Keurig and calcium

[lostcreekranch]

We’ve had good luck and good coffee, with our Keurig machine using the 1 gallon jugs of purified drinking water from WallyWorld at 88 cents a gallon. We’ve also used their 88 cent distilled water as well. I can’t tell the difference.

 

[Bird]

I use Walmart's distilled water in my CPAP machine, and for the drinking water for our Chihuahua. That little dog seemed to have "tears?" that run a very short distance down her face and dried there when she was getting tap water here at the house. One of our daughters told my wife that distilled water would stop that. That was something new to me, but apparently she was right.

As for our Keurig coffee maker, we bought ours on 1/30/2013. The manual says to "descale" it every 3 to 6 months. So on 8/31/2014 I decided to do that; yep, a little longer than recommended. The vinegar barely started to drip, when it instantly clogged up and quit without even running hardly any vinegar through it. I dumped it out rinsed it out, and tried plain water . . . . wouldn't do a thing. So I figured I was going to buy a new one. Since I didn't have anything to lose, I took it out in the shop, got my air compressor with about 140 psi and I blew that high pressure air in every orifice I could find while shaking that Keurig to see if anything rattled. When I finished, I took it back in the kitchen, plugged it in, and it's worked just fine ever since. So it's now been more than 3 years since an aborted attempt at descaling.:laughing: It's working fine today, but I won't be surprised if it quits anytime soon.

 

[JRobyn]

Maybe I should try descaling it with vinegar??

 

[Doofy]

Keurig seems like an awful waste of money. We use a Mr Coffee and make 12 cups at a time. We each drink a cup first thing in the morning and pour the rest in a insulated thermos type carafe. Carafe keeps the coffee fresh and hot all day. Coffee doesn't sit on the warming plate and get all nasty either. I know there are some great tasting coffees available and that you can fill your own pods but I really don't feel the love.

 

[robbyr]

Had my Kuerig about 3 years now. Started getting to where it wouldn’t cycle enough to fill my cup then basically wouldn’t put out anything. Did the vinegar thing couple times. Was about ready to throw it away and buy another when I looked it up on YouTube. Guy took a paper clip and poked it up the needle. Felt some resistance then push harder til it breaks through. So I tried it and it was exactly like described. Got great flow. Better than I remember it being when new. Now I keep a paper clip handy in the drawer by kuerig. Done it several times. Always works.

 

[Sigarms]

Maybe I should try descaling it with vinegar??

We used vinegar regularly. May help you, didn't help us.

Perhaps we should of used a air compressor or paperclip, but we picked up a Ninja and have been more than happy with it. As long as my coffee doesn't taste like crap, I'm happy with it LOL

 

[Bird]

Had my Kuerig about 3 years now. Started getting to where it wouldn’t cycle enough to fill my cup then basically wouldn’t put out anything. Did the vinegar thing couple times. Was about ready to throw it away and buy another when I looked it up on YouTube. Guy took a paper clip and poked it up the needle. Felt some resistance then push harder til it breaks through. So I tried it and it was exactly like described. Got great flow. Better than I remember it being when new. Now I keep a paper clip handy in the drawer by kuerig. Done it several times. Always works.

I use a pipe cleaner for that.

 

[Gunny]

Bunn coffee makers come with a flexible clean out rod, I use it about once a month to clean out the scale, all that is required since we installed a water softener. Before that, with our hard water, 2 or 3 years was about as long as the makers lasted before it was time to toss them.

 

[fishheadbob]

Ugh!

I know that we are blessed (?) here with LOTS of calcium/lime in our water, and I DO use only highly filtered water (2 rough filters in series coming into the house and then a "super" carbon/small micron undersink filter).

I too am blessed (?) with much calcium in my well water. I also have a whole house water filter which does nothing to take out the calcium. My buddy has a company selling industrial filters to all sorts of businesses, he advised me a long time ago that no filter will remove the calcium and that if it bothered me that much to get a water softener as the salt would take it out.
I prefer to use vinegar to dissolve the limestone scale in my Keurig, teapots, showerheads, etc.. Next to nothing by the gallon at WalMart and similar places.

 

[dmccarty]

My Cuisinart coffee maker would scale up from time to time at which point I would run a batch or two of vinegar through the machine get it to work again.

Well, the last time I did vinegar flush, the coffee maker stopped working. :confused3::shocked: It was a good 10 years old but I don't think it should have died. My guess is that the acid in the vinegar ate up electrical components. The water/vinegar is turned to steam and I suspect that did the deed. Or the machine was just too old though 10ish years is not old.

I looked at buying a new coffee maker and finally decided why am I spending ANY money on a coffee maker? All you have to do is BOIL water and pour it over the coffee grounds. This is not ROCKET science.

Plus a coffee maker is a unitasker and takes up kitchen space.

So I bought a one quart Pyrex "cup", filled it with water and put it in the microwave until I could figure out how many minutes it took to get to the magic, special brewing temperature for making coffee. I forgot the temperature but it takes about 7.5 minutes in our microwave. The only thing "bad" about this process is that I have to pour the hot water over the coffee which takes a bit of time and the Pyrex cup has to be poured just right to keep it from spilling. Lots of reviews about the Pyrex pouring issue. You would think they could design a "cup" that can pour without spilling.....

Works for me and it can break unless I drop the Pyrex which is cheap to replace. :laughing::laughing::laughing:

Don't need no stink'n coffee machine!

Later,
Dan