Have you noticed that the Keurig you got about 10 months ago is sounding horrible? Rattling and groaning with each sip of fresh water? Before you start cursing the cheap build of the K-line of machines, there is one remedy you need to try. I did, and it possibly saved me from buying a whole new machine for the new year. It might save you too.
I don’t know about your Keurig use, but the one in my household gets beaten on pretty severely each day. Maybe 6 cups are brewed each and every day without fail. The big cups too, so what is that? Six times grande times seven days times four weeks times twelve months …. what, about 23 thousand gallons of brew? Well maybe not that much, but it’s still a lot. And that water has a tendency to leave deposits and gum up the machine. You need to pay attention to that scale, because it is a silent killer. It is the cholesterol of the Keurig, and soon your K will be DOA if you don’t clean it out often.
I employ a very simple (and recommended) process of cleaning the device. I offer the following for entertainment only and if anything at all goes wrong at any time in any place in the known universe I can’t be held responsible. In other words, use this at your own risk. (Sorry, lawyer repellant)
First, run all the water out of the Keurig by dispensing hot water until the “Add Water” light starts to blink. Then remove the water tank and empty out the water that remains. Put it back onto the machine. Then fill it completely to the rim with WHITE VINEGAR from a gallon container. PLAIN WHITE Vinegar, please, nothing else, nothing flavored. Allow the Keurig to suck some of the vinegar into it’s plumbing.
Run a large cup through your machine to make sure that there’s nothing but vinegar in the device. Then let it sit for about 5 minutes. Run another cup through. You will get a wonderful cup of hot vinegar, a great way to open your sinuses. Then after another 5 minutes, run another cup through. Keep tossing the old vinegar and refilling the cup every 5 minutes until the “Add Water” light blinks on.
Pop off the tank, dump the remaining vinegar. Rinse under the tap completely until the smell of vinegar seems removed. Then replace the tank on the Keurig and refill with clean tap water. Run this too through your machine, except you need not wait 5 minutes in between. Just run it through.
If you have no interest in being super detailed, you can simply stop there. Rinse the holster with tap water and refill with your preferred source of brewing water and you’re done. This should eliminate most scale and keep your machine happy and clean.
Do this every three to six months (depending how much minerals are in your water) and your K machine will thank you with many happy, trouble free cups of java!