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Cleaning Coffee Pots



Well, today I want to give you a small tip.  As a small child, I always remembered spending time cleaning on Saturday's, because company was coming on Sunday. We had to clean the house, dust the furniture, clean our bedrooms, wash the floors, and like the rest of you, we had to polish the shoes. Sunday was coming and everything had it's place. Usually, my mom would make some fresh platz, a pot of soup, zwieback, but most of all she always had the table set with a tablecloth and her best china. Most of us have probably fallen way back off these Saturday chores and traditions.
But one thing I have learned over my past years was how to clean a coffee thermos. I used to scrub those things with brushes, baking soda, soaked it, you name it, that ugly coffee stain became darker and darker. Would you believe I learned this tip while working at the university? It was part of my duty to help keep the staff room in order. A colleague shared her secret with me and I am more than willing to pass it on.
"Pour the container full with boiling water and add some dishwasher soap to the pot, screw the lid on tight, go home, and sleep."
Not too often my work was accomplished while sleeping. This truly is a miracle worker.

A stained coffee pot and Company's Coming? That just won't do.

Just add some liquid dishwasher detergent (2 tablespoons), or if it's really stained, I add a whole tablet of dishwasher detergent into a coffee pot filled with boiling water. Let it sit overnight and the next morning you will be smiling. Rinse it out with hot water and you won't mind Company's Coming anymore.
Let me know if you are smiling tomorrow morning.

25 comments:

  1. I know from experience--it works! The house we moved to doesn't have a dishwasher, but I still keep dishwasher detergent on hand just for jobs like this :)

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  2. One of the things you can do to help (and make it smell nice) is to fill it with Ice (about half full) water, and the juice of a fresh lemon. Than let it sit, swish, and empty. We used this method in the restaurant to take all the dish soap out of it and to make it smell and taste better. Love your blog! (just so you know!)

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  3. Oh, thank you! I've been studying the brown interior of my stainless coffee pot and wondering what to do!

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  4. Thanks for tip...have a blessed weekend, hugs, Flavia

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  5. This tip also works on burned on food in pots and pans!! No or little scrubbing!!

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  6. Does is have to be liquid dishwasher soap or can it be crystals...thanks.

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  7. I love tips like this one that do my work for me ! smile...
    Thanks, Marg... I'll try it tonight!

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  8. If someone in your house wears dentures, or even not, denture cleaning tablets work great for this, too. We use them in thermoses all the time. Same thing..very hot water and a couple of tablets...and a very little time.

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  9. Dear Anonymous...
    I know that dishwasher detergent works...I do not know about crystals..but it sure is worth a try. So much of life is experimenting and one can not loose by experimenting with these kind of products. One can even use Denture cleaning tablets. Thanks for that tip, Grammyscraps.

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  10. I'm going to try this with Harv's coffee cup - it's so stained and impossible to get clean.

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  11. This is a fabulous tip! My coffee pot was terribly stained and this worked like a charm. I didn't leave it overnight though...it literally took 10 minutes and it was sparkling clean :) Thanks for sharing this.

    Bonnie

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  12. We are vacationing in a Florida condo and the coffee pot was stained as black as the lid so we were not going to use it. Your timely tip saved the say. The pot is now sparkling! Thank you, thank you.

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  13. THANK YOU! I've spent hours trying to clean my coffee pot. Last night I tried your method and it was miraculous! I don't know if my carafe was this clean when I first purchased the coffee pot! Thanks again! I truly enjoy your blog!

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  14. 1/2 tsp of salt and 3-4 ice cubes does the trick as well. Swish it around for a couple minutes and it's clean. :) A few restaurants I've worked at have done this method.

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  15. Val says...Another great idea for cleaning a coffee pot/thermos...is throw in one or two denture tablets and you'll be AMAZED!!!! That's my trick!!!!

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  16. another easy and quick way to clean a coffee pot is using baking soda, and it's safe to use.

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  17. Wow, this is amazing!! I didn't have liquid detergent, but decided to try dumping a scoop of the granulated soap into my coffee pot, and fill with boiling water. I did the same thing straight into the coffee maker (where the water goes) and both have come out squeaky clean!! No ugly black stains in my stainless steel coffee pot (and it was BLACK!!!) and the coffee maker has not a trace of any coffee residue (after my pot came clean I rinsed it out and set the coffee maker on, so that the water/soap mixture could run through, and then I flushed it through several times with just plain water. I've been dying to get this result for years, thank you for making my day! (and no expensive coffee cleaner needed!! yay!

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  18. denture tablets work too.
    i have box of them under the kitchen sink at all times..
    xo
    eva

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  19. Thanks for all the great tips for cleaning coffee stains from a thermos. Just need to know, do you put the lid on when using denture tablet(s) to remove those stains? TIA

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  20. Left to soak with a couple of tablespoons of bleach (Javex) and hot water works well also. Rinse well with hot soapy water and again with plain hot water before using.

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  21. I tried it yesterday and it worked so well. Now does anyone know how to get grease spots off your stainless steel stove? I have tried the cleaners that come with your stove, lemon juice, baking soda paste, dish soap etc and a few stubborn spots remain.

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  22. I also use this for my husbands thermos. It leaves the inside shiny and clean:)

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  23. I've been cooking peppers and onions in the skillet on the grill a lot lately. I'll have to add jalapenos next time. Yum. I like cooking bacon that way too, although hot fat + open flame adds a nice element of danger. I used to get flank steak, but my husband got me to try the carne asada cut from our local market, and I prefer it. Not sure if it's thin-cut flank or skirt (I'll have to ask), but it looks like this 

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