Does it matter if I never clean my coffee maker?

by Mia
(Somewhere)

Typical commercial coffee maker descaler and cleaner

QUESTION:

I guess I already know the answer to this. But honestly, other than rinsing the carafe at the end of each day, I’ve never washed my drip brewer. I mean, I have on the outside, but not the inside

And inside the carafe, it’s pretty black now. I remember a time when it was shiny silver!

I guess my question is whether my lazing cleaning routine could amount to a health hazard. Yes? No?


ANSWER:

Mia,

Your question made me laugh! I’m pretty much the same. We don’t have hard water, so I don’t need to descale my brewer.

Honestly, for the inside of a drip brewer, it has water running through the pump and tubes every day, and is pretty much self-cleaning.

That said, if we’re away for a few days, when we get back I run a 50/50 mix of water and vinegar through the brewer, and then rinse thoroughly. Why? Because water sits inside the brewer, in the dark, and grows who knows what.

For the inside of the carafe, I hear you. Mine is much the same. I give it a good going over with a bottle brush about once a week, but it’s still pretty dark in there.

If you’re at all concerned, you should try the vinegar and water routine to clean the inside of the brewer, and inside the carafe.

And if you want to do a more thorough job, there are plenty of commercial coffee machine cleaning products you can choose from.

If you can’t find these products locally, there’s quite a selection on Amazon.

As for your coffee maker being a health hazard, probably not! But a little cleaning from time to time wouldn’t do any harm.🙂

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