Pages

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Green Clean Your Coffee Maker


The other day, I thought my coffee maker had brewed its last pot for good.

Instead of brewing the full 8 cups I normally make for me and Linda, it only dripped through 2 cups. If even that much. The rest went up in steam that collected on the underside of my upper kitchen cabinets. I brewed another pot. The same things happened.

I thought my free Gevalia coffee pot had finally gone up in smoke, or well, steam.

Then I thought I'd give it one last chance. I brewed a pot of white vinegar, to try and clean out whatever gunk could possibly be hidden from view. And it came out dark brown. Gross.

Then I rinsed it by brewing 4 pots of plain water.

And now it works good as new.

So, before you throw out a funky coffee maker, give vinegar a try. It probably would be a good idea to do this periodically, anyhow.

For more Thrifty Green Thursday ideas, head on over to the Green Baby Guide by clicking here.

5 comments:

  1. i've done this, too--although my maker wasn't in such dire straits! i would never buy a white coffe maker again--they get too icky over time, and even the vinegar hasn't restored it perfectly.

    ReplyDelete
  2. great tip!! I need to do that, too.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good to know this works. We got a new coffeemaker for Christmas and that's how they said to clean it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. That really is a thrifty, green tip--you not only saved yourself an extra purchase, but you kept a coffee maker out of a landfill. It makes me wonder how much stuff I've thrown away that I may have been able to clean or fix. . . .

    ReplyDelete
  5. Isn't vinegar magical? I thought I knew about most of it's uses but this one's new for me. Thanks for sharing your thrifty green tip with us this Thursday!

    ReplyDelete