How to clean your coffee pot/coffee maker

If it is taking longer for you coffee to brew you may need to give your coffee pot a good cleaning. Here's how.

Things You'll Need

• White vinegar
• Coarse salt

Instructions

1. First start by filling your coffee pot/coffee maker tank with straight white vinegar and run it as you normally would to make a pot of coffee. You can put a filter in the holder if you want to see just what's being cleaned out of your coffee pot.

2. Next, run plain water through the coffee pot 2 more cycles to make sure you have gotten all the vinegar out of your coffee maker and your coffee doesn't taste funny.

3. If you have water deposits on the inside of the coffee pot itself you can fill it with 1/4 cup of vinegar and 2 tablespoons of coarse salt and swish it around the pot several times. Be sure to rinse the coffee pot out well. You may even want to run it through the dishwasher.

Tips & Warnings

• Whenever possible, use clean, cold, filtered water instead of water from your tap. The calcium in tap water creates deposits which is what clogs your coffee pot/coffee maker tank and makes it harder to pump the water. If you belong to one of those coffee clubs you may also better appreciate the flavors of different coffees with a clean coffee pot/coffee maker.