How to Descale & Clean Your Keurig Brewer

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How to Descale & Clean Your Keurig Brewer

Getting "short" cups and / or off-tasting coffee from your Keurig? Follow these simple steps to clean and descale your brewer.

Scott Coates

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Step 1 of 19

Cleaning & descaling your Keurig brewer is an important step to enjoying the best tasting coffee and keeping your brewer in good shape for years.

Step 2 of 19

How often you need to do it depends heavily on how often you use your brewer and how "hard" your local water is ("hard" meaning how many minerals are in it). I try to do this 3-4 times a year.

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Open the top of your brewer and remove the K-cup holder. CAUTION: There's are two sharp needles in there. Be careful.

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The cup holder is dishwasher safe. You can toss it in the dishwasher if you want. Otherwise a good rinse under warm running water is usually good. There's a sharp needle in here, so be careful.

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Turn the cup holder over and ensure these holes at the bottom are free of any obstruction.

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The drip-tray is removable. Give it a good clean either by hand or in the dishwasher.

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The upper portion of the K-cup holder also has a needle. This needle has three holes in it. Insert a straightened paper clip into each hole to remove any buildup or obstructions.

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Here's a close up: There's nothing you can break in here, so use some force and get that paperclip a good inch in and wiggle it around vigorously. Repeat this for the two other holes in the needle.

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Use a damp, soft cloth to wipe away any coffee grinds or water stains in and around the cup holder area, and down the front of the brewer.

Step 10 of 19

Be careful of that needle inside when wiping it down.

Step 11 of 19

Put the K-cup holder back in the chamber. Make sure it's the right way around by aligning the arrows at the top of the holder.

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Empty the water in the brewer's external reservoir.

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Refill the reservoir with undulated white vinegar and replace on your brewer.

Step 14 of 19

Run four large cup brew cycles. DO NOT use a K-cup, just run it empty . Dispose of the hot vinegar after each. This pushes the vinegar through the inside heating tank as well as all the valves inside.

Step 15 of 19

Leave your brewer to stand, powered on for four hours. This allows the vinegar time to break down any build up in the tubes and valves inside the brewer.

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Discard any leftover vinegar then refill the reservoir with water only.

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Run large cup cycles until "Add Water" is displayed on your brewer's screen. This washes out all traces of vinegar from the insides of the system.

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If you notice a vinegar-like smell or taste to the water coming out of your brewer, refill the reservoir with water a second time and run hot water cycles until empty.

Step 19 of 19

Congratulations!! Your Keurig brewer is now clean and your ready to enjoy full cups of delicious coffee for months to come!

You're Done

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Scott Coates

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Chris Smith

Sevierville, TN

Kelly 📶👀

Boston

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Stephen Lawrence

Fort Smith, Arkansas

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Laceshia Thames

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Farmingville, New York

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Santa Rosa, CA

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Mauri Bell

Keurig brewer

1 Paperclip

White vinegar (approx 48 oz)

1 Mug

Thanks! We will try this... Thought we needed a new one!!

Angela March Facciotti 2 weeks ago

Thank you !

Rebecca LaForce last month

Bottled water is still "hard" water. So you will still need to clean your coffee maker.

Jared Kong last month

Thank you for this guide just finished descaling my Keurig and it's sooo clean!!! Yayyyyy for fresh coffee !! ;0)

Dilcia Burgos last month

FYI... you mention using "undulated" white vinegar... i think you mean "undiluted" :-)

Paul Stone last month

Tap a few months ago. Noticed coffee tasting funky. After throwing my coffee out every morning, decided to do this, but used about 1/4 pot of vinegar and kept recycling it to make about 10 cups. Let it sit for 2 hours and then flushed with 3 pots of water. Some gross residue (mostly old coffee) came out. I'm hoping my coffee tastes good tomorrow morning. Did a trial cup tonight and the coffee came out nice and strong! Thanks for posting! Didn't realize this needed to be done

Jacey last month

Thanks for this! Switched from bottled to

Jacey last month

Great tutorial. I love my Keurig and want it to last as long as possible. Thank You!

Tracy H last month

Thanks

Daniel Walker elias last month

Thanks for this guide. I did everything you said except I used only a quarter of a tank of vinegar (that's all I had) and filled the rest of the tank with water. The keurig still got very clean.

Devon Claire Flannery 2 months ago

Very helpful. We've had our Keurig for years and have never done this. Even though we only use filtered or bottled water, never tap, it's probably time. By the way, you probably mean for folks to use undiluted vinegar, rather than undulated, LOL.

Anne Kaplan 2 months ago

Great info, doing it tomorrow, thank you

Mary Vander Velden 2 months ago

It takes forever for the vinegar to get out. I almost threw up when I drank my first cup of coffee I had to run water through it about 20 times

Allison Bobley 2 months ago

I have done this before, and it worked great. Then I started to use "real " water, alkaline water, that I have delivered to home. And since then I have not had to clean my keurig!!!

Ellen Kahn 3 months ago

cool

qxq123 qxq123 3 months ago

Cool

Terry Bigelow 4 months ago

Bummer...I followed these steps and my Keurig will no longer brew. They may not be related, but it was working fine before...

Katy Manley 4 months ago

Cool

Tanya James 4 months ago

Be careful replacing the k-cup holder.. Mine broke and I had to call Keurig for a "one time free" replacement!

Renee Wortham 4 months ago

Thanks I will share this with all my keurig friends!

Jenna Hallock 4 months ago

This was a great idea. I don't know why it never occurred to me to clean it. I have done regular coffee pots before. I don' use it a whole loc because my husband doesn't drink coffee

Tammy Mohr 4 months ago

Thanks!

Colleen Nolan Helwig 5 months ago

Thanks for the guide. This will be very helpful in keeping my keurig working properly.

Gina Lewis 5 months ago

This is a great guide. Getting all three holes with the paper clip is the worst.

Karen Jackson 5 months ago

Thanks so much! I love my coffee!

Karen Wadley 5 months ago

Thanks for sharing. I only use culligan water or bottled water. I do not use tap water. Should I still clean even though I don't use Tap Water.

Michael Mitchell 5 months ago

I just had a 'short cup' this morning.... Thank you! I'll be doing this tmw! :)

Lindy S 9 months ago

I've been getting "off" cups. I've done this with regular coffee pots but not with my keurig. Question? Did you remove the filter while doing this?

Erica Kefah Legaux Abdullah last year

Thanks for the guide! I remember the instructions telling me to do this when i first got my keurig but i forgot all about it! Your guide totally reminded me and saved me time googling the process!

Erica Zais last year

That sucks, Laceshia. Hopefully this guide will save some others from having to replace their brewers entirely.

Scott Coates (author) last year

Great info! I'm on my 4th Keurig due to descaling.

Laceshia Thames last year

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FYI......One "hint " I MUST add here I neglected to clean the inside of the reservoir I mean gee it is just filled with water, Right? NOPE!!! Wrong...... I had a thin film of brownish algae growing on the (inside) bottom of the tank and on the underside of the tank cover.! Ya GROSS!! Although nasty looking it is not a health hazard bit I have added "cleaning out reservoir once weekly" to my chore list and all is well !

Rebecca LaForce last week

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