Properly cleaning and maintaining your coffee maker on a regular basis will keep it in good working condition for a long time. No one wants to spend money on an appliance only to have it break down and stop working after a year or so.
You probably wash out the carafe for coffee pot after every pot of coffee you brew and you probably wipe down your coffee maker with a damp rag to keep it looking nice but you also need to clean the inner workings of your machine. We put together this quick guide on how to clean your coffee maker so that your machine will be reliable and produce great tasting coffee for years to come.
If you don’t clean your machine it can have a negative impact on the way your coffee tastes. Oils and residue can build up inside the coffee maker and a can cause your coffee to taste rancid. Your machine can also break down prematurely if you fail to clean it properly. Hard water and mineral deposits can clog up the tubes that the water flows through and this can make it take longer for your machine to brew a pot of coffee but it can also lead to your machine overheating and breaking down.
So how do you go about cleaning your coffee maker? The easiest way to clean out the inner workings of your coffee maker is to run a cleaning solution through a brewing cycle the way you would brew a pot with ordinary water. Instead of running water through the system, make up a solution of one part vinegar to two parts water. Mix a full pot of this solution and fill the water reservoir of your coffee maker. Then just turn your coffee maker on as if you were brewing a pot of coffee.
There are cleaning solutions that you can buy but vinegar and water is a much less expensive option and it is just as effective. Once the brew cycle is complete allow a few minutes for the pot full of vinegar and water to cool and then pour it down the drain. You can repeat the process if necessary and you can also run a cycle with just water if you are worried about any vinegar being left behind and giving your coffee a sort of sour taste. One cycle with just water will flush out any remaining vinegar.
That’s really all there is to it. Follow these steps and clean out your coffee maker about once per month and your machine should give you many years of reliable service, and of course great tasting coffee.
