Descaling your Keurig for the first time? A few weeks ago, a co-worker of mine tried to descale ours and ended up thinking she broke it. If you're new to this process, here are a few helpful tips:
1. Do not descale if you're going to want coffee soon. This entire process can take about 5 hours, so make sure you have the time.
2. Do not leave the vinegar in overnight. The white vinegar that's cleaning your Keurig is supposed to sit for 4 hours. Sure, it can sit longer, but not if you're hoping to remove the vinegar smell any time soon...
3. During the descale process, many Keurigs seem to stop working. Mine, for instance, only allowed me to press the "big cup" button and then when I did press it, nothing came out. Cheat the system. Unplug your Keurig (turning it off doesn't work) for about 30 seconds. When you plug it back in, it should reboot and allow you to finish the descaling process as normal. I had to do this a few times.
4. Run water through your Keurig numerous times. The instruction manual says to run 1 cycle of water through your Keurig after running the vinegar through. I ran an extra 3 cycles of water through to get rid of the vinegar smell and make sure there was no lingering hard water or vinegar left.
5. Change your filter. This will help remove this residual smell of vinegar, and since you've cleaned your Keurig, you might as well replace the filter at the same time.
