How to Descale Your Coffee Maker Without Descaling Tablets
It’s time to clean your coffee maker, but you’re all out of descaling tablets. If you need your coffee now, an at home remedy is as simple as using white vinegar and water to clean your coffee maker. If you’ve noticed your coffee is tasting a bit off, it probably means it needs descaled.
Most coffee maker problems arise from improper upkeep. Make sure you are descaling often, especially if you’re a big coffee drinker!
Here is how you would clean your coffee maker WITHOUT descaling tablets:
What You’ll Need:
- 1 cup white vinegar
- ½ liter of water
The best way to begin is by following the descaling instructions on your specific coffee maker. This should be an option in your coffee maker settings. If you have any issues finding this specific setting, consult your use and care booklet for coffee maker. We are showing how to descale on the Bosch 24" Stainless Steel Built-In Coffee Maker.
Descaling & Rinsing
Typically, this process will start with emptying your drip trays. Make sure there is no water left in the tray before reinserting.
Once you get to the step where it asks you to place a descaling tablet in your water tank, you will instead place 1 cup of white vinegar and ½ liter of water into the tank. From here your machine will rinse, so make sure you have a large enough glass to collect the white vinegar and water mixture that it will dispense through the machine.
After your machine has rinsed with this mixture, you will be rinsing out your water tank. You won’t want any vinegar residue, as this will affect the taste of your coffee, so you might need to rinse a few times. Once you feel you’ve rinsed the tank thoroughly, fill it back up with water. The machine will now flush this water through the entire system, to ensure there is no vinegar or dirt left.
Don’t forget to place your glass or container back under to collect the water! (You won’t want a puddle on your floor).
Drip Tray, Milk Thermos, & Brew Unit
After the second rinse cycle, the inside of your machine is ready for a deep cleaning. Remove your drip tray and ground collector, along with the milk container. You can use soap and water to wash these, but keep in mind that you want to rinse everything well, so the soap doesn’t sit in your machine. We recommend even using white vinegar to clean the inside units.
Before placing these components back into the coffee maker, you want to also clean your brew unit. This can be behind your drip tray and milk thermos; it will depend on your model. This is where grinding of coffee beans takes place, so you’ll want to remove this and clean not just the part itself, but also around it. With this being the spot where most of the work takes place in the machine, coffee grounds can fly out or drip on the inside of the machine.
Take paper towels and whatever product you want to use to clean (we used white vinegar of course) and wipe down the interior of the coffee machine. There may be some hard-to-reach crevices, so feel free to go in with a brush or sponge. If you find you still can’t reach some spots, handheld vacuums with the small hose attachment can suck up coffee ground stuck in corners
After all your hard work, you can place everything back into your coffee maker and enjoy a fresh cup of coffee again!
If you find that there is a lingering vinegar taste, try rinsing your unit with just water a few more times.
Why Trust Don’s Appliances?
Founded in 1971, Don’s Appliances is a family-owned, independent appliance retailer based out of Pittsburgh, PA. Don’s has since expanded to 10 locations selling, delivering, installing, and servicing all major appliance brands. Large enough to offer competitive pricing yet small enough to continue offering the “white glove” service we pride ourselves on, our focus is always on the customer experience — from the first step into a showroom to the purchase transaction to well after your new appliance has been installed.
When our customers are remodeling or building a new house, Don’s has all the expertise, product knowledge, inventory, brands, displays, and services to meet and exceed your needs. And in the event an appliance breaks, we are there, right on time and with the right product, delivery, installation, and service.
Shop Coffee & Espresso Makers at Don’s
Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today, and shop cofffe and espresso makers online at Don’s Appliance. Our friendly experts are always happy to help you get familiar with speed ovens — whether you call us at 866-544-1711, email us, or use our online chat feature. Better yet, stop by any of our Don’s Appliances Pittsburgh, PA warehouse locations. Visit us today!
Learn More:Â Our Best Convection Oven Picks