh water. Put this into your coffee pot or water reservoir, and let stand for a few minutes.

3. Turn on your coffee maker and let it run it's full cycle. Make sure the filter holder is in place so the machine doesn't spit hot water everywhere…

4. Once the machine has finished it's cycle, turn it off and let it cool down for 20-30 minutes. This gives the vinegar time to do it's magic!

5. If your coffee maker hasn't been cleaned with vinegar in a while, you will want to do steps 3 and 4 again… If this is a regular thing for you, then jump to step 6.

6. Empty the vinegar water out, and rinse thoroughly, then fill the carafe/reservoir with fresh water, and run a full cycle again. This step flushes the vinegar smell from the lines inside your machine. If you find you over-did the vinegar and the machine still smells a little 'tangy', run through a second flush with fresh, clean water.

7. All done!!!

Now that wasn't so hard was it?

HINT: If the outside of your machine needs a good clean too, use the warm vinegar water from after step 4 to scrub down your coffee maker. This is good to use on your coffee warming element where there always seems to be dried up coffee stains… why is that? Be careful not to use anything that will scratch up your machine or enamel element!

Another handy little tip sent in by a reader was to get into hard to reach spots of your coffee maker - wrap a cloth around a wooden chopstick and you can get into even the tightest spaces...

If you have any other grand ideas, or secrets on how to clean coffee pots, a coffee maker or single cup coffee machine - you can let us - and the rest of the world know by writing your ideas here.

Or if you're the shy type... read what other people have written about cleaning coffee makers here.

Related Pages

Cleaning your Coffee Maker

How to Clean Coffee Pot

Bunn Coffee Maker Cleaning

Clean Coffee Maker with Vinegar

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