So, I sabotaged my coffeemaker.

September 16, 2014 7:41 PM

Coffee Idiotfilter: In some kind of zombielike haze, apparently I put ground coffee into my water reservoir, and then water, and then brewed my lovely, lovely on-sale Intelligentsia coffee AND DIDN'T NOTICE (which shows you what a coffee connoisseur *I* am). Now I need to clean it out. How? The instructions say to not even use a cloth inside the reservoir.

It's a Cuisinart Brew Central. I've only had it a few months. I've removed the filter and discarded it, because it was fat with coffee and coffee grinds. (I don't have any replacement filters on hand tonight, FWIW.) The machine doesn't look like there are any parts I can take apart safely, but maybe I'm wrong. My current plan is to upend it over the garbage*, to get out as much of the grounds as I can, and then stare at it sadly.

I don't know if following the cleaning instructions by putting in white vinegar and water and hitting the "cleaning" button (with the water filter out) would make it worse or better at this point.

If you have any brilliant ideas, I'm all ears. I'd love to avoid adding to the pile of irritation that is this week (flat tire today, jury duty postponed in favor of a root canal Thursday, etc. etc.). And I would definitely like to not ruin my coffeemaker; it's the only thing that allows me to function in this morning-person's world.


*At this point, you would not be remiss to instruct me to remove the coffee carafe first. Never fear, gentle reader. I am at least sort of awake now, and have already done this, but I thank you for your concern.

posted by wintersweet to Home & Garden (11 answers total)

Best answer: I'd repeatedly fill the reservoir with water and dump it out, to rinse out as many grounds as possible. Then I'd run it through a couple of brew cycles with just water (no grounds). Finally, I'd run it through another brew cycle using white vinegar instead of water.

If that didn't fix it, I'd start shopping for a new coffee maker.
posted by jon1270 at 7:48 PM on September 16, 2014 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: I should probably add that the water reservoir is NOT removable.
posted by wintersweet at 7:56 PM on September 16, 2014

try calling the manufacturer for advice? surely this has happened to other folks before. Maybe they even feel generous. Worst that can happen is you are in the same situation you are in now.
posted by TheAdamist at 8:11 PM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

I have that same coffee maker. Just went in the kitchen to look at it. If no grounds got into that tiny hole under where the charcoal water filter is inserted, you should be okay with a few good rinses and a vinegar brew then a water-only brew. If grounds did get into the tiny hole where the water is drawn down into the heating area and then up the pipe to that ends in the top center/lid area, it is going to be really, really hard to do anything about that. But from where I am looking, it seems the water filter should have kept any grounds from getting sucked into the innards of the machine.

I'd slosh-and-dump water around in the reservoir a few times WITH THE WATER FILTER INSERTED to get all the grounds out I could, then I would try brewing a straight-water batch. If that worked I would do a vinegar batch then another straight-water batch to flush it all out. It seems like you will hear/see the machine struggling if grounds got into a section that will cause problems. I would NOT run any brewing without the water filter in at this point.

In my estimation it seems like the charcoal-filter would keep any grounds from reaching the inner depths of the machine and keep them all in the reservoir.

(On preview, I see you already had to toss the filter. I would not try to do any rinsing without it as it appears to be the only thing keeping the/any more grounds from entering the inside of the machine)

Best of luck and feel free to let me know if you need me to run a control group brew to compare against!
posted by zyxwvut at 8:27 PM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]

Unplug it. Invert it over the sink. while inverted, use your sink sprayer to hose out the reservoir (this may be best done with an assistant of some sort). Do this until, when you flip it back over, there is no coffee left in the reservoir.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 1:42 AM on September 17, 2014 [4 favorites]

Given the amount of crud that can collect within automatic coffeemakers in general--very small bits of stray grounds are unlikely to make a big difference. Rinse-and-dump in the manner a couple of other people have mentioned is what I'd do.

Many years ago, I had a cheapish coffee maker that plugged its water flow entirely. Heated steam came back out the entry port where you pour in the water and melted the plastic cover. That seems to be fairly rare though.
posted by gimonca at 6:40 AM on September 17, 2014

Best answer: I had this happen to my Cuisinart Brew Central 12-cup coffeemaker. It got so bad that I was only getting two cups of actual liquid coffee; the rest of the water just steamed off.

I found instructions on the Web and I took it apart and fixed it myself. Now it works just like new.

Here's a description on Amazon - read all the answerws for complete details. There is discussion of the same fix in the comments here.

You need a torx screwdriver (aka T10 stardriver) to remove the recessed screws in the bottom plate. No other special tools required, but look out for that tiny ball in the one-way check valve.

Good luck!
posted by caryatid at 3:38 PM on September 17, 2014

Oh, and BTW; you can safely use it without the charcoal water filter. I removed mine and didn't replace it long ago. It hasn't made a bit of difference either way, and it hasn't reclogged - but then my tap water is excellent, and I am much more careful now about keeping the grounds where they belong and making sure the carafe is on the heater plate when I turn it on so the grounds basket doesn't overflow internally. ;-) DUH
posted by caryatid at 3:52 PM on September 17, 2014

Best answer: The same thing happened to me by accident. I bought a special screwdriver (cheap on Amazon) to remove the bottom panel. Then I removed the check-valve and flushed the grounds from in the lines.

It sounds more complicated than it was. If you were local to the Boston area I'd volunteer to do it for you (in a well-lit public area, lest you turn out to be an axe murderer with similar taste in coffee makers to me).

MeMail me if you want more detailed guidance. Honestly, 20 minutes round trip.
posted by KevCed at 3:14 PM on September 18, 2014 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Rats! I tried Kid Charlemagne's reasonable suggestion, but it doesn't work because the inside is made so that if you turn it upside down, things don't fall OUT. They just fall IN. So we're going to try taking it apart, I guess, which will be educational. I'll start with the Amazon suggestions, and then we'll contact KevCed if we need to. (Alas, we're on the opposite coast...)
posted by wintersweet at 5:10 PM on September 21, 2014

Response by poster: We failed to take it apart--the screws are very cranky, even with what should be the right screwdriver. I really appreciate the help I got from KevCed and others here, but I'm going to throw in the towel and get a new machine. It seems wasteful, but I guess that's just how these are made.
posted by wintersweet at 5:53 PM on November 9, 2014