Cleaning a coffee pot

[Mergath]

I've cleaned my coffee pot with vinegar, but when I make coffee it still has that weird taste, like it needs to be cleaned. Does anyone know of a method that works better than the vinegar, or should I just commit to buying a new coffee pot at this point?

 

Thanks!

[Mergath]

How much vinegar did you use? And did you run at least one pot of water after through?

 

I think if you used plenty of vinegar and did run at least one pot of water through, it might just be time for a new pot.

 

If you have very hard water you could also try CLR.

 

I used a whole pot, and ran it through twice. Then ran water through twice after that. Yeah, looks like it's time for a new one. Darn, now I'll have to go shopping. :p

[lavender's green]

Try putting a bunch of ice cubes, salt, and a bit of water in the pot to clean it. It helps with the bitter taste, but my pot is still pretty icky-looking on the inside (it's stainless steel and the hole at the top is so small it's hard to clean by hand or with a scrub brush).

[happypamama]

I would try lemon juice; it seems to work better for us than vinegar. I run a pot of lemon juice through the coffee maker about once a month, but I also run several pots of plain water after it (like four), and nobody's complained about the taste.

[redsquirrel]

When I worked in restaurants we used ice cubes and lots of salt. You toss them in and then swirl it around and around to scrub the gunk off. It worked pretty well.

 

At home I use Barkeepers's Friend.

[Tap]

when you say coffee pot are you talking about the mechanical part that heats the water, or the carafe?

[Mergath]

when you say coffee pot are you talking about the mechanical part that heats the water, or the carafe?

 

The mechanical part, sorry.

[Tap]

 

The mechanical part, sorry.

have you checked to see if it has a filter that needs to be replaced? If you don't know, maybe try Google for the make/model. You may also try soaking it overnight in vinegar, then running the full cycle with the vinegar instead of coffee (it stinks so I do it outside) and taking a tooth brush to the parts where the coffee sits to make sure any oily residue from the coffee is removed. Ours has a little spring that pushes up to allow the coffee carafe to be removed without the coffee draining out of the pot while it is brewing. I have to clean it periodically due to the oil build up. When I run vinegar though, ( I unplug it and then) tip the mechanical part over the sink and use the power sprayer from my sink to spray out any residue. This helps to rinse it also. I also use a bottle brush to scrub as much as I can. We have hard water so build up is inevitable unless I want to buy my coffee water. I then run 4 or more pots of water though to rinse the inner mechanics. It always surprises me how much crud comes out. :ack2: I run the permanent filter through the dishwasher, but I scrub it with straight Dawn and a toothbrush first and rinse with hot water. There are a few removable parts on ours, and I run them through the dishwasher too.

[LaCEmom]

They do make a product specifically to clean coffee makers. I can't remember what's it's called, but I've seen it sold by the coffee filters. Not sure if it's better than vinegar, but might be worth a shot.

[Mergath]

have you checked to see if it has a filter that needs to be replaced? If you don't know, maybe try Google for the make/model. You may also try soaking it overnight in vinegar, then running the full cycle with the vinegar instead of coffee (it stinks so I do it outside) and taking a tooth brush to the parts where the coffee sits to make sure any oily residue from the coffee is removed. Ours has a little spring that pushes up to allow the coffee carafe to be removed without the coffee draining out of the pot while it is brewing. I have to clean it periodically due to the oil build up. When I run vinegar though, ( I unplug it and then) tip the mechanical part over the sink and use the power sprayer from my sink to spray out any residue. This helps to rinse it also. I also use a bottle brush to scrub as much as I can. We have hard water so build up is inevitable unless I want to buy my coffee water. I then run 4 or more pots of water though to rinse the inner mechanics. It always surprises me how much crud comes out. :ack2: I run the permanent filter through the dishwasher, but I scrub it with straight Dawn and a toothbrush first and rinse with hot water. There are a few removable parts on ours, and I run them through the dishwasher too.

 

 

Oh, I hadn't thought to let the vinegar soak in there overnight before I run it through, I'll give that a try! Thank you! :) I don't know if mine has any removable parts though. Hmm. I'm going to have to go online and find the manual, I think.