How To Clean A Coffee Maker

If you don't wash your coffee maker on a regular basis, you'll soon find that your coffee tastes bad.

This happens because of scaling, and leftover coffee oils and impurities that remain in your coffee maker and make the coffee taste "different". Ideally, you should clean your coffee maker once a month to make sure that you're making the best-tasting coffee.

The first step to cleaning your coffee machine is to make a cleaning mixture. You can use 1 part vinegar to 2 parts water to make this mixture. However if your coffee maker is extra dirty, use 1 part vinegar to 1 part water.

Now, put a filter on your coffee maker, and add this cleaning mixture to where you'd normally add water. Run the coffee machine, and let the mixture run through completely. This will clean all those internal parts that you can't reach by hand. After this is done, throw away the cleaning mixture and the used filter.

Let the coffee maker cool for a few minutes, and rinse the coffee pot. Now repeat the whole process twice, but use plain water instead of vinegar - this will clean out any of the vinegar residue.

Some Additional Tips

• If you have hard water in your area, you could keep a glass marble in the water chamber to attract the chemicals which cause scaling in your coffee machine. This way, you'll have to clean the coffee maker less often.
• Always clean a brand new coffee machine first, before you use it.
• If you're in a rush when you're cleaning, you can rinse with water once and check the smell. If you can't smell any vinegar, you could go ahead and make a pot of coffee.
• Never wash a coffee maker using soap. This will just bind the oils that the coffee leaves behind, and leave a bad taste.
• If you don't want to use vinegar when cleaning, you can also use two denture tablets, dissolved in a pot of water. Always make sure that the tablets are dissolved first, before running the mixture through.
• You can also use commercial coffee cleaners instead of the vinegar mixture. While I think vinegar cleans just as well, it's really up to your preferences.

Cleaning your coffee maker might seem like a waste of time initially, but it will really help you to make better tasting coffee and will keep the machine running smoothly. Since most of us have coffee makers in our home because we love coffee, and good coffee machines aren't cheap, it's definitely a good idea to clean them regularly!