How to Safely Clean a Coffee Maker and Pot.

Every morning you depend on your coffee maker to help you start your day off on the right path, by providing a needed caffeine kick when you're feeling sluggish.

By giving your machine a good cleaning once a month it will continue to brew delicious coffee.

Drip coffee makers need to be cleaned monthly to remove hard water deposits, rancid coffee oils, and other impurities. Washing the pot won't remove these deposits from the internal components.

For your daily cup of Joe to taste great, rinse out the pot after every use (No soap) and always change the filter.

Follow these steps to clean your coffee maker thoroughly and you'll love the difference in taste.

Step 1:

Items needed for deep clean:

White vinegar
Clean water
Baking soda
Soft dry cloth/paper towel (not shown)
Magic eraser sponge (optional)
Dirty coffee maker (Ible cannot be done without it)

Step 2:

Daily:

Throw away the old filter after use and rinse out the pot using fresh water. (No soap!) you can also use a magic eraser to clean coffee residue off the inside of a glass coffee carafe.

Never wash the coffee pot with soap!

This will bind with the oils deposited by the coffee and will leave a bitter aftertaste behind, don't wash in the dishwasher for the same reason.

Monthly:

To have the best tasting coffee possible, you need to clean the calcium deposits and mineral scale out of your coffee maker that have built up through continual use, make a mixture of 3 cups white vinegar to 6 cups water enough to fill the carafe, pour into the machine and use a new clean filter or your permanent filter.

Deep clean:

If this is the first time you've ever cleaned your coffee maker since you got it, (years ago) you need to use a strong solution, make a mixture that is half vinegar and half water.

Step 3:

Brew:

Turn the coffee maker on and run the mixture half-way through, and turn the coffee maker off, let it set for 30 minutes for the solution to do its job. After the 30 minutes are up, turn the coffee maker back on and let the mixture finish running through.

Step 4:

Rinse

Discard filter and vinegar solution. Rinse the coffee pot, repeat all of the above steps twice, but this time with plain cold water. This will make sure all of the vinegar and water solution is completely gone.

By cleaning it once a month, you'll notice a cleaner taste than the previous cup of coffee you made
with the machine.

Step 5:

Wash the carafe:

Start off with a 1/2 cup of baking soda and mix a cup of vinegar in, swirl around for a couple minutes and rinse with clean water, if you still see coffee stains wipe with a damp magic eraser sponge, dry.

Filter Cleaning

If you have a permanent coffee filter, soak it in a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and water for 30 minutes then rinse with clean water.

Step 6:

Tips and tricks: from WikiHow

Put a glass marble in the water chamber to attract mineral deposits from hard water. Wash it once a week.
Does your pot have hard to reach areas? Use a wooden chopstick with a paper towel to get in there.
Use baby bottle brush inside for stubborn stains.
To clean just the pot, do what many restaurants do. Put about two cups of ice, 1/4 cup of rock or table salt, and 1/4 cup of lemon juice (bottled or fresh is fine) and swirl around the pot. Measurements are not that important, just guesstimate. Be sure that the pot is cold before you try this, or you may break the glass pot.
For tough stains, scrub the pot using a paper towel or clean (not soapy) dish towel. Rinse thoroughly.
Never use the coffee pot to pour water into the reservoir. This will
transfer oils and impurities from the pot, and eventually give the coffee a nasty taste. Instead, use a pitcher that is reserved for water only.
To keep the inside area around basket, filter, lid area clean (from coffee ground spatter) simply place a second filter over the top of the grounds in the first
filter. Push second filter down so that spout will clear top of second filter (on many makes of coffee makers) as lid is closed. This keeps interior in pristine condition and doesn't take much time or expense.
Instead of a pitcher, you can use the sprayer from your sink to fill the coffee maker without spilling!
A microfiber towel (found in automotive departments) will clean better than paper towels.
Mr. Clean Magic Rub Eraser (not the bathroom one) is a handy item to use
to clean coffee residue off the inside of a glass coffee carafe.
Clean a brand new coffee pot prior to using it for the first time.
Heat a toothbrush by the bristles enough that you can bend it to a 90°
angle. This makes a perfect brush for cleaning the filter basket.

Caution:

Some coffee pots are made of tempered glass (i.e. Pyrex brand). This type of glass is stronger than regular glass but can still shatter and cause injury from the pieces. Never move any glass directly from heat to cold