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“My Black and Decker coffee maker shows a CLEAN message. What does it mean? How do I clear it?”
This was the text message I received from one of my longtime clients, some time back.
Of course, I told them what they should do to clear and reset the message. And they were grateful when the solution worked.
Today, I will be sharing with you the same solution I gave them – I will tell you what the message means and how you can quickly clear it.
Black and Decker coffee maker clean message – what it means and how to fix it
To cut the long story short, your Black and Decker coffee maker will display and blink the word CLEAN after every 60 brews.
This is usually to notify you that it is time to run the Auto Clean™ cycle.
Something else: Keep in mind that your coffeemaker will continue displaying CLEAN till you run the Auto Clean™ cycle.
Now, if you’re wondering why the coffee maker might require cleaning, it’s due to the buildup of scale on the brewer.
Usually, this scale will be more prominent if you use hard water when brewing your coffee.
Having said that, the solution to clearing the CLEAN message is to descale your coffee maker…
Below are the steps you should follow to descale your Black and Decker coffeemaker:
How to clean Black and Decker coffee maker (Black and Decker coffee maker cleaning instructions)
- Start by filling the water reservoir with equal parts of cold water and white cleaning vinegar.
- Place a filter paper into the filter basket and close the cover.
- Now start the clean cycle by pressing the AUTO CLEAN button on the control panel.
Quick tip: Some Black & Decker coffee makers have a CLEAN button instead of the AUTO CLEAN button which does the same job.
You will notice that ½ of the water-vinegar mixture flows into the carafe while the other ½ gets held in the coffeemaker for around 30 minutes.
This will allow the vinegar to break up the mineral deposits in the coffeemaker thereby ensuring a thorough clean cycle.
Once the cleaning process is done, all the water-vinegar mixture will drain into the carafe and the coffee maker will automatically shut off.
- Proceed to remove the carafe and discard the collected water-vinegar mixture.
- Pour fresh water into the coffeemaker till it fills.
- Run a brew cycle (without coffee). The aim of this cycle is to rinse the coffee maker and flush out any remaining deposits or vinegar residue.
Failure to run this rinse cycle might result in your coffee tasting weirdly.
Usually, this process will take anywhere from 35 to 60 minutes.
Quick tip: You can also use these steps to clean your coffeemaker before it completes 60 brew cycles. This is more so when your coffee maker starts to show some signs of scale build-up such as these:
- Brewing taking longer than normal
- Incomplete brewing
- Excess steam and noise during brewing
- Visible mineral deposits in the carafe or any other place where water comes into contact with the coffee maker
- Bitter or weird-tasting coffee
Something else: If you live in areas with hard water, these signs are likely to appear more often.
Now, to keep your coffeemaker in good working condition, we recommend that you descale it (run the auto clean cycle) at least once a month.
Black and Decker coffee maker clean message – parting words
Regular descaling not only helps to maintain the quality of your coffee but also helps increase the lifespan of the heating element plus other internal parts that come in contact with water during the brewing process.
So, be sure to descale your coffee maker regularly.
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