Good idea to clean out your Shabbos Urn...

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Forum -> Household Management -> Cleaning & Laundry

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btMOMtoFFBs ↓

Sun, Aug 19 2007, 9:10 am

I finally figured out how to clean out the mineral deposits from the Shabbos urn. Mine was getting pretty crusty with minerals inside and I was ready to chuck it for a new one.

I remembered that people run a vinegar/water mix thru coffe brewing machines to clean out deposits - so I did it last night to the urn. Mineral deposits came almost completely off! Now I want to run fresh water through a few times to remove vinegar smell.

Amazingly easy, no scrubbing! Very Happy

greenfire

Sun, Aug 19 2007, 9:14 am

yeah if you're lucky enough to catch it before it's too hard for even the vinegar to work ...

chocolate moose ↓

Sun, Aug 19 2007, 9:22 am

Our new coffee machinein the office has a self clean cycle.

Mrs. XYZ ↓

Sun, Aug 19 2007, 12:05 pm

Thanks so much for this tip. Could you explain exactly what you did? Was is plain vinegar? diluted? How long did you let it stand? did you heat it?
I once tried with lemon juice, but didn't work too well.

↑ btMOMtoFFBs ↓

Sun, Aug 19 2007, 12:52 pm

I just filled the urn with plain vinegar and turned it on. I imagine it can be diluted, but that's not what I did.

I let it sit for about an hour and you should have seen all the gunk floating in it... yuck!

I emptied the urn and then ran it twice more with just water in it to get out all the vinegar smell.

Before putting it away I wiped it out with a damp paper towel -- and a little bit more gunk wiped off.

Be warned: all that vinegar smells! I put my urn in the basement so I wouldn't stink up the living area of the house.

miriam

Sun, Aug 19 2007, 1:49 pm

I have a pump pot. Do you think I can do the same with it?

↑ btMOMtoFFBs

Sun, Aug 19 2007, 2:20 pm

no idea about pump pots... if you still have the manual that came with it, check to see what it says

Garden-Gnome

Wed, Aug 22 2007, 5:15 pm

I have a pump-pot too (I'm assuming you mean the ones that you fill up and press the lid down to push the water out.
I cleaned it out last week - wipe out whatever gunk you can with paper towel or tissue, throw in a cup or so of vinegar, top it up with water. Since I only had deposits on the lower half of the urn I topped it up with water till that point. If you have deposits higher up (like to the top), add another cup of vinegar and fill 'er up!
Put the urn on to boil. Normally boiling vinegar has a foul smell ut with the water to dilute it and the fact that you're using a pump style, the smell is contained.
When it's boiled pump ot some water to clean out the spout then let it sit (an hour or so).
Toss the vinegar water down the drain, wipe out the inside, re-fill with water only and reboil; pump some of this water out the spout to clean it and toss that water too.
Urn is good to use! (unless you have a really nasty build-up, in which case I'd do all the above over again till it's gone.)

momofgold

Thu, Aug 23 2007, 9:48 am

there is an easier way- we used it to clean out ours and it did wonders!
Take citric acid powder, pour a whole bunch in and and water, boil it and it is gone- no smell, just rinse it out and its clean.

↑ chocolate moose

Thu, Aug 23 2007, 4:55 pm

you can swab out a pump pot.

BrachaVHatzlocha

Wed, Oct 17 2007, 2:22 pm

Mrs. XYZ, thanks for linking me to this thread!
I wonder if this idea will work for a pump-pot (I guess that's what technically my "urn" is) that's so bad it barely works....hey, it doesn't hurt to try...just the cost of some vinegar!

Smile

↑ Mrs. XYZ

Wed, Oct 17 2007, 2:57 pm

I also have a pump pot, but I haven't tried it yet. I keep telling myself that I better do it before its too late! OK tonight it is!!! Tongue Out

chestnut

Wed, Oct 17 2007, 3:20 pm

Garden-Gnome wrote:

When it's boiled pump ot some water to clean out the spout then let it sit (an hour or so).
Toss the vinegar water down the drain, wipe out the inside, re-fill with water only and reboil; pump some of this water out the spout to clean it and toss that water too.

you let it sit for an hour while it's still in "warm" mode, meaning not boiling but still plugged in?

boiling plain water to clean only once is enough? I've been doing this method fro a long time, but I'm very paranoid of not cleaning enough the pot (and having the "vinegar water" get into my daughter's bottles) , so I boil the water 3-4 times. and it becomes very time-consuming, cause I unplug it and wait till the water cools off (afraid to empty the pot while the water is boiling hot)

cassandra

Wed, Oct 17 2007, 4:24 pm

I once tried the vinegar on my pump pot which was really annoying, then someone recommended this coffee machine cleaner that they sell in the coffee machine aisle of the supermarket. It worked soooo much better, and didn't have the gross smell. I decided the whole thing was too annoying anyway, so now I only use bottled water and don't have the problem anymore.

pinkbubbles

Wed, Oct 17 2007, 4:28 pm

momofgold wrote:

I did that too for a regular kettle- it works really well. It doesn't smell bad like vinegar can.

Brooklyn Mom

Wed, Oct 17 2007, 4:41 pm

Thats a good thing.. Never heard about a self clean coffee machine... Cool!

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