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Chances are, it's been a while since you last cleaned your coffee maker. If you're making coffee every single day, you should be performing a deep clean -- or a descale -- every three to six months to remove buildup of deposits, such as lime or bacteria.
Descaling your coffee maker should only take a few minutes and can improve the performance of your coffee maker, as well as the taste of the coffee it makes.
What you will need
To get started, you will need a large coffee mug, some distilled vinegar and filtered water. Before descaling, however, you should hand wash or wipe down any removable parts, so you will also need a damp wash cloth.
Descaling the coffee maker
Over months of use, lime, bacteria and other unwanted things can begin to build up inside your coffee maker, especially if you're using a single-cup maker like a Keurig. And it's easy to forget about, since there's no way to visually discern if most coffee makers are due for a descaling.
No less, getting rid of that grime is simple:
- Start by dumping any water from the cold water reservoir and removing any spent pods that may be left behind.
- Use a dry (or slightly damp) wash cloth to wipe away any residue, such as loose coffee grounds, from the exterior and the pod housing before descaling.
- Turn the coffee maker on and pour the distilled vinegar into the water reservoir until you reach the Max Fill line.
- Once the coffee maker is ready to brew, place the coffee mug on the drip tray, lift the handle, select the largest brew cycle and lower the handle without inserting a pod. Start the brewing process.
- When the mug is full, dump the mixture down the sink and repeat until there is no more solution left in the reservoir.
- If there is still vinegar in the reservoir, either add enough water to run one more cycle or dump the remaining solution in the sink.
- Fill the reservoir with filtered water and run multiple cycles to wash away any remaining vinegar from the machine. Thoroughly rinse out the reservoir.
At home coffee machines changed the way my household makes coffee forever, but adding yet another appliance to my kitchen brought its own unique challenges. When I discovered how to descale a Keurig with vinegar, however, this once expensive and tedious task was made that little bit easier.
If you know how to clean a Keurig coffee maker already, you will also know that the commercial descaling cleaner can be costly and the need to use the whole bottle each time can add up. Luckily, I discovered that a Keurig machine is one of many things you can clean with vinegar, making this home staple even more useful.
Here, I explain how I descale a Keurig with vinegar for a simple at-home clean that can save you money.
(Image credit: Alamy)
Having been named one of the best single-serve coffee makers, one of the reasons I chose the Keurig machine is how easy it is to clean at home. Cleaning and descaling a Keurig with vinegar is simple and only requires four items to do well:
- White vinegar
- Water
- A cup to catch the used solution
- A clean cloth soaked in warm soapy water
1. Empty the machines reservoir
Before beginning the cleaning process it is important to make sure the water reservoir has been emptied of old water and any filters have been removed. It is best to also remove any K-cups from the machine too.
I left the filter in once by accident and found that the taste of vinegar stuck around for several uses after descaling as the solution soaked into the filter. Taking this out and washing it by hand seems to be a much easier (and better tasting) alternative to cleaning it with vinegar. I guess there are things you should not clean with vinegar after all!
2. Combine equal parts water and vinegar
When it comes to cleaning a kitchen and my appliances, I find that a vinegar-water solution is one of the best all-around cleaners you can make yourself. From cleaning kitchen grease to descaling your Keurig, it does it all!
To descale my Keurig, I pour equal parts water and white vinegar into the now empty reservoir and turn the machine on to a cycle. I always place a large mug underneath the spout to collect this water – the larger the better to prevent overflow.
My Keurig machine has a self-descale function built in. If you have this too, simply set the machine to run and leave until the cycle is complete. If you have a smaller model or your machine does not have a descale function like mine, this method will still work as long as you run several regular cycles through the machine one after the other. Depending on how dirty your Keurig machine is you may need to run this cycle multiple times until the water begins to come through clear.
Vinegar works so well to descale a Keurig due to its acidic properties as it cuts through calcium build-up and kills any bacteria that is lingering inside the pipes.
3. Complete a plain water cycle
In order to flush the vinegar residue out of my machine and prevent that lingering vinegar taste I experienced once and never want to taste again, I empty the reservoir of vinegar solution and refill it with plain water.
I find that completing around three regular machine cycles will help clear this taste out completely.
4. Clean individual components and allow the machine to air dry
While the vinegar solution works wonders to clean the internal mechanisms of my machine, certain removable parts such as the reservoir, lid, pot holder, and drip tray need to be cleaned manually with a soft cloth in warm soapy water before being left to air dry completely and reassembling.
5. Complete the clean with an exterior wipe down
If my machine's exterior is particularly dirty due. I often use the vinegar water solution cleaning tip in spray form to wipe down the outside of my machine too. If my machine has recently been cleaned, I find that a cloth soaked in warm soapy water is sufficient to remove any general kitchen grease build-up or spilled/splashed coffee.
How to know if your Keurig needs descaling
If you do not have a Keurig model with a descaling alert light on it such as on the Keurig K-Classic Coffee Maker available on Amazon (opens in new tab), it can be difficult to know when to descale your Keurig as the calcium deposits form inside of the machine. I find it best to descale my machine at least every three to six months depending on how frequently it has been used.
I consider descaling my Keurig before the light comes on if I find that my coffee is taking longer to brew, the water appears to come out more violently with more splutters, or if the machine appears to be getting increasingly louder as the water flow has to work harder through the machine.
Is descaling solution better than vinegar?
Both vinegar and descaling solution is equally as effective when it comes to descaling a coffee maker such as a Keurig. While both solutions have their downsides, from a possible lingering taste from vinegar or the chemical makeup of a commercial descaler, neither solution is better than the other for descaling a machine.
Do you remove the filter when descaling Keurig?
If you are descaling a Keurig machine with a removable filter, it is best to remove this part to prevent the solution from saturating the filter and leaving residue behind. This residue may affect the taste of your coffee, so washing it by hand with water is the better approach.