You might own one of those 1.0 or 2.0 Keurig coffee brewers already, however, if you do not know how to clean a Keurig coffee maker the right way, you might observe that in a couple of months, your coffee might lose its taste and overall flavor that it once had.
To avoid any bad taste or permanent coffee deposits and granules inside your Keurig coffee maker, we suggest you to follow the right cleaning steps for your machine. Even if you have read some general coffee maker cleaning guide and you are still not sure about the right steps, this guide will make your life easier.
Cleaning a Keurig – Things you need
In order to clean your Keurig coffee maker, you would be needing the following equipment and items:
- Cleaning Soap
- White Vinegar
- Descaling Solution
- Water
- Dry Cloth
Cleaning a Keurig – Steps to Follow
Let us now have a look at how can you follow a few simple steps to clean your Keurig coffee machine.
- The first simple yet important step is to unplug your Keurig machine from the electric socket.
- The next step is to remove all the removable parts of your coffee brewer. This includes the water reservoir tank, mug stand, lid and the K-cup holder.
- Wash these parts using soapy water and allow them to dry.
- Using a dry and clean cloth, clean the surface of your Keurig coffee machine, making sure the cloth reaches all those areas where coffee deposits or granules may collect.
- Re-assemble all the removable parts of the machine and plug in the socket.
- The next step is to remove the scale build-ups and lime with the help of white vinegar. This is also known as ‘descaling’ and can be done with other liquids and solutions as well (discussed below). Fill the water tank with vinegar until it is half full.
- Add water to the rest of the tank until it’s full.
- Start the brew cycle without placing a K-cup into the K-cup holder. Repeat this process till the water tank is empty. Once you see no scaling build-ups or lime anymore, your descaling is done.
- Now repeat the above process but this time only use water and no other descaling solution or vinegar. This will help remove any vinegar or descaling solution taste that you certainly do not want to be there in your beverage the next time you brew coffee.
- Once the aforementioned steps are completed, you can use your Keurig coffee maker to enjoy your cup of Joe!
Descaling a Keurig Machine
Descaling your coffee maker is quite an important part of the overall maintenance and cleaning of the device. Keurig recommends that your coffee maker should be descaled after every 3-6 months (depending on whether you are using your machine for home or commercial purposes).
There are various descaling solutions available in the marking or online places like Amazon these days, including Keurig’s own descaling solution as well. All you need to do is to repeat the step # 6 from the cleaning steps mentioned above – only that this time you will be using the descaling solution instead of white vinegar.
Once you have filled up your water reservoir with the descaling solution, you can now hit the ‘brew’ button on your coffee maker in order to let the machine run its brew cycle. Repeat this process until you see the ‘Add Water’ indication on the machine. Once you see this, give a 30 minutes rest to your Keurig brewer.
After 30 minutes have passed, you can remove the water tanks and rinse it with water. Fill it up with water and run brew cycles until you get rid of all the water. Keurig recommends to do this 12 times using the Keurig Descaling Solution.
If you are a fan of french presses, compare french press with espresso to see how they are different.
How Often Should You Clean Your Keurig Coffee Brewer?
Now this is an important question that most of the Keurig owners do ask on various coffee forums and other online places.
As per the manufacturer, the exterior of your Keurig coffee brewer needs cleaning at least once a week, assuming that you are using your machine for regular home use. If you have a large family or you are using this at your workplace or any other commercial or semi-commercial setup, you might want to clean the exterior more than once a week.
The water tank and the K-cup pod holder should also be cleaned at least once a week to ensure no coffee deposits, scale build-ups or other substances are there at any given time. However, as far as descaling is concerned, you can do that every 3-6 months depending on the magnitude of your coffee cups per day (home VS commercial setups).
Cleaning Your Keurig – A Quick Wrap Up
According to a study that was published in 2015, 35 to 67 various types of bacteria are known to survive and remain there on the drip trays of coffee makers. A lot of these bacteria are pathogenic, which means that they can easily make you sick.
Another report published the same year found bacteria such as E. coli and staphylococcus on the coffee brewers that they tested.
So it is not just about the bad taste that you might get if you are not cleaning your Keurig coffee brewer regularly. And being quite honest, there is no reason for you to not clean your coffee maker on a regular basis, since you have all the equipment, solutions and liquids easily available at affordable prices.
Keep your Keurig coffee maker nice and clean – and keep enjoying the delicious and flavorful coffee each day!
