How to Rescue a Plugged Coffee Maker

So you start up your coffee maker first thing in the morning, looking forward to that cup of Joe to start the day. To your chagrin however, all it's done is hiss and sputter for the past few minutes and not made very much coffee at all. Time to toss it and get a new one? Maybe not, it may only be plugged up with mineral deposits from hard water. Try this to see if your coffee maker can be rescued from the recycle bin.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• White vinegar

1. If there's any water in your coffee maker, pour it out. Letting it dry overnight won't hurt, but if you can't hold out that long, it's not required.

2. Place an empty coffee filter in the basket. This is to catch any mineral deposits that come loose. Place the carafe in the brewer as well.

3. Pour a cup of white vinegar into your coffee maker. Turn the coffee maker on for about half a minute or so, then turn it off and let it sit for at least 15 minutes, though the longer the better I suspect. This maybe the hardest part of all...

4. Pour about half a pot of water into the brewer, turn it on and let it run 'till there's no water left to "brew".

5. Pour out the water and vinegar and run at least one full pot of water through the brewer before making coffee again.

Tips & Warnings

• Maintenance is better than rescue. Run a cup of white vinegar through your brewer every so often, 3 or 4 weeks, to keep the mineral deposits from building up.
• This trick has worked about 50/50 for me. That is, I've used this on two brewers. One was back in action in about an hour. The other still hisses and sputters, though I still haven't given up on it yet. It seems there is a point of no return here...

[chameleon]

on 1/12/2009 Great article for going beyond maintenance to rescue a clogged up coffee maker. I'm linking to your article from my blog at http://coffeebreak.today.com

[vikki9]

on 9/30/2008 This absolutely works. Many thanks for sharing.

[Kilogramm]

on 8/20/2008 Great step by step instructions, will be trying this on a old coffee maker from a few years back!

[Gitaagami]

on 7/21/2008 Hey, thanks! I appreciate it. Haha, incidentaly, the second brewer's starting to come back as well. Yay, 2 for 2 :-)

[AbbyNormal]

on 7/20/2008 Good article!