Have you ever wondered about how you can brew the perfect cup of coffee on your drip coffee maker? Well, it isn’t just about the type of beans and methods you use, but also how you maintain it. Yes, cleaning is imperative to ensure a good cup of coffee and a machine to last for years.
Surprisingly, not many people actually know how to clean their drip coffee makers. That results in lots of oil and calcium deposits that affect your coffee’s taste and the machine’s performance. To prevent that, I’ll be showing you the seven cleaning tips inspired by a cool coffee blog – Coffeeurban to clean a drip coffee maker!
- Is It Dishwasher Friendly?
Unless it says on the label, I highly recommend that you do NOT place your coffee pot or its other contents in the dishwasher. Not only might this damage your coffee pot and parts, but it may also not be cleaned as thoroughly as you expect!
So what do you do? It’s best to clean it by hand and to run a brew with the appropriate cleaning solutions.
- When Do You Clean It?
You don’t need to clean out your entire drip coffee maker every day, besides the coffee pot. I recommend that you deep-clean the coffee maker at least once a month, which ensures that both outside and inside of the machine is completely clean and can perform well.
As for me, I deep clean once a week or once every two weeks to keep it working in top condition!
- What Do You Clean Your Drip Coffee Maker With?
There are several types of cleaning solutions you can use to clean your drip coffee maker, both homemade or store-bought.
- Create a cleaning solution of one part white vinegar and one part water, enough for two brewing cycles
- If you don’t want white vinegar, you can substitute and use dishwashing liquid instead
- There are specialized cleaning solutions for drip coffee makers, as recommended by the machine’s manufacturers
- What If You Aren’t Using Your Drip Coffee Maker?
If you aren’t using your drip coffee maker for a few days or so, then it’s best to leave the lids of the coffee pot and water reservoir off. This will have the interiors dry properly, preventing any mold, residue, and has the airflow healthily. Also, remember that the machine should be unplugged when not in use, as a safety precaution and to prevent it from wearing out.
- Checking and Addressing Damages
Sometimes our drip coffee makers incur damages without us even knowing about it! So when doing a weekly or monthly cleaning, check out your coffee pot and other parts of the machine, replacing and repairing cracked or worn out parts which are a huge danger to your safety AND the coffee maker.
Always clean up coffee spills on the heating pad, replace cracked filter baskets, and check the machine’s coffee pot every now and then for cracks.
- Avoid Overusing and Keeping the Drip Coffee Maker In Power
Maintaining your coffee maker isn’t just about cleaning it right, it’s about using it right as well! With that being said, it’s important to avoid overusing it to the point that it’s considered abuse! I like brewing one huge batch a day, which prevents me from constantly switching on and off the coffee maker, as this can wear down its power.
- The Official and Simple Steps in Cleaning
Follow these three simple steps in deep cleaning your drip coffee machine:
- Place your chosen cleaning solution into the coffee pot and brew this solution in the machine two times.
- Repeat the first step, but using only distilled water this time to rinse our the solution.
- Use baking soda and a sponge to scrub the stains from the coffee machine, and rinse.
Cleaning your drip coffee maker isn’t such a tedious task, only needing a bit of your time and regular cleaning materials. As long as you know what to do to keep your coffee maker clean and maintained well, then you can enjoy delicious cups of coffee for a long time. It’s not that hard and can be done within minutes!
Hopefully, this article on the seven tips to clean a drip coffee maker helped you out! So don’t wait any longer and look into using any of these tips and steps now.
If you have any questions or want to share your tips and experiences on cleaning your drip coffee maker, then comment below! Your thoughts are much appreciated.
All the tips are really interesting, informative and workaholic. I need to be more cautious on tips #5.