How To Clean A Coffee Maker Without Endless Scrubbing Or Harsh Chemicals

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Coffee stains our teeth, clothes, mugs, countertops, and, yes, even coffee makers. If you're a daily coffee drinker, the old coffee flavor and smell can form on any type of coffee maker, affecting how your morning brew tastes. Over time, coffee pots can become discolored, and mineral buildup can occur in Moka pots and Keurigs. There are plenty of cleaners made specifically for cleaning coffee machines, but a cheaper option exists: Denture tablets.

Denture tablets (also called retainer tablets) seem like a surprising choice, but this cleaner contains only food-safe ingredients. After all, these clean something that ends up inside our mouths, so it's important that harsh chemical are not used. Baking soda is a common solution for cleaning coffee machines, and it's also a prominent ingredient in the tablets. Other ingredients include sodium perborate, an inorganic salt that helps with whitening and removing stains, and potassium persulfate, an oxidizer for removing buildup. These, along with other mild cleaning agents, can kill bacteria and help break down residue, mineral buildup, and stains inside your coffee maker. 

Compared to coffee machine tablets, you save some money with denture tablets. Affresh coffee maker cleaner comes in a box of three tablets for $12.42, while a 126-tablet pack of Efferdent retainer and denture cleaning tablets costs only $6.99. Try to avoid mint-flavored denture tablets and go for unflavored ones instead. If you do have flavored ones, an extra water rinse should get rid of the smell. Are you a tea drinker? The tablets can also be used to descale the tea kettle.

If you're a regular coffee drinker, the coffee machine should be cleaned out and rinsed daily. Deeper cleans with tablets can be done about once a month. First, empty and rinse all types of coffee makers with water, removing any grounds or pods. For coffee pot machines and Keurigs, dump out the old water from the reservoir. Fill the reservoir a little less than full with fresh warm water and completely dissolve two denture tablets — this normally takes a few minutes. For coffee pot machines, run a regular brew cycle, and for Keurig-like machines, brew until all or most of the water has been used up. Then, run a cycle or two of just plain water to clear out the cleaner.

If you have a French press or Moka pot, unscrew and separate all components so they can be more easily cleaned. The denture tablets can be dissolved in a large pot of warm water or in the sink, and these types of coffee makers can soak in the mixture for 10 minutes. When the soak is done, run plain warm water through the Moka pot as if you are making coffee, and give the French press a good rinse. You can also use a half or full tablet to remove stubborn coffee stains from a mug. Again, let the tablet dissolve in a cup of warm water for several minutes. You can then use the coarse side of a sponge to gently remove the stain.