Does coffee not taste as good as it usually does? It may be a sign that it is time to clean and descale the coffee maker. Here are simple tips on keeping your brew fresh and free of unnecessary dirt.
In order for your coffee to taste good, it is important to clean the brewer regularly. How often it needs to be taken care of depends, among other things, on the hardness of the water, but a clear sign that it is time for refreshment is when the coffee starts to taste bitter.
In addition to daily cleaning in the form of all loose parts being rinsed off after use and washed with detergent at regular intervals, the coffee maker must also be decalcified. A good rule is to descale after about 40 brews, but the need varies depending on the hardness of the water. There are several different descaling methods, but cleaning with vinegar is usually the most effective.
Here we list various methods and remedies that easily descale and clean the coffee maker:
Descaling the coffee maker with vinegar – here’s how:
- Pour one deciliter of vinegar (24 percent) and six deciliters of water into the coffee maker.
- Brew through half of the liquid, turn off the brewer and wait for ten minutes.
- Start the coffee maker again and brew through the rest of the mixture.
- Brew through the coffee maker with clean water three to four times to remove all the taste of vinegar. Finished!
There are manufacturers who do not recommend decalcifying their coffee makers with vinegar. Then try cleaning with citric acid or bicarbonate instead. Whether vinegar is recommended or not is in the machine’s instruction manual.
Descaling with citric acid:
- Mix two to three teaspoons of citric or ascorbic acid with six deciliters of water and pour it into the coffee maker.
- Brew through the booklet of liquid, turn off the coffee maker and wait for ten minutes.
- Finish clarification by brewing with clean water three to four times.
Descaling and cleaning with bicarbonate:
- Fill the coffee pot with water and mix in four tablespoons of bicarbonate, stir and pour into the brewer.
- Allow all the liquid to flow through and then pour the bicarbonate water back into the water tank to repeat the process twice.
- Pull the coffee pot away from the brewer and allow the liquid to cool. Then clean the inside of the jug using a sponge and the cooled water with bicarbonate.
Pour the liquid and rinse the jug with clean water.
- Fill the jug with fresh water and squeeze the juice from a lemon, then brew through the new mixture once.
- Finish by letting plain water flow through the coffee maker a couple of times.
- Cleaning and descaling agents to buy in stores: