The dirtiest thing in your morning routine might be making the coffee.
Water sits in the reservoir. Grounds sit in the basket. Everything stays warm and damp, and that is exactly what mineral scale and mold like. Here is the ten-minute version LaLa actually does.
Before You Blame the Beans, Clean the Damn Pot
The 30-second version
- 1.The dirtiest thing in your morning routine might be making the coffee.
- 2.Check the manual for your descaler.
- 3.Wash the removable parts daily.
- 4.Descale the machine.
- 5.Rinse twice, minimum.
- 6.If the machine leaks from the base, trips a breaker, or still brews slow and cool after a proper descale, stop. That is a heating element or a pump, and it is usually cheaper to replace the machine than to repair it.
Short on time? That's the whole thing. #DidYouCleanThat
Check
- Water reservoir
- Lid and spray head
- Brew basket
- Carafe and warming plate
- Drip tray
01 — The problem
Nobody thinks of the coffee maker as dirty, because coffee comes out of it hot. But the reservoir never fully dries, the basket holds oils that go rancid, and hard water leaves scale inside the lines where you cannot see it.
02 — Why you should care
- Old coffee oils turn bitter, and no bean fixes that.
- Scale slows the brew and drops the water temperature, so the coffee under-extracts.
- A damp reservoir and lid is a comfortable place for mold to set up.
- Descaling on a schedule is the difference between a machine that lasts two years and one that lasts ten.
“If your coffee started tasting off and you blamed the beans, the beans would like a word.”
03 — What you need
- White vinegar, or the descaler your manufacturer recommends
- Dish soap and a soft brush
- Microfiber cloths
- Fresh water for the rinse cycles
04 — How to do it
- 01Check the manual for your descaler.Some machines, especially pod and espresso machines, void the warranty if you run vinegar through them. Two minutes of reading beats a new machine.
- 02Wash the removable parts daily.Basket, carafe, lid. Warm soapy water, soft brush in the corners, then dry. Coffee oils are the taste problem, and soap is the whole fix.
- 03Descale the machine.Fill the reservoir with equal parts white vinegar and water, or your descaler at the labeled dilution. Run half a brew cycle, stop it, let it sit thirty minutes, then finish the cycle.
- 04Rinse twice, minimum.Two or three full cycles of plain water. If you can still smell vinegar, run another one. Nobody wants a pickled latte.
- 05Wipe the spray head and the lid.The underside of the lid and the little shower head above the basket collect gunk you never see. Damp cloth, then dry.
- 06Leave the reservoir open to dry.Lid up between uses. A reservoir that dries out does not grow anything.
05 — Don't do this
- Don't run vinegar through a pod or espresso machine unless the manual says you can.
- Don't skip the rinse cycles. Vinegar taste lingers for days.
- Don't put the carafe lid or the machine base in the dishwasher unless it is marked dishwasher safe.
- Don't leave wet grounds in the basket overnight. That is where the sour smell starts.
06 — Know when to stop
If the machine leaks from the base, trips a breaker, or still brews slow and cool after a proper descale, stop. That is a heating element or a pump, and it is usually cheaper to replace the machine than to repair it.
07 — LaLa's pick
If LaLa says it works, it works. Nothing gets the seal until she's used it.
Descaling solution
Safe on the machines vinegar is not.
Soft bottle brush set
Gets into the basket corners and the carafe neck.
Questions people actually ask
- How often should you clean a coffee maker?
- Wash the removable parts daily and descale monthly. Every two or three weeks if you have hard water.
- Can you use vinegar to clean a coffee maker?
- In most standard drip machines, yes. Check the manual first, because many pod and espresso machines specifically call for their own descaler.
- Why does my coffee taste bitter all of a sudden?
- Usually rancid oils in the basket and carafe, or scale dropping the brew temperature. Clean both before you change beans.
While we're at it
08 — Ask LaLa™
Still stuck on this one?
Try something like “My coffee tastes bitter and I cleaned the pot.” and tell her what's actually happening.