Clean Coffee Pots with Baking Soda

The other day, I was in my local big box discount store, walking by the coffee making machines, you know, the Mr. Coffee type. On the shelf I saw a box of coffee machine cleaner. It cost $4.99, for an 8 oz. container. The active ingredient was sodium carbonate - baking soda. The instructions said to use 1 level tablespoon per 4 cups of water.

So, I put 3 tablespoons of baking soda in the carafe with 12 cups of cold water and ran it through the Mr. Coffee. I then ran 3 cycles of plain water through the machine. Guess what, my machine runs like new. The coffee (which had begun to taste bitter) is just as good as it was the day I bough the machine. So, save yourselves some money and use plain, old, cooking baking soda instead of paying $4.99 for the sodium carbonate.

By Jack from Peotone, IL