KitchenAid and Affresh Review and Giveaway

Coffee is part of my every day life. I think most parents can relate; it’s either a caffeine kick in the morning after a sleepless night with the kids or a day of waiting for that hour where you fall into bed at night again.

I had to think about it but realized we’ve had the same coffeemaker for 7 years.  Normally I clean my coffeemaker with vinegar and water and although I think it’s clean, it leaves the stench of vinegar behind. This time I tried Affresh coffeemaker cleaner to see the difference.

I used the new KitchenAid coffeemaker to show you the Affresh tablet in action because my old coffee maker is a solid colour water compartment. As I dropped the tablet in, I immediately noticed it start fizzing. The instructions didn’t indicate to wait until it stopped fizzing but I thought it best to wait a minute to let it clean the water tank anyway. I went on to clean my old coffemaker in the same manner by brewing a pot of water with cleaner through the machine and after only one cycle you can see the difference in water colour above, my old coffeemaker on the left and the new/never used coffeemaker on the right. What you can’t see in the picture are all the floaties from the hard water. One word, yuck!

The steps to clean the coffeemaker were easy:

Step 1: Fill the reservoir with water.
Step 2: Drop 1 tablet into reservoir.
Step 3: Run 1 brew cycle (or clean cycle if applicable) into brew pot
Step 4: Discard dirty water from brew pot.
Step 5: Run 1 brew cycle using fresh water to rinse the coffeemaker. 

I did not clean my old machine that long ago, it was fully rinsed free of grounds and coffee prior to this test and that was how dirty the water was. I was drinking out of that machine! I used the Affresh Coffemaker Cleaner on my multi-cup machine but it’s compatible with single-serve machines as well.

Mineral deposit build-up on your coffeemaker over time through the water tank, tubing and brewer can effect the taste of your coffee. I know from experience that regular cleaning of my machine means I taste the best flavours of coffee; most coffee drinkers can tell the difference. I know vinegar is a common choice for cleaning but we all know how it smells and even tastes, leaving a flavour in your next few pots of coffee. I like vinegar but not in my coffee.

I was impressed with the Affresh cleaner. After one cleaning with a tablet and a cycle of just water, my coffeemaker was sparkling clean with clear water and no floaties. This is a great reminder to regularly clean my machine.

Are you still using vinegar to clean your machine?

Enter to WIN a KitchenAid Coffeemaker and Affresh Cleaner

It’s easy to enter; just tell mehow long ago you cleaned your coffeemaker in the comments below and fill out the form below. Open to Canadians.

Disclosure: This is a sponsored post. I received a coffeemaker and Affresh cleaner to conduct my review. Despite the sponsorship, all opinions are 100% my own; I would never write about things I don’t believe in.