A siphon coffee maker is a beautiful work of art that lets you make delicious coffee. Maintaining with correct cleaning it is a must in order to make sure that you continue to receive the same high quality taste.
Cleaning a siphon coffee maker is fairly easy. The methods vary a little bit depending on the kind of coffee maker you have, but they are all pretty simple.
First things first, remember to switch off and remove the plug of the brewer, dry your hands, and let the container cool down.
If yours has a glass container, just rinse it with water and give the upper chamber a sponge soap scrub and you’re good to go. Run water from the bottom to the top globe through the syphon, the water will flow through cleaning it nicely. Leave it with the syphon tube in the stand that most vacuum brewers come with, and it’s done. As for the bottom chamber, a dish soap and long brush with bristles at the end, such as one for washing a bottle work best. Some people put theirs in the dishwasher too, but I wouldn’t really recommend this.
If yours is a metal vacuum brewer, once in a while you should use a harder metal cleaner, like TSB, and soak it for an hour or so, followed by a complete rinse.
If you have a vacuum brewer with a built-in heating mechanism, absolutely never immerse the bottom pot into water. That aside, the cleaning technique is the same.
For that beautiful sparkle, every once in a while, you should give your brewer a super wash. Give them a good scrubbing with a Scotch Brite sponge, and lots of dish soap. You could even get a super thin brush to clean all the nooks and crannies and make it look like it’s new. Oh, and don’t forget the most important step for that shine. Wipe it dry properly with a clean dishtowel.
Other parts of the brewer, depending on the kind you own, will require cleaning from time to time. If you have a metal one, you can always give them a nice TSB scrub, but always remember to not immerse it into water. You can always separate many of these parts if you want to give it a more thorough cleaning. If you have a cloth filter, every once in a while, you should take it out and give the ceramic or metal surface a good scrub. For parts that the brew doesn’t come in contact with, use a nice dry cloth to keep them clean and shining.
Finally, if you’re facing problems with soot, don’t worry. You can use any of the new environment friendly cleaning products like Oxyclean, or you could just stick to Eucalyptus oil, which works wonders on the stains, and is also really cheap!
Some special tricks to help with the cleaning process are first, buy a steel rod bristle brush with really long bristles, and with some manpower turn it into a question-mark shape. It’ll help you clean all the narrow-necked models. The Bodum Santos Deluxe model comes with a brush like that, and it really works wonders. Another trick that saves a lot of effort in the long run is, after brewing hold the top part of the brewer upside down and unhook the filter. Don’t let it go though, and run water through the siphon. Try to keep the filter stuck near the bottom, i.e. now the top of the upper globe and shake it a little. This will flush out the grounds and once that’s done, let filter assembly fall into your sink, give them a nice scrub and put it back into your brewer.
Now you’re equipped to keep your coffee maker in pristine condition 🙂