Does anyone have a good cleaner for coffee pots? I used Thund'r Blast from Dollar General, but they have apparently discontinued it.
Hal from Evansville, IN
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CHEAPEST and non toxic. Fill coffee pot with vinegar (or half water and vinegar, but if it's been a while, full vinegar). Run through a cycle, discard vinegar (after cooled) in toilets, let sit and you've cleaned those too! Then run another cycle (or two depending on what you see come out the 1st) with just plain water. WAAAA LAAAAA! Sparkly, degreased (coffee has oil), degunked and better tasting coffee the next go round!
When I worked at a convenance store, we used salt and ice to clean the coffee pot. It worked every time.
The very best thing I have ever used is CLR. I always run 5 or 6 cycles after the CLR cycle to be sure all of the remnants have been washed away. It works like magic!
If you are talking about a automatic drip coffeemaker, I've always just run vinegar through it. I put a filter in the basket and then pour about 6 cups of white vinegar in, turn on and let drip through and then pour that out and run 2 cylces of water through it.
Actually, I was talking about the glass decanters. Incidentally, you should never put vinegar in a Bunn coffee brewer, or one that has a holding tank. You will never get the vinegar out of it.
I have a Bunn and I periodically run white vinegar through it. If you do it according to manufacturer's directions, you will never have a funny taste left in your water. We have very hard water here so I find it to be very helpful to do occasionally.
I also use white vinegar to clean out just my decanter and it works great. Removes the oily coffee build up and it's cheap and always on hand.
PS I am practically your neighbor. I live in Knox Co. IN :)
I have always used vinegar to clean my coffeemaker. I pour in about 4-6 cups of vinegar. let it start to drip through and then turn off the coffeemaker. After half an hour I turn it back on and let it all drip through. I then run two cycles of water through and have no aftertaste in my next pot of coffee and my coffeemaker perks so much faster after all the scale gets cleaned out. I actually read this in a coffeemaker instruction manual years ago and have been doing it ever since. I have never had any problems with my coffeemaker afterward.
I have a Bunn coffee maker and VERY hard water. I drain all the water out of the reservoir (Be sure you unplug it while the reservoir is being drained so you don't burn out the heating element! The reservoir must have water, or vinegar, in it when it is turned on!) and fill with undiluted white vinegar. I put a regular coffee filter in the basket and add more white vinegar until it fills up the glass coffee pot with hot vinegar. I recycle the hot vinegar through the reservoir several times, using a fresh coffee filter each time to catch the gunk and sediment.
fill about one quarter of the pot with ice cubes. Then pour about a half a cup of salt over the ice. Swirl the pot around with the ice and the salt for a few mins. Wash pot as usual. Looks brand new when your done. I worked in a restaurant for many years, and i know this works. Oh! do this in an EMPTY coffee pot! He-He
Thanks, everyone for all the good responses, but I am really looking for a commercially available cleaner in a spray bottle. I own an office coffee service and am looking for a cleaner that I can use "on the road". Vinegar and ice are not going to work.
I should have said that originally. Your suggestions are good for home use.
I believe you should not use chemicals to clean anything that's used to cook with or drink out of unless well and truely rinsed out. But for home use my tried and tested non toxic solution is LEMONS. Cut 1or 2 lemons up squeeze juice into kettle then add the rest of lemons in to the coffee kettle and boil to get rid off build up on your element and inside from water as the natural acids in LEMONS get rid of this, after boiling rinse and repeat if needed.
If you are looking for commercial coffee pot cleaners here are some choices. I haven't used any of these so can't recommend one:
www.discountcoffee.com/
www.amazon.com/
www.espressozone.com/
www.urnex.com/
I have used Bar Keepers Friend cooktop cleaner on my glass carafe. We bought the brewer used and the carafe was cloudy with heavy hard water stains. This product removed it all in minutes with just a little elbow grease. Bright and shiny as new.
You can use vinegar either white or apple cider and I use a filter in the brew basket when I do this. After it runs thru the first time I pour it BACK INTO THE WATER RESERvor and start it thru again but then turn it off and let it set for a while . After the pot cools down I turn it on again and let it finish brewing to blow the mineral deposits out of the lines and then run clear water thru it.
The vinegar can be bottled and used several more times but for that purpose only. At that point it can be poured down the drain.
For a sparkling caraf use a little water and table salt.
Run the coffee pot as though you are making a 10 or 12 cup pot of coffee but: don't put any coffee beans or a coffee filter in and replace the water you normally use to brew the beans with plain old vinegar that you can buy in the big containers. Dump out the vinegar brew and go through another complete cycle only just brew with WATER and no beans or filter.
Your next pot of coffee should be the best you have ever had.
:)
You can use several denture cleaning tablets in a whole pot of very hot water let sit. The tablets will do all the work. You can also use it in toilets. Good luck
When I worked in a restaurant we took the cooled pots, put in a cup of ice cubes, some salt and lemon slices and swirled it until inside came clean. Rinsed. Why that method was chosen I don't know but it worked.
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