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Keurig machines offer the unique coffee experience of a café while in the comfort of your own home. With their large water reservoirs, you can brew your coffee anytime you want, whenever you want. However, how long can you leave the water in your Keurig machine?
How Long Can You Leave Water in Keurig
For health reasons, it’s recommended to only leave water in your Keurig machine for up to 3 days – 4 days at most. After this, you will need to replace the water in the reservoir or reheat the water properly before using it.
Keurig machines are must-haves for coffee lovers everywhere. However, it’s important that you know how to maintain your Keurig machine so you can maximize its use. To learn more about Keurig machines and their maintenance, continue reading on below.
Keurig machines have large water reservoirs which is why it can be tempting to just fill it up so you can have your coffee fix at any time you want.
However, it’s not advisable to keep water in the reservoirs for long periods as it can be a health concern as well as cause potential issues with the machine.
Leaving water in your machine for long is not recommended because these machines are designed to recycle the water inside the reservoir due to the assumption that it will be used regularly. Keeping water in the reservoir for long periods can lead to the accumulation and build-up of limescale.
Moreover, bacteria and germs tend to grow and spread in warm, moist environments such as your Keurig machine’s water reservoir. However, this is only applicable if the environment is only below 75 degrees Celsius or 167 degrees Fahrenheit.
Beyond these temperatures, bacteria and germs cannot survive as the environment will be too hot for them to continue surviving.
What to Do if You Leave Water Too Long in Keurig?
If you ended up leaving water in the reservoir for more than four days and the water has been sitting in your Keurig for a long time, you need to remove the reservoir and clean it thoroughly. This can be a bit difficult as you will have to remove the reservoir and empty it before you can clean it.
Nevertheless, inconvenient as it may be, your safety and health are more important. Keurig themselves advise their clients to clean their machines at least once a week and descale it every three to six months to prevent limescale buildup.
Moreover, if you have kept your machine in storage long, they also advise you to descale and clean it first before brewing your cup of coffee.
This will ensure that the water used for your brewed coffee isn’t contaminated – something that can negatively impact your health.
Will Leaving Water in My Keurig Cause Mold?
While Keurig machines are designed in a way that the growth of mold and mildew is less likely, it’s still possible for it to develop mold if not cared for and cleaned properly and regularly. As such, it’s important that you clean and maintain your Keurig machine regularly to ensure that the coffee you’re drinking is safe for consumption.
Changing the water frequently as well as cleaning the tank regularly can help prevent the development of mold and mildew in your machine.
How to Drain a Keurig Machine Water Reservoir
It can be difficult to drain your Keurig machine as they don’t come with an internal drain plug. Therefore, to drain yours, you will need to either disassemble it or run a cleansing cycle.
Draining via Disassembly
To drain your Keurig’s water tank, you will need to find the drain pipe connected to the water reservoir’s internal pump. Plugging this pipe will allow the water to drain out, allowing you to replace the water inside your Keurig machine.
Accessing this drain pipe entails knowing where it is. However, make sure to find instructions for your Keurig machine’s model as different models also have different locations for this pipe.
When you find it, you can remove the screws on the panel so you can access it. Some hoses may be secured by a tie so you will need to cut this to drain the water from it.
Once you’re done draining your Keurig water tank, make sure to secure this pipe back into its fitting with a tie after which you can start reassembling your machine again.
Draining via Cleansing Cycles
Another way you can drain your machine’s water tank is by running a cleansing cycle. This involves no disassembly of your Keurig but it can take a while to fully drain your machine’s water tank.
For this, you only need to run the machine and brew the water without adding a K-Cup. This will produce a cup of hot water which you can then throw out. For models with larger water reservoirs, running more than 1 cycle might be necessary to remove all the excess water.
How to Clean My Keurig Water Reservoir
Of course, aside from draining your water tank, you will also need to wash it to ensure that no contaminants remain in the tank. This way, you can ensure that the water used for your coffee is safe for consumption.
Again, you can clean your Keurig machine’s water reservoir in two ways:
Dismantling Your Machine
For you to thoroughly clean your water tank, you will need to dismantle your machine. Once you have done so, you can wash your Keurig’s water reservoir with soap and water. Some models come with dishwasher-friendly water tanks that you can simply pop in and allow the dishwasher to do its job.
If not, there are other ways you can clean your tank. You can do so manually and you can even use vinegar as a natural way to kill germs and bacteria. Alternatively, baking soda is also a good way to clean your tank and remove odors.
Descaling with Solutions
Keurig recommends descaling your machine every three to six months. This depends on the frequency of your use.
Descaling can be done with the vinegar or baking soda solution but Keurig does sell their own descaling solution for their machines. However, vinegar and baking soda are more readily available if you need to immediately clean your Keurig.
The descaling process is the same, whether you use vinegar, baking soda, or Keurig’s descaling solution.
To descale your Keurig machine’s water reservoir, you simply need to fill the water tank with a mix of the solution and water. After this, you need to run brewing cycles that will help clean out your machine’s water tank.
What Happens if You Don’t Descale Your Keurig?
Descaling your Keurig is vital if you want to ensure that it’s running smoothly and efficiently. This is because limescale buildup can clog your machine’s water reservoir, preventing the water from flowing freely.
In some cases, this causes the machine to stop working altogether. Plus, if the water can’t get hot enough, the machine won’t be able to extract the full flavor of your coffee beans.
While limescale buildup is considered harmless in small quantities, it can affect your coffee’s taste nonetheless which can impact your coffee-drinking experience.