Coffee filter cleaning

[Harry Bloomfield]

The tea cup cleaning thread has reminded me to ask...

The plastic reusable filters as are common in coffee makers, what can safely be used without damaging the fine filter, to clean them please?

[spuorgelgoog]

Shower jet?

Owain

[Erik the Pink]

I use paper filters for coffee, but I use a plastic reusable filter in my tea pot. Over time this filter gets black, blocked up and crusty. Soaking it in neat bleach cleans it up a treat. I'm still alive after having done this for decades.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Erik the Pink submitted this idea :

I'm not worried that bleach might poison me, rather I wondered if it might attack the filter material. Its that crusty, just touching the inside of the filer covers my fingers with thick, very sticky coffee residue.

[tabbypurr]

I've never had bleach damage plastic & I've used it lots.

NT

[Steve Walker]

Check the instructions, ours is dishwasher safe.

SteveW

[Bertie Doe]

I've been using Urnex Cafiza powder on my coffee makers for about 20 years. Another brand is Puly Caff. Problem is you only need to soak your filter in one tsp. dissolved for about 20 mins, so the 900g drum will last a lifetime :-

There are individual sachets available, you could try a local ground coffee outlet for them or maybe online. 4 sachets at £1 each seems reasonable :-

Ignore the descaler. :-)

[Erik the Pink]

I'm pretty sure the bleach won't hurt the filter. The risk is more that bleach won't work on coffee residues as well as it does on tea. So try it and see.

As an aside, you may also be interested in why I use paper filters. It is suggested that paper filters absorb chemicals which cause serum cholesterol to rise in drinkers of other types of coffee.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Thanks, I have ordered a 900g drum.

[spuorgelgoog]

I'm in my fifties with no children. Do they do a 450g drum?

Owain

[Bertie Doe]

The instruction on the drum under 'Coffee Brewers' suggest dissolve halt tspn in 2 litres of warm water and run a brew cycle for 30 mins. I simple pop my drip filter or my cafetiere filter into a small bowl and let it soak for 20 mins. Brings them up as good as new.

[S Viemeister]

Find another fifty-something childless person, and split it?

[Bertie Doe]

Just looked on ebay and you're right, there is a smaller drum :-

I see your point, 568g divided by 3 would give you nearly 200 cleanings but cheap compared with the sachets at £1 a pop.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Bertie Doe laid this down on his screen :

Pointless, the larger drum can be had for the same or less.

[Harry Bloomfield]

The 900g drum arrived yesterday and I tried it yesterday. It made a reasonable job of cleaning the horrible, sticky gundge from the filter but still left it stained, though not so nearly as badly stained as before. It didn't do such a good job of cleaning limescale off, barely touched it.

[Bertie Doe]

That's good news indeed, the stain may be permanent but if the gunge has gone, I wouldn't bother to soak it again until next time.

If you Wiki the 3 main ingredients of Cafiza you'll see they're alkaline, as is limescale.

[tabbypurr]

citric acid will.