Our coffee maker looks like a rain forest inside, hours after the coffee’s finished and everything has cooled down. Every surface is wartier than a toad with big fat droplets. Is it OK to load a new paper filter and measure more ground coffee with it all wet like that, and leave it that way overnight before hitting the go button in the morning?
Seems like the paper and ground coffee would absorb liquid water, plus maybe humidity, and be a breeding ground for bad tastes or worse overnight.
I’ve been drying it out with a paper towel every day, and then leaving the lid up and the filter holding basket out for a few hours, before loading things for the next morning. But Ms. Napier says nobody does that.
Yes, you need to leave it open and let it dry out completely after each use. There’s two types of people, the one who do that and the ones who have coffee makers full of mold.
If you really are leaving it opento the air all day and it’s still not drying out through evaporation then you have a humidity problem in your house. But it sounds like your wife is thwarting this effort?
Take all the removable parts out and leave them on a counter or dish drying rack or whatever to air out. Leave every compartment you can open, open. Leave the lid of the pot itself open.
If you like to pre-load coffee & filter for a timer-driven start tomorrow morning do it just before bedtime. If you’re turning on the coffeemaker manually in the morning (IOW not on a timer), then I’d leave it all opened up overnight and all the loose parts out on the counter to dry overnight. And in the morning I’d re-assemble the maker, load it with filter, grounds, and water, then push start.
The 30 seconds to first slurp that you’re saving in the morning by doing all that stuff 12 or 18 hours early is not worth the moldy nasty coffee you’re drinking.
My own habit is to do all that in the morning.
I agree in general as I’ve said, but I’ll push back gently on this:
Or you live in a humid area and don’t over-air condition your place with the goal of living in a frigid but artificially low humidity environment.
I’d be inclined to dry mine under those circumstances.
Actually, I’d be inclined to pick up a $5 thrift store hair dryer and dedicate it exclusively to that task (after ensuring that said hair dryer’s internals were at least reasonably clean).
Have you tried just running the coffee maker a second time without any water in it (other than all those big fat droplets you’re trying to get rid of), right after it’s finished brewing the pot of coffee? Maybe the extra heat would get rid of all that residual moisture. Open the lid for evaporation once you’re done with that second go-around.
Can I ask a coffee maker question? Why does my coffee maker remind me to descale, and informs me when the reservoir is low, but doesn’t say a fucking word when I start it up and forget to put a cup under it?
I’m not sure what kind of machine you have, but if you have a Mr. Coffee type of machine where you pour water in a fixed reservoir, mold on the basket may be just part of your worries. The reservoir can get pretty gunky after a while. It pretty much always has water in it and gets warmed up on a regular basis. I’m surprised they don’t have a way to easily drain that tank on a regular basis so it dries out. For that reason, it may make sense to have a machine which has a removable water tank that you can easily clean out. That way the basket and the water will all be clean.
Yeah, that’s me. It’s not realistic to expect the coffee maker will air dry where I live.
I deal with this by (a) never putting a filter/grounds into the coffee maker in advance, always only just when I’m making coffee; (b) washing out (but not drying) the basket just before use; (c) every now and then trying to give all the removable pieces a good scrub; (d) not caring a whole lot about how my coffee tastes, as long as it’s not completely gross.
It sanitizes itself every time you use it.
Clean and wet happens all the time, inside pipes, shower heads, water heaters, the guest bedroom sink, Waterpik, ice maker, SodaStream, etc. It might look a little scuzzy but that’s water for ya.