When was the last time you gave your coffee maker a thorough cleaning? Chances are, you can’t quite recall, right? Making it a habit to clean your coffee maker monthly is a wise decision. Coffee makers tend to gather a variety of residues, including bits of coffee beans, hardened mineral deposits from water, and lime scale, through their regular use in brewing your coffee. To ensure your coffee continues to taste great, it’s important to regularly clean these appliances.
When Should You Descale Your Coffee Maker
You might have an automatic notification when it’s time to descale your coffee maker if you have an appliance with all kinds of bells and whistles. If you don’t, you’ll need to do it every 200 to 300 cups of coffee.
Those of you who use your coffee maker regularly to brew your morning cup need to run it more often, while those who use it when guests come over can wait a bit longer. The type of water is another factor to consider. In hard water, you’ll need to descaling more often.
You should aim to descale your coffee maker every two months, or six times per year. When you have a water filter, you won’t need to descale it as often, but you should do it regularly.
Though this advice applies to many coffee makers, yours may not be the same as your neighbour’s. It is always recommended to check the manufacturer’s instructions regarding descaling and how often you should do this. You can find your model coffee maker online if you can’t locate your manual.
Descaling Coffee Makers: Why Is It Necessary
Coffee makers have many parts that work together to produce coffee. You can remove some of those parts and wash them every day on typical models. A regular coffee maker comes with a basket and a carafe. More advanced models might have more parts to take out.
All they need is a bit of warm, soapy water and an airy place to dry. What about the parts deep inside? How do you clean them if you can’t remove them?
You can run water through without coffee a few times to help clean out outdated flavors, but you must descale. Those inner parts need to be cleared of deep build-up. Limescale doesn’t pose a threat to you, but it can clog your appliance.
You can avoid this type of cleaning by using purified water to make your coffee from now on, after you’ve cleaned your appliance, of course. Additionally, purified water will make your coffee taste better.
The Best Way To Descale Your Coffee Maker
Anyone who has a notification alert on their coffee maker just needs to pay attention to when it tells them to descale. In the absence of such luxury, simply keep track of how often you brew from your coffee maker or make sure you do it every two months.
If you haven’t descaled your coffee maker in a while, you should repeat this process a few times to ensure you remove all the limescale build-up.
Step 1. Make sure the coffee maker is unplugged and off.
Step 2. Take out the removable water tank and wash it.
Then you need to refill it with water. You can add water to it if it is not removable. Water should be added to a descaling tablet or solution as soon as it is inside the reservoir. The packaging of your coffee maker will tell you how much to use or consult the product manual.
Step 3. The coffee maker can be turned on after the descaling tablets have dissolved.
Step 4. Next, you may be able to have an automatic descaling feature if you have a fancy model. Select it and let your coffee maker handle the rest. In the absence of this option on your coffee maker, you will need to follow the steps below.
Step 5. After the descaling cycle is completed, you’ll want to use the coffee maker, as usual, to make coffee using the descaling solution.
Step 6. Wait until halfway through the brewing process before setting it aside. For at least 30 minutes, turn off your coffee maker.
Step 7. Continue to brew until all of the water has been brewed through.
Step 8. Make sure you rinse it with purified water once or twice again to remove all of the descaling solutions.
Conclusion
A coffee maker that is not descaled isn’t going to kill you, but it will eventually break down. That limescale makes it difficult to brew the coffee properly and keeps it from getting hot enough. Plus, you won’t enjoy your coffee as much. Make it a habit to descale your coffee maker so that it runs better and lasts longer. As a reward, you get a better cup of coffee with every brew.
