Coffee Maker Cleaning

[Jay D in Jersey]

Every 2-3 months I clean both of our Moccamasters with citric acid mixed in water and then brewed through. I do the stainless thermal carafes every 2 weeks by dropping a dishwasher detergent pod into the carafe, fill it with hot water and let it sit for 1-2 hours and then thoroughly rinse it.
I always see a noticeable difference in the carafe afterwards but I see almost nothing in the filter when I descale the Moccamasters...and I brew our coffee with tap water at both houses. Kind of perplexed by that.

 

[LMichaels]

I don't think you will actually "see" anything in the filters. As the acid will basically dissolve any scale. And with the heat, it will flush through so really won't be seen. Also because you're doing it regularly it's likely not a huge bulidup either.
I use RO water so scale is not an issue. My issue is the tank gets "grody" looking and the citric acid trick does not work. I tried to take the tank off to wash it. Found out no real good way to do that. So I have resorted to literally taking damp paper towel and reacing in the tank to clean it.

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

I don't think you will actually "see" anything in the filters. As the acid will basically dissolve any scale. And with the heat, it will flush through so really won't be seen. Also because you're doing it regularly it's likely not a huge bulidup either.
I use RO water so scale is not an issue. My issue is the tank gets "grody" looking and the citric acid trick does not work. I tried to take the tank off to wash it. Found out no real good way to do that. So I have resorted to literally taking damp paper towel and reacing in the tank to clean it.

I use a paper towel on the tank too to get it completely clean. I guess I was expecting white chunks of calcium in the filter, but absolutely nothing.

 

[Steve Hoch]

I run some white vinegar and water through my coffee maker every so often. Sometimes I see little chunks in the filter basket, sometimes nothing.

 

[Phil S]

I also use citric acid as it rinses out much quicker and can be mixed up at any strength you prefer. I also pull the filter out before cleaning and put a new one in when done.

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

Well I decided to take a closer look inside the Moccamaster SS carafe AFTER I cleaned it with my go-to method of letting it sit filled with hot tap water and a dishwasher pod for 1 hour. Looking inside with a flashlight, I noticed brown residue after cleaning and thoroughly rinsing. So I scrubbed the inside as best I could with a paper towel wrapped over a spatula. Quite a bit of coffee residue. So I ordered 2 of these to up the cleaning game:
Libman Glass/Dish Sponge, Pack of 1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002YLPKAS/?tag=tvwb-20

Libman stuff is top quality and I like the Scotch Brite type pad on the tip of these scrubbers.

 

[JKalchik]

We use Powder Brewery Wash in the kitchen a lot. Don't let it sit on bare aluminum, it WILL etch it. PBW is basically food safe Oxyclean with a Ph buffer. It gets used on the Moccamaster coffee carafe on a regular basis.

 

[DanHoo]

Well I decided to take a closer look inside the Moccamaster SS carafe AFTER I cleaned it with my go-to method of letting it sit filled with hot tap water and a dishwasher pod for 1 hour. Looking inside with a flashlight, I noticed brown residue after cleaning and thoroughly rinsing.

What DW pods are you using?

I picked up a box of Finish Powerball years ago and found they left residue on my glassware, however they work great for cleaning stainless steel. I put one in a 20+ year old Stanley SS thermos and left it overnight, shook it up and it did an amazing job.

 

[DanHoo]

Another trick I learned years ago is to slice a lemon, add a couple of tablespoons of salt and some ice cubes and shake the heck out of it. The salt is abrasive, the lemon helps cut the crud and the ice bangs the salt around when shaken.

 

[JKalchik]

Another trick I learned years ago is to slice a lemon, add a couple of tablespoons of salt and some ice cubes and shake the heck out of it. The salt is abrasive, the lemon helps cut the crud and the ice bangs the salt around when shaken.

That's an old food service front of house trick, used to clean glass coffee carafes.

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

What DW pods are you using?

I picked up a box of Finish Powerball years ago and found they left residue on my glassware, however they work great for cleaning stainless steel. I put one in a 20+ year old Stanley SS thermos and left it overnight, shook it up and it did an amazing job.

View attachment 82163

I use the Sam's Club brand.

 

[DanHoo]

That's an old food service front of house trick, used to clean glass coffee carafes.

That's exactly where I learned it.

 

[DanHoo]

I use the Sam's Club brand.

Not familiar with those. The power ball was pretty harsh, so it might work better.

YMMV. Caveat Emptor, Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. No warranty expressed or implied.

 

[LMichaels]

I use the Finish pods in the Bosch DW as it was recommended in the manual. I use a typical dishwasher Cascade IIRC liquid in the carafe and it sparkes when I am done

 

[GrantT]

Urnex/Cafiza

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

I use the Finish pods in the Bosch DW as it was recommended in the manual. I use a typical dishwasher Cascade IIRC liquid in the carafe and it sparkes when I am done

I kind of thought that with mine...until I pulled out the flashlight and really looked inside. I'm thinking liquid dishwasher detergent, let it soak an hour or 2 and then scrub with the Libman and rinse.

 

[DanHoo]

I kind of thought that with mine...until I pulled out the flashlight and really looked inside. I'm thinking liquid dishwasher detergent, let it soak an hour or 2 and then scrub with the Libman and rinse.

Pm me an address and I'll mail you two powerballs. I only use them to clean SS.

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

Pm me an address and I'll mail you two powerballs. I only use them to clean SS.

I have some in the kitchen here at our beach house. I have a mix of detergent pods here. Thank you for the offer. I'll try one on the Moccamaster carafe this afternoon.

 

[GrantT]

This is the espresso machine cleaner I use to clean both my espresso machine and stainless carafe for my OXO Brew-8. It is basically the same as products such as Urnex/Cafiza etc used in the espresso machine / coffee house industry. Fully NSF etc. I just add about 1 teaspoon of the cleaner (powder) to the carafe, add hot water from the tap to fill it up, and swirl around and let it sit an hour or two. Rinse very well. Comes out totally spotless every time. It is formulated specifically to remove coffee residue. Once container will last years for home use. After cleaning shot of the carafe shown here (as it was about time to do it when this thread came up). Effortless and perfectly clean every time. Any coffee web site sells these products.

I use 2 tablespoons of citric acid to 1 litre of water to descale my Brew-8 fresh water tank. Water here is pretty hard and I pre-filter (charcoal filter and 5 micron particle filter), but the minerals in the water do make for great coffee. I use RO water in my espresso machine to prevent scaling of the boiler, but I add specific minerals to it (potassium bicarbonate) to fine tune for flavor without adding calcium that scales up...pure RO or distilled water makes coffee taste flat (reported by many coffee experts).

p.s. this stuff works AMAZING on glassware, wine decanters etc as well.

 

[Jay D in Jersey]

So the addition of scrubbing the carafe with the Libman Scotchbrite scrubbers has worked very well. Carafes are spotless after the dishwasher detergent soaking and a scrubbing.
Tried a new bag of beans ...Charbucks Organic Winter blend...pretty good.