A clean coffee pot is vital to great tasting coffee and if you’re wondering how to do it effectively, you can actually clean coffee pot with vinegar. It’s not really surprising because vinegar has a lot of properties that make it an effective and efficient tool for cleaning. It has other uses too. The truth is, there are more things you can clean with vinegar. Check out these fun facts about vinegar.
If you like cold coffee, you will like this guide on how to make iced coffee.
Practical Uses of Vinegar
To appreciate more how you can clean coffee pot with vinegar, let us take a look at other practical ways you can use vinegar in your home or other everyday uses.
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Deodorizer
This is not of course, for your body or armpits as that would have the opposite effect. But using vinegar in your home could be an effective way to kill odors. Swab your plastic containers with a cloth and make sure you dampen it with some vinegar. This should help eliminate its odors.
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Kill Germs
Spray full-strength vinegar around your sink and tub in your bathroom. Then wipe it clean with a damp cloth. This will help kill bathroom germs.
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Fabric Cleaner
If you have scorch marks on your garments or stains like deodorant stains, you can rub it gently with vinegar then wipe it with a clean cloth.
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Toilet Cleaner
Pour one cup or more diluted white distilled vinegar into the toilet bowl. Let it sit for a few hours or leave it overnight to make it more effective. Scrub it well with a toilet brush then flush it and watch the germs go down the drain.
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Carpet Stain Remover
You can remove stains in your carpet with a mixture of vinegar and baking soda. Make a paste of 2 tablespoons white vinegar and ¼ cup of baking soda. Rub the paste onto the stain on your carpet and let it dry. Leave it overnight and vacuum the residue the next day.
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Ward Off Ants
Spray vinegar around doors, appliances, and other areas where you have ants and it will deter them.
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Freshen Vegetables
You can use vinegar on wilted vegetables to freshen them. Soak the vegetables in 2 cups of water with a tablespoon of vinegar to freshen your wilted vegetables.
There are more practical uses of vinegar but those are some of the ones that work really well.
Why Clean Coffee Pot?
The reason you need to regularly clean your pot is over time, minerals build up on your machine and you may notice that your coffee takes longer to brew. This means that you need to decalcify your machine and this is where it’s very effective to clean coffee pot with vinegar.
Each cup you brew leaves some residue on your machine. You need to clean it to remove old coffee grounds, oils, and hard water deposits that could ruin the taste of your coffee.
How to Clean Coffee Pot with Vinegar
Now that we have more knowledge of what vinegar can do, let us find out how you can clean coffee pot with vinegar. It’s very easy and you don’t need any special tools or materials to do it. It’s not just the carafe that you need to clean. You can also clean the entire coffeemaker or brewer with vinegar.
Drip Coffee Maker
- For drip type coffeemakers, first, empty your coffee pot. Remove or dump any leftover coffee from the pot and empty the grounds filter. These are the top 10 best drip coffee makers.
- Fill your coffee pot with 3 cups of white vinegar and 6 cups of cold water to make the cleaning mixture. Pour it into the water reservoir of your coffee maker. This is an essential step in how to clean coffee pot with vinegar. Adjust the volume and ratio of the vinegar and water according to the size of your coffee pot.
- Now you need to turn on your coffee maker to brew a pot, without the coffee of course. Let it brew until it uses all the water and once the brewing cycle is complete, turn off your machine and allow the vinegar solution to sit on your coffee pot for up to 15 minutes.
- Then you will brew water for two more cycles. This will remove the remaining vinegar taste caused by when you clean coffee pot with vinegar. After each brewing cycle, turn off your coffee maker for 15 minutes before you brew the next one.
- Now you did perfectly clean coffee pot with vinegar, make sure to wipe it off with a clean cloth and let it dry before you use it again.
- For additional precaution, wash your coffee carafe in the sink with warm soapy water as well as the filter or put them in the dishwasher if they’re dishwasher safe. This is to make sure that there are no foul tastes in your coffee after you clean coffee pot with vinegar the next time you brew.
Do this and clean coffee pot with vinegar for at least once every month to make sure that you remove residues and it doesn’t build up minerals for too much.
Single Cup Coffee Makers
- It is slightly different to clean coffee pot with vinegar for single cup machines. But the process is similar.
- First, you empty the machine and make sure that you remove any pod that might still be in there.
- Fill the coffee pot with a half cup of white vinegar and a cup of cold water. Pour this mixture into the water reservoir of your single cup coffee maker and make sure to keep the pod area empty.
- Turn on your coffee maker and brew one cup or one cycle. Once the brewing cycle is done, turn off the machine and let the vinegar solution sit in there for at least 15 minutes.
- Brew another two cycles using only water. It will get rid of the vinegar taste that is caused by when you clean coffee pot with vinegar. Remember to turn off your machine for 15 minutes in between the two brewing cycles.
To ensure that your coffee will always stay fresh each time you brew, remember to wash your carafe and filter after brewing. Then regularly clean coffee pot with vinegar as shown in the guide.
