What to do when the Keurig descale light is on
If there’s one thing I love more than anything, it’s a nice hot cup of coffee. We’ve had a Keurig for nearly a decade in one form or another and love it! But there is always the same problem, the Keurig descaling light comes on and won’t shut off. Here’s what to do when your Keurig descale light stays on so you can avoid Keurig coffee maker descaling problems.
Why is my Keurig descaling light on?
The descaling light will come on your Keurig display whenever there is enough build-up inside your Keurig machine or the water flow slows or clogs. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to see what this looks like as the build-up happens inside the brewer. But there are hints that can show you that this build-up occurs.
The most visual one is that the water reservoir can get build-up, and sediment will start to accumulate at the bottom of the water reservoir. Another hint is that there can be a white film building up on the sides of the reservoir as well.
Another reason the light is on can be that the water flow is plugged and your machines default setting this to put on the descale light.
Bottom line: When the descale light comes on your Keurig, it means there is build up inside the Keurig and needs to be removed.
What causes scaling on a Keurig?
Scaling on your coffee pod machine can be caused by the minerals that are in your water. If you have hard water, you may find that the particles of calcium and scale build-up much faster than a friend’s house that has softer water.
Scale is non-toxic, but it can hinder the performance of your machine; for that reason, it’s best to run a descaling of your coffee machine every few months.
The easiest way to prevent build-up inside your Keurig is to descale it every 1 to 3 months. The fastest way is to use the Keurig descaling solution, but if you’re looking for a homemade cleaning solution, you can use white distilled vinegar.
Check out more of our top cleaning tips here.
Cleaning the Keurig exit needle
Before you descale your coffee machine, you will want to check if the water has stopped coming out for other reasons. You may not need to descale your Keurig just yet. The entrance and exit needle may be plugged. Here’s how to clean a Keurig needle if you need a refresher.
This is the needle that punctures the top and bottom of your coffee pod. From time to time, coffee grinds can make their way up into the needle, clogging the waterline and preventing water from getting out. To remove the coffee grounds and gunk build-up, use a paper clip and push it into the Keurig needle holes. This will usually dislodge any grinds that have been there. Then you can run the water through rinsing out any of the grinds that are stuck. Usually, after you do this, run two of the largest cup settings through your machine without a K Cup in them to flush out any remaining grinds.
However, if that doesn’t work (meaning the Keurig descale light is still flashing), it’s likely you need to descale your Keurig.
How to fix the Keurig descaling light staying on
If you’re sure that there are no other blockages in the needle or anywhere else, you will need to descale your coffee machine. The easiest way to do this is to use the descaling solution that Keurig sells. It contains citric acid, and you need to handle it with care.
How to reset descale on Keurig
When your Keurig says descale is no way to reset the descale light or indicator on your Keurig. The only way to turn off the Keurig descale light is for the Keurig to be descaled. Once the scale is reduced the light will go off.
If your Keurig still says descale after descaling, it means that there is still more scale build-up inside your Keurig and you will need to run another descale for the Keurig descale to reset itself. This is common on all Keurigs, if your Keurig slim descale light won’t turn off, even after a descale it means that there is still some build up. This is what found when our Keurig supreme descale light stays on.
How to Descale a Keurig
Descaling a Keurig is easy with the Keurig descaling solution.
Here are the steps for how to descale your Keurig coffee machine.
- Turn off your Keurig and unplug it
- Empty the water reservoir
- Remove the water filter inside your Keurig reservoir
- Remove any pod that is in your machine
- Use the Keurig descaling solution inside the machine the clearing out any buildup as per the instructions on the bottle
- Turn on the machine and put a coffee cup underneath your Keurig
- Run the Keurig through so that all the descaling solution goes through and the “Add more water light comes on”
- Dispose of the scaling solution down the sink
- Leave the scaling solution in the tank for 30 minutes to an hour so that it can soak in the internal tank and work its magic.
- Rinse out the water reservoir once all the scaling solution is run through and refill with fresh water
- Run a full water reservoir through to flush out the solution. Do this 12 times to ensure there is no residue of the descaling solution.
There you have it. It’s the easy way to descale your Keurig. However, there is another way that we have used. If you prefer a natural way, you can do what we do and descale your Keurig using vinegar. Personally, I prefer to use vinegar as it doesn’t have the health warnings of the solution, but if you have never descaled your K Cup machine, then this is a good one to use.
How to descale your Keurig with vinegar
The easiest way to prevent scaling on your Keurig machine is to do a periodic clean every 1 to 3 months depending on how much you use your Keurig and the quality of the water you are putting into your machine. We use vinegar to do this because it’s natural and very affordable.
Every 3 months, we will run vinegar through the machine using the following steps.
- Turn the power off
- Remove any pods from the machine
- Remove water from the machine
- Fill the water reservoir with white distilled vinegar
- Turn on your machine
- Set your Keurig to stay on for the next 4 hours in the settings
- Place a cup underneath the dispenser
- Run as many cups of white vinegar through the Keurig machine until the “Add more water” notice turns on.
- Dispose of the vinegar down the drain of the sink (you can use this vinegar to clean the kitchen sink if you want while you wait).
- Wait 2-4 hours for the vinegar to soak in the internal tank and break down the build-up on the internal tank
- Empty the water reservoir and refill with fresh water
- Run 5 full reservoirs of water through to make sure there’s no remaining vinegar ( I do two just to be safe). You can usually tell if the vinegar is out because the water won’t have a vinegar scent anymore.
How to prevent scaling in your Keurig
Calcium and scale buildup is a natural part of hard water and can’t be avoided. However, you can avoid the buildup inside your Keurig machine by running a reservoir of vinegar through once a month to remove the build-up and prevent your descale light from turning on. Use the steps above to prevent your buildup from causing your machine not to run.
Another option is to get a Keurig maintenance kit. This has everything you need for 3 months of caring for your Keurig.
What if this doesn’t work?
If you have hard water or you’ve ignored the descale light on your coffee maker for a while, you may need to run this process several times. When we first did this, the light had been on for 2 months, but it was still producing coffee, so we left it when it finally stopped. It took us several attempts using vinegar to remove the scale buildup and to start enjoying our K-Cups once again. You can usually see the calcium and scale in the ceramic mug as you run the solution through, showing you that it is removing the build-up effectively.
Worse case you get to upgrade your Keurig, if you have hard water and haven’t been maintaining your Keuring this may be your only choice. Luckily there are tons of different styles of Keurigs to choose from.
Other coffee cleaning tips
- How to Clean a Keurig Needle
- Keurig Not Pumping Water? Here’s a quick fix.
- How to Use a Keurig
- How to Descale a Breville Coffee Maker
- How to Descale a Nespresso Machine
- How to descale a Cuisinart coffee maker
- How to Descale a Keurig
- How to Use a Reusable K Cup: Step by Step Instructions with Images
- Can you put milk in a Keurig?
- Can you use a K cup twice?