The sludge!

I try to keep our coffee maker, a Keurig Vue, clean by running vinegar through it every 2 month or so, and thought it was in pretty good shape. So when it came time to clean it again I thought I would try something a little different. I saw the Descaling Solution for All Brands of Coffee and Espresso Machines By Housewares Solutions - 4 Fluid Ounce Bottle (2-Pack) and liked that it was an all natural cleaner. I purchased it and figured for the low price it was worth a shot.

When it arrived, I followed the simple instructions by pouring it into the empty water resevoir except that once it started perking out I shut the machine off and let it set for about 20 minutes. Once time was up I let it resume perking all the way through and collected it into a Solo cup. I had poured a crystal clear liquid into my machine but what was coming out was a grey sludge with chunks of black stuff in it! We do not have hard water and have pretty good tasting city water so this was a complete surprise to me. Once the machine was done running through, I filled the water tank and ran it again and again to clean everything out. More sludge. Another tank full. More sludge. 4 tanks later and the water was finially coming out clear with no more grey or black chunks. This took a lot longer than the directions said but I chalk it up to having descaled the machine to the point that the internals were back to like new condition for a machine that was 5 years old. I did also notice that the perking was much faster than it was before. I had not noticed it getting slower over time but that is most likely because it was such a gradual process. The straight water that was coming out tasted clean so I decided to give it a shot at brewing a cup of coffee. The coffee perked fast and tasted so much better than it had before. I had no clue that my coffee maker was in such sad shape and am so happy that I tried this descaling solution. And the fact that I have a second bottle to help keep it in tip top shape makes this a fantastic purchase!