Cleaning Your Coffee Maker

• Make a mixture of 1 part white vinegar to 2 parts water. Make enough to fill your coffee pot. If your coffee pot is particularly dirty, you can make a stronger mixture of equal parts vinegar and water.


• Before proceeding, please be aware that this process will FILL your home/office with the sweet smell of vinegar. This aroma will be unpleasant to most of your family members and most of your customers/co-workers.


• Insert a filter as usual. Pour the vinegar/water mixture into your coffee maker where you would normally add water. Turn the coffee maker on and let the cycle complete as normal.


• Discard the used filter and the vinegar/water mixture.


• Let the coffee pot cool for about 10-15 minutes.


• Wash the pot with soap and water. Rinse the pot thouroughly.


• Run 2 more cycles through your coffee maker with PLAIN, COLD WATER to rinse the vinegar out of the machine.


• If there is no vinegar smell after the 1st rinse cycle, you can skip the 2nd rinse.

White distilled vinegar is effective for killing most mold, bacteria, and germs due to its acidity. We hope you don't need to kill any mold in your coffee pot, but the acidity is also good for removing mineral deposits in your coffee pot (the white residue that doesn't scrub off).

Some people will tell you never to use soap to wash your coffee pot because glass pots will absorb the soap and ruin all of the coffee that you make in the future. Glass is inert, that's why scientists use glass test tubes and beakers in laboratories. BUT, if you don't rinse your coffee pot well, soap residue may remain and WILL probably affect every pot of coffee until it is washed out sufficiently.

There's a cleaning tip out on the Internet that mentions putting table salt and ice cubes in your coffee pot, then swirling the mixture around to remove coffee stains. Salt is definitely an abrasive, but this one doesn't sound very effective. If anybody has experience with this method...let us know.