Lost Angeleno

Weekend Project #1

A couple of years ago for Christmas my Dad bought me the Hamilton Beach Brewstation coffee maker (last year Bet also got one, so now it’s the Official Coffee Maker of the Hucklebug).  It is an awesome coffee maker, quite simply.  Rather than the type with the glass coffee pot (which I have a habit of breaking), the coffee brews in an internal reservoir and dispenses the coffee by way of an ingenious button, which you hold your coffee cup against, much like a soda fountain at the 7-Eleven.  Sometimes in the morning, all I can manage is pressing a button, so this works great for me.

There is only one problem with the Brewstation, which is that the reservoir which holds the coffee is plastic, and as such stains easily, and those stains won’t go away.  If you’ve ever stored spaghetti sauce in a tupperware container, only to have that tupperware turn orange for all of eternity, you know what these stains are like.  After two years of nearly daily use, no matter how hard I scrubbed at it, the inside of the coffee maker looked like it had never even seen soap before.  It’s sickening.  And a quick look around the internet informed me that I wasn’t the only one having the problem; in fact I stumbled on a number of possible ways to clean it out.

So I decided to test out a few of them and keep an eye on the progress.  Then I thought, “Wow, the readers at Stennieville wouldn’t want to miss out on this kind of excitment!” so I decided to post the results here for you, Dear Reader.

First, a “Before” picture, so you can see for yourself how bad it had gotten.  The camera’s bright flash reveals just how bad the stains had gotten—in my dimly-lit kitchen it never quite looked as bad as this:

Now, first attempt at cleaning—lime juice and plain table salt.  I didn’t have high hopes for this, but someone on that site said it worked great for them, so I gave it a shot:

As you can see, not much progress there.  Final verdict on lime juice and salt:  save it for your margarita.  Next, denture cleaning tabs.  I chose Polident Smoker’s Formula, on the basis that if it could get out nicotine stains, it could do a good job on coffee too.  Here are the results:

Much better, but still some telltale stains.  So I busted out the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to get to work on the rest of it.  By the way, if you’ve not used a Magic Eraser before, let me assure you—it is truly MAGIC.  I don’t know how I ever lived without one.  Here’s how it ended up:

Big improvement over the original, but as you can see there are still some faint stains visible.  I may give it another go with the Polident.  My mother swears by vinegar for cleaning out coffee makers, but I remember as a high schooler whenever Mom spent a Sunday running vinegar through our Mr. Coffee—the whole house stunk of vinegar for at least three days.  I don’t think I could bear that.

Anyone have any favorite remedies for removing food stains from plastic?

1. I use baking soda and water. Scrub,scrub, then fill with water and let it soak. Rinse, lather, repeat

   Posted by  on  05/12  at  08:28 PM

2. We have been removing our stained plastic by throwing it out with the trash and recycling.

   PLASTIC=BAD carcinogens…
   GLASS=GOOD

   Posted by  on  05/13  at  10:22 AM

3. I’ve heard peanut butter, but I tried it once and it didn’t do much. You’ve used Polident, so that’s out. Short of bleach or Oxyclean powder—both of which probably aren’t best for food containers—not sure.

   But here’s the real question—you know it’s clean because you’ve cleaned. How much energy do you want to expend cleaning the inside of a coffee maker to make it look shiny. Who’s gonna see it?

   Posted by LilyG  on  05/14  at  10:36 AM

4. I have heard peanut butter works on removing sticky messes, like label residue—also anything else that’s oil-based, like mayonnaise or even plain vegetable oil.  That’s something I may put to the test for next weekend’s project—Removing Sap From My Car’s Paint Job.

   You’re right—no one’s gonna see it.  Except ME, and now it’s the principle of the thing.  The coffee maker is winning!

   Posted by  on  05/14  at  11:08 AM

5. Well, I dont know about coffee makers, but I do know that before I put pasta sauce in tupperware, I lightly spray it with PAM.  Presto!  Easy clean up and no stains!  (I would recommend Olive Oil PAM, at least it’s healthier!)

   :)

   Posted by  on  05/15  at  01:34 PM

6. Great tip, Kelly!  Wouldn’t work for the coffee pot, but will be fantastic for my leftover spaghetti.  Thanks!

   Posted by  on  05/15  at  03:05 PM
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