Coffee makes everything easier: work, sports and even looking after the kids. But limescale can give your coffee a stale taste over time and can even damage your coffee machine. Recognizable? Then it’s time to descale your coffee machine! Fortunately, you can easily descale a coffee machine with vinegar. It’s cheap and only takes a few minutes of your time.
The temperature of the water is very important when making coffee. If the heating element in the coffee maker can no longer give off its heat to the water properly due to limescale, your coffee will no longer be as tasty, and that is a shame. How do you descale a coffee machine? Read on quickly for the answer.
The first step is to clean the coffee maker
How do you clean a coffee maker? First of all: empty the machine. Rinse all loose parts well with warm water to remove old coffee residues. If you have a filter coffee maker, this concerns the jug and the coffee filter holder. An espresso machine involves separate parts such as the filter baskets.
Clean coffee maker with vinegar?
It is easiest to descale your coffee machine with vinegar, as the acid dissolves the limescale in no time. To make your coffee machine descaler, mix half a liter of cleaning vinegar with half a liter of water.
It is recommended to clean a coffee maker once a month, under normal use. Fortunately, it is quite easy to clean your coffee maker, and it is also very cheap to do with vinegar:
- Make sure that the filter basket is empty and rinse it briefly so that there are no more coffee residues in it.
- Now put 1/3 vinegar (cleaning vinegar has a lower pH and is therefore more acidic than natural vinegar, the more acidic the vinegar the better it descales, so preferably use cleaning vinegar. See Wikipedia for more information about vinegar) in the coffee pot and put 2 /3 water. Now pour the water-vinegar mixture into the coffee maker and rinse the coffee pot with clean water.
- Place the empty coffee pot in the coffee maker and switch on the appliance. The water-vinegar mixture will now pass through the coffee maker and clean the lines in the machine. When the device has processed the water-vinegar mixture, empty the coffee pot and rinse it again.
- Now pour clean water into the coffee machine and put the coffee pot back in the machine, the pipes of the coffee machine are now rinsed with clean water.
- Repeat this last step, rinsing the coffee maker with clean water, two more times and taste the last time if the water tastes clean. Do you still taste vinegar? Then repeat the rinse one more time. Vinegar-flavored coffee is really not tasty, so it’s better to rinse it extra once.
Your coffee maker is now clean and ready for making an old-fashioned cup of coffee!
You can also descale a coffee machine without vinegar. For example, you can buy a commercial product at the supermarket, or mix two tablespoons of citric acid with a liter of warm water.
The best way to clean a coffee maker depends on your specific machine, so always read the user manual first. For example, aluminum parts can be affected by vinegar or citric acid.
How do you descale a coffee machine?
You can descale the coffee machine by turning it on as if you were making a regular cup of coffee (but without the coffee). Lime is thus dissolved by the hot water that runs past it. If you still see traces of limescale afterward, put some vinegar solution on a sheet of super-absorbent kitchen paper and polish the deposits away. Turn the machine on one last time using only clean water to make sure your next cup of coffee doesn’t taste like vinegar.
Cleaning a coffee machine’s milk frother
If your espresso machine has a milk frother, you can use a damp sheet of kitchen paper to wipe off any leftover dried milk. Thoroughly rinse the inside of the frother with water.
Descaling a coffee machine is quickly done, so you will soon be able to enjoy a delicious, fresh cup of coffee again. Tired of cleaning? Then sit back and have someone else make you a cup. You’ve earned it.
Tips for proper maintenance of your coffee machine
- As a result of its research among coffee-drinking consumers, Care Club has listed three maintenance tips.
- Descale your coffee machine once every 2 to 3 months. This prevents limescale and coffee residues from being left behind. The result is a longer life, better coffee temperature and a better taste.
- Clean or replace your water filter every 3 months. This protects the device against limescale, chlorine, lead and copper and improves the taste of the coffee.
- Clean the coffee maker every three weeks with, for example, a cleaning tablet to remove coffee deposits.
