How to Descale a Keurig Coffee Maker
Keurig has effectively changed the way people brew their coffee. The company has eliminated the need to ground your own beans or wait a few minutes for the water to heat up.
The convenience factor is astounding, and many people have purchased the Keurig Coffee Maker for this exact reason. However, with convenience also come a few problems. There’s a reason why many people wonder how to descale a Keurig.
More than three-quarters of U.S. households have to deal with hard water, which leaves limescale deposits on every appliance that uses water. This can not only make your coffee taste less good; it can also damage the coffee maker if you leave it scaled for too long.
To prevent all of this from happening, you will need to perform the descaling process once every three or so months. It’s not a tedious process but it can be inconvenient, especially when you’re in a hurry. Fortunately, there are several methods of how to descale a Keurig. We will be looking at them, and we will also show you how to prevent limescale buildup in the future.
How to Descale Keurig: The Official Method
The people at the company are aware of this problem, so they have created their own descaling solution that you can purchase from Keurig’s website.
It’s not the most cost-efficient solution but it gets the job done, and many people like it because it is officially licensed. So, if something goes wrong, you can hold the company accountable to a certain degree.
Once you’ve purchased their solution, you’ll also need a few other items:
- A large ceramic mug (it’s important to avoid using a paper cup)
- Freshwater
- A sink
- First, shut down the Keurig coffee maker, empty the reservoir, and remove the filter. Then pour the descaling solution into the reservoir.
- Next, fill an empty bottle with fresh water and add that to the reservoir as well. Now power on the coffee maker, place the ceramic mug where you would normally place the coffee mug and perform a 10-ounce cleansing brew.
- Empty the mug into the sink and repeat the process until you get the “add water” message (or until the blinker light comes on, depending on the model you have). Then just let the coffee machine turned on for 30 minutes without doing anything else to it.
- Finally, rinse the reservoir thoroughly and then fill it with fresh water and perform at least twelve cleansing brews. If you’ve followed all of the steps correctly, the Keurig should be completely descaled.
How to Descale Keurig: The Unofficial Method
If you want a cheaper and more accessible method of descaling a Keurig coffee maker, you could simply opt to use white vinegar.
Lucky for you, the process is exactly the same as the official method, but instead of Keurig’s official solution, you will add white vinegar. Yes, vinegar is a wonderful descaling solution, and it works for tankless water heaters and other fixtures as well.
There is a downside, though: the smell. You’ll have to rinse the machine more thoroughly to get the stench out once the descaling process is complete. But if that’s not a problem for you, it’s a great method of saving money while achieving the same exact results.
Can I Use Softened Water in My Keurig?
The electric pins in the Keurig water tank depend on water’s mineral content to function properly.
Traditional salt-based water softeners replace said minerals with sodium, which can really mess with the tank’s level sensor. You wouldn’t want that to happen because the coffee maker will no longer know when to stop, and your coffee cup will overflow.
Softened water is also unsafe to drink in large quantities, especially if you have certain health conditions. If you already have a water softener installed, we recommend getting a filter that can remove the sodium from your water.
How to Prevent Limescale on Your Keurig Coffee Maker
One practical but expensive method of keeping your Keurig coffee maker safe from limescale is to use bottled water.
Bottled water still has a tiny amount of minerals in it, so it won’t affect the sensors we’ve previously mentioned. If you don’t mind spending significantly more money on quality water, then this method might an okay fit for you.
Also, you should avoid using distilled water since that has basically no minerals whatsoever, and, again, will damage the sensors. Ok, so let’s say you’ve stuck to bottled water. you’ll undoubtedly notice a rise in costs in the long run. There must be a better way to prevent scale, right?
Yes, there’s an even better method of preventing scale on your Keurig device. And it only requires one initial investment, after which you won’t need to spend any more cash. Bonus: this method will also greatly improve the quality of water in your entire household.
The Ultimate Descaler for Your Keurig Coffee Maker
Ironically, the best method to prevent scaling on a Keurig coffee maker and other appliances is called… wait for it… a water descaler.
Unlike a water softener, the descaler doesn’t remove hard minerals from the water. Instead, it merely reshapes calcium and magnesium crystals, making them less thick and sticky.
Because of this, the Keurig’s sensors will continue to function properly, but not limescale will attach to the tank, and your coffee will taste just as good as before. Depending on the water hardness level in your house, it might take up to three months to notice visible improvements. However, when purchasing the Yarna water descaler, you’re backed up by a full one-year money-back guarantee – no questions asked.
That means your investment is 100% safe, so if you’re not pleased by the results in one year, you’ll get every single penny back. And if you register the product on our website, you’ll also benefit from our 10-year parts and labor warranty. Yes, the warranty applies even if you purchase our descaler from third parties such as Amazon. All you need is the serial and order number.
Other Benefits of the Yarna Water Descaler
Our water descaler is simple to install. The instruction manual will guide you through the entire set up process that takes only about 15 minutes.
You don’t need any plumbing skills whatsoever, and you don’t need to pay a technician to come and install it. Also, you can forget about tools because the Yarna capacitive electronic water descaler comes with everything you need inside the box.
Once you’ve installed it on the main pipe and turned the unit on, your entire house’s water supply gets its hardness reduced. Because of this, you’ll no longer have to deal with limescale on the toilet bowl, showerhead, faucet, dishes, etc. All your water-based appliances will live longer and function more efficiently.
With the help of a water descaler, you can save up to $1000 per year in detergent, soap, energy, and water expenses. Yes, for an initial investment way under $500, you’ll save double that amount per year for years and years to come. No maintenance or other accessories required, and no chemicals added to your water. It’s that simple.
How to Descale Keurig: The Rundown
So, to recap everything, you have the option of descaling your Keurig coffee maker with their official liquid descaler. It’s a practical method but it adds a lot to the cost over time, and apart from descaling the coffee machine it doesn’t do anything else.
On the other hand, you could try using white vinegar, which comes at highly affordable prices and can be used to descale other appliances and fixtures as well – given that you can handle the smell until it does its job. Nevertheless, it’s a good method for emergency situations, and it handles limescale well for the low price that you can get white vinegar for.
By far the best method of preventing limescale altogether is a water descaler. It doesn’t remove hard minerals, but rather it changes their crystals’ shape to make them less sticky. This means that your Keurig’s water level sensors will keep functioning just as good. They won’t take any damage, unlike if you were to use softened water. When you add into account all the benefits such as the one-year money-back guarantee or ten-year warranty once you register it, you’ll realize that it’s indeed the best possible option for many applications.
The Bottom Line
Descaling a Keurig coffee maker isn’t a hard process at all, but preventing scaling in the first place is much, much better.
By using the principle of cathodic protection (one of the most common physics tricks to prevent limescale and rust on oil rig pipes), the Yarna capacitive electronic water descaler achieves so much with only a small investment and insignificant space taken on your main pipe.
As for energy consumption, the Yarna descaler doesn’t consume much, but it helps you save up to $1000 per year on electricity, water, detergents, cosmetics, and other products that don’t work as well when used with hard water.
