How to Clean a Coffee Maker With Citric Acid

If you're the type of person that drinks coffee every morning, chances are your coffee machine could do with a good cleaning! While there are loads of cleaning products made exclusively for cleaning coffee makers, there's a much cheaper solution. The vast majority of commercial cleaning tablets contain citric acid as their main ingredient.

With that in mind, why not cut out the middle man and extra cost and use citric acid instead? Citric acid can be bought in bulk online and used for all sorts of heavy duty cleaning around the house. And best of all, it lasts forever.

Instead of spending $10-15 on a specialty cleaning solution, I was able to purchase a five pound bag of citric acid for $14 on Amazon! Each coffee maker cleaning only requires 2 teaspoons, so I can safely say I won't run out of citric acid anytime soon. :D

P.S. You can also use white vinegar for cleaning and descaling, but I much prefer citric acid when it comes to coffee makers. Vinegar can sometimes leave behind a pretty intense smell if you're not able to rinse every part of the coffee maker super well. Citric acid does not have this issue, and I've never had any left behind to alter the taste of the coffee.

Step 1: Add Citric Acid to the Reservoir

Start with a clean coffee maker - rinse the basket, reservoir and pot before starting to ensure there are no coffee grounds hanging around.

Once that's done, fill the reservoir with 6-8 cups of water and add in 2 teaspoons of citric acid powder.

Step 2: Brew and Clean!

Once the citric acid and water are in the reservoir, turn on your coffee maker and let it go through the brewing cycle as normal.

Once the first brew cycle is finished, remove the basket and coffee pot and dump out any water. Rinse them well under hot water.

Fill the reservoir one more time with clean water and run the brewing cycle a second time to remove any excess citric acid that may be hiding in the coffee machine.

And there you go! Now you've got a clean, scale-free coffee machine and great tasting coffee. Enjoy! :D