Fill the water tank with 500ml of distilled white vinegar (4% or 5%). Place a container under the dispenser outlet. Press the descale button for 2 seconds and the system will run a descale process.
Grab the vinegar: White distilled vinegar will help descale (remove lime and scale buildup) your coffee maker, which is key to helping it run. (You can also use a descaling solution.) Fill the water reservoir halfway with vinegar. Add water: Fill the reservoir the rest of the way with water.
Use white vinegar. Put 500 milliliters of white vinegar into the sterilizer without the filter. Run it through a descale. Do two boiling kettles, 1000 milliliters each. Run that through as a clean cycle.
To descale the inside of your Keurig machine, fill your water reservoir with a mixture of half water and half distilled white vinegar. Place a large mug or bowl where you'd typically put your coffee cup and run the machine as normal, dumping the mixture every time the mug fills.
TO DESCALE: It is helpful to descale your steriliser every four weeks to ensure that it continues to work properly. To descale, mix 2 oz (60 ml) of white vinegar with 4 oz (100 ml) of cold water and pour into the sterilising basin. Allow liquid to stand in the unit until any deposits (limescale) have dissolved.
Let the sterilizer cool and unplug it; you will then scrub the plate with a soft cloth dropped into a mixture of vinegar and water or lemon juice. If the buildup is enormous, let the vinegar mixture sit on the plate for a few minutes to break down the limescale. Wipe clean, rinse well, dry completely.
Vinegar is readily available and more affordable than commercial descaler. A descaler is specifically formulated for descaling coffee pots and will keep the machine running reliably. The manufacturer may not honor a warranty claim if you regularly use vinegar instead of a descaler to clean your coffee maker.
That funny tasting coffee could be due to the coffee oils left behind by coffee grounds, or due to white, flaky mineral buildup from your brewing water. All it takes to clean your machine is a little dish soap and white vinegar—yep, even if you use a Keurig.
Combine equal parts water and vinegar
To descale a Keurig, pour equal parts water and white vinegar into the empty reservoir and turn the machine on to a cycle. Remember to place a large mug underneath the spout to collect the water – the larger the better to prevent overflow.
It's vitally important to regularly descale your steriliser to avoid operating issues and damage to the heat plate, which is in the bottom of the machine.
Acids used
Notable descaling agents include acetic acid, citric acid, glycolic acid, formic acid, lactic acid, phosphoric acid, sulfamic acid and hydrochloric acid.
As we mentioned earlier, vinegar is one of the best natural descalers in your kitchen. Vinegar is very acidic that combats the limescale of your coffee appliance after regular brewing. Mix vinegar with warm water in a 1:1 ratio and run the brew cycle several times for cleaning.
Baking soda is another very popular home remedy used for descaling coffee machines. Just like vinegar, it is widely used throughout the home. To clean your coffee machine using baking soda, dissolve 1/4 of a cup in 1 litre of water, pour it into the tank, and then follow the same steps as in the previous methods.
Keurig Descaling Solutions is 7-13 % citric acid according to the MSDS.
Make a natural descaling solution by mixing either 1 tablespoon citric acid and 18 ounces water, or 6 ounces white vinegar and 12 ounces water.
If the Keurig descaling solution isn't on hand, white vinegar is the cleaning solution you can have on hand. You'll want to do equal parts water and vinegar. Fill the reservoir about halfway with white vinegar, and then add water until you reach the top.
Descaling a coffee maker with vinegar is a simple way to keep your machine performing at its best. With filters and grounds removed, fill the reservoir to max using half water, half white distilled vinegar. Run a brew or cleaning cycle, empty the carafe and run 2-3 more brew cycles with fresh, cool water.
The best way to descale a coffee maker is with a descaling powder, like this one from Urnex. For cleaning a coffee maker, we also recommend using a cleaning powder, which can remove stubborn residual coffee oils that can go rancid and stain the carafe.
Calcium deposits or scale may build up in your brewer and hinder your brewer performance. Regularly descaling your brewer every 3 to 6 months helps prevent this from occurring. Your system will remind you when to descale with the prompt “Time to descale the brewer!”
Pour 100ml of white vinegar mixed with 200ml cold water into steriliser. Allow it to stand in the unit until any lime scale has dissolved – DO NOT SWITCH ON - Drain and rinse unit. Run a full cycle with baskets/racks inside and lid on using exactly 90ml of water.
Distilled white vinegar and water method
Fill your kettle half with distilled white vinegar and half with water. Boil the kettle. Pour all of the water out. Fill your kettle with water again and boil to remove any lingering vinegar.
It's vitally important to regularly descale your sterilizer to avoid operating issues and damage to the heat plate, which is in the bottom of the machine.