How to Clean a Coffee Maker with Baking Soda

One of the most crucial kitchen ingredients to always have on hand is baking soda. As a versatile ingredient, baking soda is used in cooking, as well as cleaning, and is the most inexpensive cleaner you can use. You can also discover how to clean a coffee maker with baking soda, which helps to clean and remove odors from your coffee pot.

One thing coffee lovers enjoy first thing in the morning is a hot cup of fresh coffee, but not taking proper care of your coffee maker changes that. If you are like many other coffee lovers out there, your coffee pot is the most used appliance inside your kitchen, which also makes it the dirtiest.

The more you use it, the higher the risk of germs, mold, and bacteria building up inside. To keep your coffee tasting fresh, you can try cleaning a coffee maker with baking soda, or you can learn another way to clean a coffee maker with vinegar and baking soda.

Cleaning a Coffee Maker with Baking Soda

No matter what method you use, it is vital to use natural ingredients rather than bleach. Yes, bleach kills germs, but it is also corrosive and can eventually destroy your coffee maker’s insides.

In the kitchen, there is no end in sight to baking powder uses. Before cleaning your pot with baking soda, be sure to remove the filter and set it aside.

How to Clean a Coffee Maker with Baking Soda

If you need to thoroughly clean a coffee maker without vinegar, use your dishwasher to clean all dishwasher safe removable parts.

Cleaning a drip coffee maker doesn’t have to be a major chore. Use the coffee carafe to measure one cup of warm water and then add ¼ cup of baking soda. Swish around inside the carafe until baking soda dissolves fully. Pour into the reserve tank and put the carafe back in place.

Use your normal brewing process and allow the baking soda solution to run into the carafe. Pour dirty water down the sink and wash coffee pot. Run another cycle or two using fresh water to rinse. Repeat this step until water runs clear back into the pot.

Ideal Way to Clean a Coffee Maker with Vinegar and Baking Soda

The perfect way to clean a coffee maker with vinegar and baking soda is by using the vinegar inside the machine and the baking soda for the pot, carafe, thermos, and heating plate. Baking soda, when mixed with vinegar, creates a fizzing reaction which may harm the machine’s inner components.

Use a baking soda paste made from water or lemon juice to remove build up and grime from heating plates and the outside of the machine. Cleaning your Bunn with vinegar and baking soda has never been easier or as inexpensive.

Here are some more ideas for vinegar and baking soda uses in your kitchen and throughout the rest of the inside and outside of your house.

Alternative to Cleaning a Coffee Maker with Baking Soda

One cleaning method that you have probably never heard of involves using denture tablets when cleaning your coffee maker. If you have a drip coffee maker or a single-serve style with a water reservoir, add two denture tablets to the water and allow them to dissolve before running a brew cycle.

If you have a coffee carafe or a pot, drop a tablet inside with two cups of cold water and allow to dissolve. Once tablets dissolve, use a toothbrush to scrub the inside and outside of your pot or carafe.

Denture tablets are great at tackling hard water stains and mineral deposits. Always rinse your coffee maker and pot with clean water after cleaning to remove any cleaner residue.

Lemon Juice as an Effective Coffee Maker Cleaner

Lemon juice is an excellent alternative for those who aren’t fond of the vinegar smell. Using lemon juice to clean a coffee maker is similar to using white vinegar. Fill the water reservoir one-third of the way with lemon juice and fill the remaining space with water.

Run a brew cycle as usual to clean the machine. You can rinse with clean water, but that is not necessary as you can brew a pot of coffee directly after washing with no harmful side effects.

Cleaning Coffee Machines with Vinegar

If you are cleaning a Mr Coffee style machine with vinegar, make sure you have a filter inside the basket before starting. Vinegar is an excellent cleaning choice as it kills over 99% of the bacteria found inside your machine and is not harmful if accidentally ingested.

Use the same amount of vinegar and hot water when cleaning your coffee machine. When using vinegar, the best option is to brew the cycle halfway and then turn it off. Let the machine sit with the vinegar solution inside for up to 30 minutes.

Turn the machine back on and then finish the brew cycle. Rinse with clean water. To clean the pot, add some salt, ice, and a cup of vinegar inside the pot.

Swirl around for up to 20 seconds to remove coffee stains from stainless steel pots. Rinse and wash before using to make a fresh cup of coffee.

Heavy Duty Cleaning for Keurig, Bunn or Similar Machines

Your Keurig or Bunn coffee maker may alert you that your coffee pot needs descaling with a light or sound signal. One way to descale a coffee machine is to purchase commercial cleaning products that may be a little costly, or you can use straight vinegar that you probably already have in the kitchen.

Undiluted vinegar is an excellent option for a coffee machine descaler for Keurig coffee pots or Bunns that are running more slowly than normal or emitting odd or funky smells that don’t resemble that heavenly coffee smell. To clean your machines with undiluted vinegar, pour two cups of vinegar into the reservoir and allow them to sit overnight.

The following morning, brew as usual. Once the machine’s brewing cycle is complete, dispose of the dirty vinegar in the sink.

If cleaning a single-serve machine, continue brewing cups until all vinegar has drained from the reservoir. If vinegar is dark in color, repeat the process.

Tips for Cleaning Your Espresso Machine

Thanks to the mineral build-up, your espresso may take on a different flavor over time. This is a signal that it’s time to clean your espresso machine with equal parts of water and vinegar.

Mix ingredients inside your squirt bottle and shake. Spray the solution directly on the outside of your machine and wipe with a damp cloth in circular motions. Mix the same amount of vinegar with water inside the machine and brew as usual.

Dump the solution down the sink and rinse the machine by running several cycles of fresh water. Wash filter basket in hot, soapy water, rinse thoroughly and allow to dry.

How to Clean Your French Press

A French Press style coffee maker is perhaps the worst one to clean. Nobody enjoys scooping out the used coffee grounds at the bottom of the carafe, and rinsing the plunger is almost impossible.

One of the easiest ways to thoroughly clean your French press is to fill it with water to loosen up the grounds on the bottom. Dump the water and grounds through a mesh sieve and discard the used grounds in the trash.

Fill the carafe with soapy water and insert the plunger. Move the plunger up and down inside the water several times. This scrubs the sides of the carafe and removes any stuck grounds from the plunger. Rinse thoroughly and allow to dry.

While you clean your coffee maker, this is an opportune time to take care of cleaning a manual coffee grinder, too. Pour some white rice into the grinder and grind down the rice into tiny pieces. This removes stray coffee bean residue from the machine’s interior and prepares it for your next grinding session.

Thank you for reading our tips for cleaning a coffee maker with baking soda. If you found our cleaning methods useful, please share our coffee maker cleaning tips with others on Facebook and Pinterest so they can also learn how to clean a coffee maker with baking soda.