Coffee Maker appears plugged up

[CottonEyedHorn]

Our coffee maker is acting up. Every pot we've tried to make this week w. 12 cups of water has yielded maybe 3 or 4 cups after a lot of effort, with water still left in the tank. Seems like it expels more steam than usual too. It was working fine this week until Monday, when we accidentally put the carafe in crooked and the coffee didn't release out of the filter, backing up into the fresh-water tank, grounds and all. I think that a valve or intake line in plugged up, but I have no idea where to start. We have a backup unit, but it's not as nice.

It's this coffee maker:

 

[Brak]

Do you de-lime the coffee maker on a regular basis? If you have hard water you may have lime deposits clogging it up.

 

[Texanne]

This is your chance to stop drinking coffee.

 

[CottonEyedHorn]

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[brntorng]

I'd run some delimer (half water, half white vinegar) through it and no coffee. Repeat with fresh mixture if it's still clogged. Rinse with two pots of water. If that works, run another pot through it that's had a couple of denture tablets dissolved in it to clean out the coffee oils. Rinse again by running two pots of clean water through it.

If that doesn't clean it out then replace it with one of these or or one of these or its siblings.

You're right, it might be clogged with grounds. Either way, you need to flush it out and you may as well delime it while you're at it. The lime could be contributing to the clog and removing it may allow the clog to go with it.

 

[CottonEyedHorn]

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[IRC]

Throw it away and get a burr grinder, a French Press and a whistling tea kettle.

You'll thank me.

 

[Perham1]

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[brntorng]

The reason I suggested deliming is because it was used regularly for 5 years, had apparently never been delimed, and tap water was presumably used for coffee which in Central Texas is pretty hard. My thought was the plug may have been a combination of lime and coffee grounds. Vinegar would dissolve the lime part of the plug causing the whole plug to break up and get flushed out with the grounds. So, yes, there was some method to what might appear as madness.

If there was some way to apply air pressure to the water outlet, that may work, too.