I have the Starbucks Barista machine, and the only thing I can figure to use it for (without making me toss my stomach) is iced drinks. Can't drink coffee, so I let guests and others "play" with it. No help am I, huh .

I believe the drip type coffee makers of which my Krups is one, are the hardest to clean. I still have not figured out how to clean the sight gage, the vinegar water did do some good in the area, but nothing short of wiping the inside with something would work in my opinion and it looks impossible to do that on a Krups.

I prefer this Krups drip type, since I am the only coffee drinker in the house and I am never sure if I am only going to drink one cup or two in the morning, so it nice that if I decide to drink a cup later in the day, the coffee is still fresh, since the Krups does not drip into a container sitting on a heating pad, it drips into a thermos type container, keeping the coffee hot for over half a day at minimum, thus no "burning" of the coffee from letting a pot sit on a heated coil for hours....

LOL, I remember my Mom and Dad were big coffee drinkers, and maybe because of growing up during the depression might have influenced their monetary ways, I was turned off to coffee by them since Mom would perc a pot of coffee early in the morning, then later in the day, maybe 8 hours or more later, she would pour the coffee into a small pan and reheat on the stove, OMG, it smelled terrible and sometimes looked like tar in my opinion.

To top it off, my Dad, who would eat breakfast at 5am would heat up on the stove coffee from the previous day! Yuck!

So, it took me several years as an adult to even think of trying coffee, I think I finally broke down and started drinking it as a way of warming up in the morning when I worked at McChord AFB, Wash, it seems the 33-40 degree temperatures with drizzle, fog and rain almost 80% of the time during winter, brought a big chill to my body and that cup of coffee at first break did warm me up.

I ended up not being a severe coffee addict, but my last twenty years of work, I had to have a cup in the morning as I was driving to work (5-5:30AM workcall) but I would hardly ever drink coffee at work, nor at lunch. I only started drinking coffee after dinner about 5 years ago when my DIL and son would come over, and my DIL is a coffee addict, so I always made sure I made a fresh pot for her and now I am hooked for at least one cup after dinner, but, that is my dessert 99% of the time, so that is a plus.

Jyes

I know this sounds strange, but I use "Tang" to clean my coffee maker and my dishwasher as well. I went and bought a small container of citric acid powder like the directions stated (for a whopping $8.00 ) and then found out from our local appliance guy that using various concentrations of Tang would do exactly the same thing, at a much lower cost (32 oz. is $6.00). It does require one extra rinse when used in the coffee maker to remove any lingering sugars, but it works wonders.

I've used the vinegar, and the baking soda (not at the same time tho...BIG Mess ) and they do work well, but the vinegar is just makes such an eye-watering reek, I knew there had to be a better way.

/passes a cup o' joe

Enjoy!

Theresa

wow tbackpain1 - that is a great tip! I bet that's the ingredients in Dipit too. I know we have some tang around here for emergency food somewhere. Will give it a try soon, as the coffee pot is about ready.

thank you - can't wait to try it.

hubby says his secret to a good cup coffee is for him to make a yucky pot, so i end up making the coffee and he sits back and lets me serve him!

I like the Tang idea! But I will miss the kick the Apple Cider Vinegar gave me!

Maybe lemon juice would work well also, I use Lemon juice for cleaning my artifacts that have a gold gilt coating and it works great.

Hmmmmn, maybe a fruit cocktail is in order, Apple, Orange and Lemon, just think, even if the mixed fruit does not clean it, who cares, since it sure will spice up that first pot of coffee

Jyes

Jyes are you a treasure hunter?! I just noticed your avatar when you mentioned that.

I love treasure hunting! I have a Whites GL metal detector that I dust off every now and then. I can't handle the up/down/squat thing very long anymore, because my muscles will feel shredded afterwards, but metal detecting has to be my favorite hobby!

I use an eraser for silver and copper. Ketchup works good too.