How To Clean A Drip Coffee Maker

There are coffee fanatics all around the world in a number of age ranges. Those who enjoy coffee at home, are likely to have a drip coffee maker for their personal use as well as for guests who drop by. If your coffee maker is used at least three times a week then it is recommended that you clean it to ensure a savory cup and help increase the life of your drip coffee maker.

There are a a few methods to clean your drip coffee maker. Ultimately, it is up to you to try them out and decide which method works best for you and what you are comfortable with. If you research on the Internet, you will find a range of home-based remedies for cleaning solutions using commonplace products in your home for cleaning.

One method of cleaning your coffee maker is to use a homemade mixture of water and baking soda. Take 1 cup of water and mix it with 1/4 cup of baking soda and use this solution to run through your drip coffee machine. You will want to run it through the coffee maker once without a filter. After rinsing the coffee pot out, you will want to run plain water through the coffee machine 2 or 3 times more in order to clean out any leftover solution or accumulation in the machine. After this is complete, you can use your drip coffee maker once again as before. It is recommended this solution to be run through once per week, but you will have to use your own discretion depending on how often you use your machine.

Another home solution involves mixing 1/2 cup of vinegar with 4 cups of water. After you run through this solution once, you should turn off the coffee maker and let it cool down. Once it has cooled down, run the vinegar mixture through the coffee maker once more. After this has been repeated then you can run plain water through the coffee machine to clean out any remaining solution and accumulation. Let your coffee machine cool down for 30 minutes. During this time you can wash the carafe and filter basket with hot soapy water. Some will find that this solution is best to be used only once per month since it does take some time to rinse out the vinegar and may leave an odor in the kitchen while running the cleaning process.

If you prefer to make a solution from something stronger, you could create a cleaning solution that is made of 1 ounce of citric acid with 4 cups of hot water. After the citric acid is dissolved then you will add 4 cups of cold water to the solution and run half of the entire mixture through your coffee machine. After half of the mixture has flowed through, turn off the machine and let it settle for 20 minutes. Then you will want to turn the machine back on and let the remainder of the solution flow through the coffee maker. Once the entire solution has run through once you can continue the flushing process with 8 cups of cold water run through your drip coffee maker at least 4 more times. This will remove any excess solution and accumulation. If you have a smaller coffee maker, such as a half pot maker, you can half this mixture in order to suit your needs.

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Natalie Williams is the author of CoffeeMachines101.com. Visit her site for more free tips on how to select the right coffee machine for your needs.