After doing your job and getting results, you need to take a break. It doesn’t matter whether you’re young or old. Some downtime is needed to recharge the batteries, as it were, and tidy up in preparation for another day or work. It is no different with your Cuisinart coffee maker.
After a month or more of serving you that delicious brew, your coffee maker needs to be descaled, so it can continue making you great-tasting coffee — just the way you love it. So, how do you descale a Cuisinart coffee maker? We will discuss that. But first, let’s talk about how it all starts.
How Does Residue Form in Your Cuisinart Coffee Maker
When you use a TV, car, or any other tool, it makes life easier for you. Traveling to the office and other places is an important part of daily living. But think of what things would look like if the car isn’t cleaned or maintained for months. Dust and dirt will pile up inside and outside of it and it’ll surely break down.
Now think about all the hot water, coffee grinds, dust, and grime that a Cuisinart coffee maker is exposed to in the average home. Not all of it leaves the device when you make a cup of coffee. Even the water leaves something behind.
Water, especially hard water, is full of minerals. A large part of that is calcium and magnesium. The one supplied through to the general public is usually hard water, which is all fine and good except that it leaves dry, hardened calcium deposits in your appliance as you make a brew.
This residue can block the pipes on your device that takes hot water to the coffee grounds. This reduces the quality of the drink you get in the end. It can even damage the machine over time. This is why you need the following items to descale or clear out the debris.
How to Descale Your Cuisinart Coffe Maker with Vinegar
If you’re mistaking this for a mere cooking ingredient, you’re as wrong as can ever be. Vinegar is a compound well-known for its strong odor. But it is also famous for its ability to kills germs plus dissolve dirt and grime in the kitchen.
White vinegar is the best choice because it is colorless and won’t stain your plastic or wooden surfaces. The smell mentioned earlier can be removed by adding a few drops of lavender or peppermint oil to a mixture of water and vinegar. Ready to start cleaning your coffee maker with this substance? Here’s what to do.
Check for a “CLEAN” button. The indicator light will be on if it’s due for cleaning. Of course, regular checks on your machine will also let you know.
Take out the Cuisinart coffee maker carafe and throw its contents away. This is the time to also empty the water reservoir and pour in a mix of one part vinegar and two parts water.
Make sure it is filled with the water-vinegar mixture in the 1 is to 2 ratio. The size of your device model will determine the total liquid volume. Some Cuisinart models will need 12 cups. Others will need 14 cups.
If there’s a “CLEAN” button on your appliance, you can go ahead and push it. The descaling should start at this point. Don’t be alarmed when it stops a few times and then resumes running automatically.
Let’s say you don’t have the “CLEAN” button on your model. All you have to do is throw out what is left in the carafe, including the filter, and start a normal brew cycle. It should take a while. In the middle of it, pause the brewing and let the gadget sit for an hour or so.
The reason is to let it thoroughly soak the stuck-on particles and loosen them up. This will make it easier for them to be flushed out. Repeat the entire process so far if your machine is really dirty.
The next step is to rinse with cold water after all the vinegar-water solution is out. Let some freshwater inside the reservoir until it is filled up. Run another brew cycle and watch the water pass through the machine and remove all traces of vinegar. You will need to rinse 3 or more times to get all of it out.
Another compound you can use is citric acid.
How to Descale Your Cuisinart Coffee Maker with Citric acid
You can find this substance in a lemon or lime. But there is also the man-made version of it that can be bought in a store. This is what is widely used as a cleaning agent.
A similar procedure can be used to descale your Cuisinart coffee maker. How often should you do it? It depends on the level of hardness of the water you use in making coffee. But you can expect to descale every 1 to 6 months.
To use citric acid to descale, mix one tablespoon of citric acid pellets with half a gallon of water and put it in the machine’s reservoir. Run a brew cycle and pause in the middle of the process. Let it sit for one hour and then continue the cycle.
When all the solution is out of the coffee maker, pour some clean water in it to rinse. The water should pass through the machine in a few brew cycles until it is completely free of the solution.
The good thing about using citric acid is that you don’t need to mix it with lemon oil or lavender to avoid having a house filled with a strong, irritating odor. Your device will also be spared the smell.
There are other remedies like baking soda out there. You can experiment with them and decide which you prefer. They say the taste of the pudding is in the eating.
Talking about taste, it is interesting to know that the taste of the last cup of coffee your machine churned out is one way of knowing whether it is due for descaling or not. A build-up of deposits in the machine can alter the taste.
You can pick any of these descaling methods to get your coffee maker in tip-top condition. A delightful cup of coffee will be your reward.
