How To Clean Your Coffee Maker

Making coffee at home should be a quick and easy process, but if it isn’t, that doesn’t necessarily mean your coffee maker is going bad. It might just be dirty. That’s right, a dirty coffee maker does more than just make your morning joe taste weird – it can be the cause of quite a few issues that otherwise seem like failed components.

Before you start shopping for new brewers or disassembling internal components, why not start with a deep cleaning? Today, AppliancePartsPros.com will show you how! Keep reading for a complete guide to cleaning your coffee maker, whether you’re into the simplicity of a French press or prefer all the bells and whistles that come with a fancy single-serving brewer, we’ve got you covered!

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How Often Should I Clean My Coffee Maker?

Best practice is to clean out your coffee basket and carafe every day after you’ve brewed your last pot if you are utilizing your coffee maker every day. If your coffee maker has a hot plate, wait until it’s cool and wipe it off whenever you notice any dripped coffee on the surface. Deeper cleanings, like full descalings, can be done every three months – more often, like monthly, is appropriate if your coffee maker sees heavy use.

How To Tell If My Coffee Maker Is Dirty?

No matter if you rely on a coffee press, single cup brewer, or the classic hot plate and carafe set up to get your morning joe, a dirty coffee maker can cause a number of issues – some of which may even seem like broken components.

Here are a few signs that your coffee maker probably needs to be deep cleaned:

• The coffee tastes off. Whether your coffee is brewing up unusually weak or just tastes downright bad, you can likely fix your issue by giving your coffee maker of choice a good deep cleaning. Not only can old grounds, coffee residue, mold, mildew, and yeast build ups affect the taste of your brew, serious dirt can disrupt internal components like the thermostat, which will impact the quality of your coffee.
• The coffee or the coffee maker smells of mold or mildew. Dump that cup and get right to cleaning. You may have a mold, mildew, or bacterial bloom growing somewhere in your appliance.
• Visible mineral build up on the machine itself. Mineral scale is typically white in color, and will form anywhere water comes in contact as the water leaves mineral deposits wherever it goes.
• Coffee takes longer to brew. If you find you’re waiting longer and longer for a cup of joe every morning, try deep cleaning your coffee maker and see if that does the trick. Scale build up can shrink the available space water has to flow, making everything take longer.
• The coffee maker sputters when dispensing coffee. This is especially common on single cup coffee makers. You may also find a lot of coffee grounds in the bottom of your cup.
• You’re not getting a full cup of coffee. If you’re pressing 6oz on your single-serve coffee maker and only getting 3oz, this could be caused by dirty internal components.

What Do I Use To Clean A Coffee Maker?

Dish soap and vinegar should be enough to get your coffee maker clean, and baking soda can be used to scrub off stuck-on grime on parts like the hot plate. Be sure to consult your coffee maker’s manual, as the manufacturer may advise a certain ratio of vinegar to water, or they may sell a specific descaling solution that is safe to use on your machine. If you elect to use a commercial cleaner, be sure to follow the instructions exactly.

As far as tools go, a sponge and soft scrubber should carry you most of the way. A tooth brush is useful if you’re cleaning a single-cup brewer, and for a coffee press, a rubber spatula will come in handy.

Don’t hesitate to throw on some rubber gloves to keep your hands from pruning up while you clean!

The Basics: Steps For Everyday Coffee Maker Cleaning

If you use your coffee maker every day, you should be doing a bit of cleaning every day. These tasks should take you about five to ten minutes.

1. Discard any leftover grounds. You can add used coffee grounds to compost heaps or your garden if you don’t want to toss them. We recommend against dumping grounds down the garbage disposal, as this can lead to clogging further down in your pipes.  Have a coffee press? A narrow rubber spatula is a great tool for getting all those grounds out.
2. Dump any remaining coffee in your carafe, and the water left in the reservoir.
3. Clean the carafe. Mild dish soap and a sponge or dish scrubber should be enough to get this clean. Make sure you get into the corners.
4. Clean the basket. Again, mild dish soap and a scrubber should be enough to get this clean. For a single-serving coffee maker, if you are using a reusable cup, a toothbrush will get it clean. If you have a French press, don’t forget to give the plunger a good scrub!
5. Once the coffee maker is cool, wipe it down. This is particularly important if you have a coffee maker with a hot plate. Once the appliance is cool, be sure to wipe down any parts where coffee may have splattered.

Deep Cleaning A Coffee Maker

How often you should deep clean your coffee maker will depend. If you drink a lot of coffee, the more often the better, but you generally shouldn’t need to do a full deep cleaning more than once a month.

This job will take about an hour total, but more than half of that time will likely be spent just waiting for the vinegar or descaling solution you use to do its job.

1. Start off with the coffee maker unplugged and completely cool. You don’t want to risk shocking or burning yourself while you work!
2. Complete your standard cleaning routine if you haven’t already. Dispose of any grounds and clean the removable parts of your coffee maker.
3. Clean the water reservoir. If you are able to remove the water reservoir, remove it and clean it as you would the carafe, with dish soap and warm water. Depending on where you keep your coffee maker, it’s not unusual for it to get dust, grime, or even grease build up.
4. Thoroughly clean the coffee maker body with a sponge and a soft scrubber or toothbrush. Make sure you’ve gotten any stray grounds out of the basket. On single-serving coffee makers especially, grounds wind up in the coffee pod holder.
   1. If your coffee maker has buttons that are gunked up, a wooden toothpick may be able to get some of those grounds out of the seams.
5. If necessary, soak the basket/pod/plunger. This optional step can help if your coffee basket, coffee pod (for single-serving makers), or plunger (for coffee presses) isn’t getting clean with soap and water alone. You can soak it in a basin of 50/50 vinegar and water for about fifteen to twenty minutes, then rinse. If you have a coffee press, you can usually disassemble the plunger, which makes getting it completely clean a little easier.
6. Clean the hot plate. If you’ve got burnt on coffee splatter, apply a paste of baking soda and water and scrub at it with a scrubber or toothbrush, then wipe away with a clean sponge. This should lift up anything that’s been baked on.
7. Plug your coffee maker back in now.
8. Fill the reservoir with a mix of vinegar and water – enough to brew one whole pot. Consult your manual before doing this. We suggest a 50/50 mix of vinegar and water, but your coffee maker may suggest less vinegar and more water. If you are using a commercial descaler instead of a DIY solution, please follow the instructions on the package.
9. Turn the coffee maker on and allow it to brew about half the mixture (or one cup, if you’re using a single-serving maker) and then turn it off. Let the coffee maker sit for 30 to 45 minutes. The vinegar will kill any mold or mildew and break down any coffee bean oil buildup.
10. After 30 to 45 minutes, turn the coffee maker back on and let it brew the rest of the way. You can discard the vinegar solution once this step is complete.
11. Rinse out the coffee basket and the water reservoir, then fill the reservoir completely with fresh water. Turn the coffee maker on and let it brew the clean water to completion. We’re flushing the system to rinse out any residue.
12. Discard the brewed water, then fill the reservoir again and repeat this process at least one more time. We suggest brewing with clean water three times in total. What this does is flush the vinegar out of your coffee maker so that you don’t get a nasty surprise on your next cup.
13. On your last clean water run through, add about a teaspoon of baking soda to the brewed water. If it fizzes, there’s still vinegar in your coffee maker, and you’ll want to run clean water through again.
14. Allow your coffee maker to dry. Open all the lids and let it air dry.

Keeping A Coffee Maker Cleaner Longer

Here are some quick tips for keeping your coffee maker in better shape for longer:

• Allow it to air dry once you’re done with it. Lift the lid to keep mold, mildew, and yeast from taking root inside.
• Use filtered water when you make your coffee to slow the build up of limescale. This can potentially also improve the taste of your coffee in general!
• Don’t leave the used grounds to sit. At the bare minimum, you should clean up your used grounds as soon as they’re completely spent and rinse out whatever your coffee maker uses to hold them.

Wrapping Up

We here at AppliancePartsPros.com know just how important a good cup of coffee is to getting you through your day, and we hope our guide has helped you to fix the flavor and functionality of your coffee maker. If you’re looking for more cleaning guides, repair tips, or replacement parts for your home appliances, keep us in mind. Our friendly staff is happy to help you with all sorts of home appliance repair tasks, and our site features tips and advice from other do-it-yourselfers just like you!