How to Clean a Coffee Pot With Vinegar

Today you’re going to learn how to clean a coffee pot with vinegar instead of harsh, toxic store-bought chemical cleaners.

Let’s do this!

How to clean a coffee pot in 6 steps

Here are 6 easy steps to get your coffee pot as clean as a whistle:

1. Rinse the coffee pot to remove any dried coffee residue.

2. Lather up the pot with some natural dish soap and rinse with clean water.

Why natural?

Find out in this video:

Read this post to learn more.

3. Now comes the most important step that will remove any microbial buildup inside your coffee pot. Get out some vinegar (we recommend this one) and mix one part water with one part vinegar. Use some of the mixture to wipe the outside of the pot, including the coffee pot’s handle.

4. Pour the rest of the mixture into the coffee pot. Let it sit for 30 minutes to let it kill any microbes.

5. After half an hour, dump out the mixture and wash the coffee pot again using natural dish soap and clean water to remove any lingering odor. The last thing you want is for your tasty cup of coffee to reek of vinegar!

6. Now comes the easy part. Let your coffee pot air dry. Why air-dry instead of towel-dry? Because kitchen towels tend to be packed with germs. (Here’s a post that explains why air-drying is the way to go).

And that’s how you clean a coffee pot with vinegar.

Want to learn more about the cleaning power of vinegar?

Great! Keep reading, because we’re going to explain why vinegar works so well for getting rid of microbes.

Why cleaning a coffee pot with vinegar really works

Vinegar has been used as an antimicrobial disinfectant for centuries, which triggered the curiosity of modern scientists. Here are some studies that put vinegar to the test.

At the University of North Carolina, researchers discovered that vinegar was effective at killing E. coli and Staphylococcus aureus, two kinds of bacteria that are frequently found in people’s kitchens and that can cause severe illness.

Another research team revealed that vinegar kills 98.6% of bacteria and other microbes inside kitchen sponges (which happens to be the dirtiest item in most kitchens – learn more here).

Fun fact: that study was conducted by Clorox, the leading manufacturer of bleach, and even those guys found that vinegar works really well at getting rid of microbes. Thanks for that, guys!

A third study showed that vinegar is so effective at killing microbes, it can even kill the bacteria known to cause tuberculosis if applied to a surface for 30 minutes.

Way to go, vinegar!

So if you were wondering how to clean a coffee pot with vinegar, now you know that vinegar truly works.

And before we let you go, here is some food for thought about why it makes sense to clean your coffee pot frequently.

Why it’s important to clean your coffee pot regularly

You might not have thought about this, but coffee makers are actually a haven for bacteria.

Here’s how we know this.

A group of journalists at CBS was wondering what’s inside their coffee makers. So they decided to send them to a lab.

When the results came back, the journalists were flabbergasted.

Some of the coffee makers were home to 4.6 million bacteria colonies, which means that the hot coffee passing through the coffee maker was not killing the bacteria. Instead, bacteria must have been ending up in the coffee itself.

Two factors contributed to this enormous microbial growth. One is the moist environment inside coffee makers.

The second is the fact that caffeine doesn’t only energize us humans. It also energizes bacteria (see this study).

But thanks to the six-step list in this post, you can deal with this issue easily. That’s why it’s good to know how to clean a coffee pot with vinegar.

That's how to clean a coffee pot with vinegar!

Why not go one step further and clean your entire coffee maker?

If you’re eager to put an end to the microbial takeover inside your coffee maker, check out our post that outlines 9 easy steps to get you there.

Or, learn how to how to clean your whole coffee maker with vinegar or with baking soda.

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