I had to clean the coffee maker out with bleach because it grew mold. I rinsed it out very well twice with a lot of soap and water, and it doesn’t smell like bleach. Is it safe to use now?
You can check the answer of the people under the question at Quora “ammonia to clean coffee maker“
You might want to run one or two cycles with just plain water through it just to ensure that all remnants of detergent and or bleach are flushed out. Always follow the manufacturer recommendations for cleaning a coffee maker. Typically this would not include using soap or bleach through the system. Vinegar and water are usually the only thing you need.
You do know what cowboy coffee is, right? Coffee beans are poured into a sock or a bandanna. Cleanliness is perfectly optional. Tie a knot to confine the contents. Lay the assembled beans and wrapping on a rock. Pound with another rock for a while. Toss the whole works, including any dust left on the rock, into a pan with some water and some egg shells. Boil until it foams up good. Take it off the fire, remove the sock and empty it and put it back on your foot where it belongs. Add a splash of cold water to settle the grounds, and serve. I would imagine that your bleached out coffee maker is more sanitary than the beverage of choice on many a trail drive or hunting trip.
And the best thing to clean your coffee maker with is white vinegar. You can also use specially formulated cleaners sold by the coffee maker makers at inflationary prices, but my espresso machines are both over 10 years old and work perfectly, cleaned monthly with white vinegar, never even replaced an O ring on either one.
If you are using one of those Mr Coffee type drip machines, or a steam powered “espresso” maker, do yourself a favor and get a nice superautomatic machine that extracts espresso at the correct temperature and pressure, and also steams your milk for you so you have cappuccino. Grinds your beans, too. Cleans itself, but you still have to deep clean it occasionally to remove spilled coffee from the works, and descale the boiler. And you have to empty out the puck bin once in a while, and clean it too. And fill the tank with water and fill th…
Yes. It’s clean now. Next time use vinegar to flush it. At least every other week.
Run some white vinegar through the maker a couple times. One cup vinegar to a pot. Then run fresh, clean water through a couple cycles. Should be good to go! Good luck, my friend.
I’ll use chlorine when I have to, but I don’t like to use it promiscuously — especially not when food is involved. I’d clean it with vinegar and leave it out in the sun to dry for a good long time.