Drew Frohn, a wholesale manager and coffee educator for Coava Coffee Roasters, once told HuffPost that a good cup of coffee starts with water quality. That’s important to know considering that coffee is 98% water. However, it doesn’t matter how hard or soft or filtered your water is: Over time, your coffee maker can get a layer of limescale (or build up of calcium carbonate) caked onto its insides and parts, whether that’s a brew basket, Keurig, coffee pot, Chemex, Nespresso machine or even your favorite mug. That’s no bueno when you want that perfect cup of Joe, as it’ll affect flavor and your coffee maker’s brew efficiency.
When soap and water won’t work (or reach!), you can take care of it with a descaler. This liquid substance dissolves limescale with as little effort as a regular brew cycle. We found an eight-use supply that one reviewer says easily gets “so much gunk out” of your favorite coffee maker, and right now, it’s 24% off its typical price!
If you’ve been dissatisfied with the quality of your coffee lately, consider the fact that it may not you, the beans, your measurements or water. It could just be your machine’s cleanliness.
Take it from one reviewer who swears Active’s descaler made for a better tasting coffee. “I have had my Keurig for at least 10 years and have NEVER cleaned it EVER (I didn’t know I had to do this lol),” they explain, “and I can definitely say the coffee takes so much better now! It was amazing how much junk came through with this process! Will definitely continue to use monthly now that I know how great coffee should taste.”
This coffee cleaning liquid is 24% off, but not for long, so nab your cleaning supplies for less while you can. (Pro tip: You can save even more with Amazon’s subscribe and save!) Keep reading to see testimonials from other happy coffee drinkers.
“I presume the bad smell is what causes it to work so well but this got so much gunk out of my delonghi stilosa EC260BK machine. It smells a little bit like vinegar, but follow the directions and it works wonders.” — Charlotte Schultz
“I didn’t follow the exact directions- I ran the descaler in the water through the machine SEVERAL times (at least 4-5 times) and then ran clean water alone SEVERAL times through (at least 7 times) because I have had my Keurig for at least 10 years and have NEVER cleaned it EVER (I didn’t know I had to do this lol) and I can definitely say the coffee takes so much better now! it was amazing how much junk came through with this process! will definitely continue to use monthly now that I know how great coffee should taste with a clean machine and will certainly continue to purchase!
the only thing im not a huge fan of is the fumes produced by it when you are running it through, they smell gross, but I can put up with this every now and then in order to continue to have better tasting coffee!” — Lisa“I read the positive reviews and decided to order, and I am SOLD on this cleaner! I ran it through my old Nespresso Citiz machine, and it worked great. I could not believe the gunk and gross stuff that came out of my machine during the cleaning process. The liquid is very easy to use, just pour with some water and run a few cycles through. I will be more likely to keep up with my espresso machine maintenance since it’s a no-brainer to use this stuff. I also noticed my espresso tasted a lot better after I cleaned the machine. Great product and excellent purchase!” — VegasLou
“Our expensive 18-month-old coffee maker recently started behaving badly, finishing its cycle before the water tan was empty. Before that, I’d noticed the quality of the brewed coffee had deteriorated. The manufacturer’s website said descaling would both solve the premature completion and the decreased coffee quality. (It explained that scale reduces the machine’s ability to heat the water, resulting in weaker coffee and slower brewing) Wow! They were not kidding. The descaling worked instantly – reversing the problem of unused water. It was clear that the two rinse cycles ran through the machine faster than our machine had run in a while. This morning’s first pot of coffee tastes so much better than yesterday’s that I felt compelled to write a review. I had spent a lot of time researching coffee machines before buying this unit, finding a model that met the Specialty Coffee Association’s high standards but that didn’t break the bank. Water temperature is crucial, this industry group says. It clearly is. After my success with this product, I encourage everyone to buy it, use it, and keep a regular schedule of descaling your machine!” — J. Vincent
The Real Deal: We use deal trackers and commerce experience to sift through “fake” hike-and-drop deals and other deceptive sales tactics. Products will usually be rated at least 4 stars with a minimum 15% discount. (And when there’s an exception, we’ll tell you why.)
