Cuisinart coffee maker steaming

Try cleaning with white vinegar, using the method described in the owner's / instruction manual.

Hi. Just like making a pot of coffee w/o the coffee. Run it through 3-4 times. Then run water through to rinse it out. 2 times.Good luck. Ron

Place 1/3 part distilled white vinegar and 2/3 part water into the water reservoir. Turn the machine on and wait for the heat light to go off. Once the heat light goes off, turn the steam vs. water knob to the water drop icon, and turn the main function knob to steam/water. Make sure to have your frothing cup underneath the steam element ready to catch the water. The vinegar/water solution should clear out the calcium that clogs the steam element. Also, remove the cover to the steam element and dip it in a bowl with vinegar for about 5 minutes, and use something like a pipe cleaner to clean out that cover. Then apply vinegar and hot water to a rag and clean the calcium off the shaft of the steam element. Once you are all finished with this, run plain water through the espresso maker on the steam/water setting to clear out the bitter vinegar residue. Now, try again to make espresso and froth it.

Since milk contains calcium, the steam element has to be decalcified more often than a regular coffee maker. The EM-100 is a beautiful machine, but it is definitely high-maintenance - you will probably spend more time cleaning it than making cappuccino, etc.

Good luck!

-Tha Mp3 Doctor (is also a huge Cuisinart fan)

Replace the filter basket - they can be had for around $6.00 plus shipping - you can even get them directly from Cuisinart.

Clean it out with vinegar and water - 2 ozs distilled white vinegar, 2ozs water

Cuisinart DGB-600 replacement charcoal water filters is Cuisinart DCC-RWF 6 pack charcoal water filters, 12 filters.

Common with the DGB-600 - you can try icing it down for 10 minutes - once removed, clean exterior with vinegar applied to a rag to get oils off - endemic to this unit - replacing it with exact same model will not help.

First of all it depends on the hardness of the water. Vinegar doesn't really work in the heavy lime belt area of the midwest. It is better if you use lime away. It is an ecolab product that is great at lime removal. Use one cup per pot. Then rinse two pots worth if this is the kind of machine that uses the same water that is put in during each brew cycle. Some brewers have a reservoir. Bunnomatic is an example of that kind of brewer. If you use lime away in that kind of brewer you need to run about thirty pots to remove all the lime scale remover from the brewer. Slow brewing can also be caused by over softened water. I drove from Indy to Iowa after installing a brewer and then a day later the store put in a softener and over softened the water causing the coffee filter to clog up with sodium. Also check the sprayer disc or head where the water comes out. Over time coffee "paste" will build up around the outlet and if you don't wipe it clean or "smear" the coffee grounds around the outlet that will slow down the brewing cycle. I have thirty years as a brewer technician and it is usually one of the things I have covered, providing that the heat element isn't defective.

Water leaking in the DGB-600 is mainly caused by heated water escaping from its proper path. There is a rubber grommet on the underside of the upper part of the coffeemaker. (It contacts the lid over the filter basket when the front door is closed.) The design in this area is very poor; the grommet does not seat properly in the fixed part of the coffeemaker, and heated water seeps out. Also, the heated water tube that comes up through the cold water reservoir is actually in 2 pieces. One goes inside of the other, but there is no seal. It is a loose enough fit that some steam escapes, condenses on the inside top surface of the coffeemaker, and then finds its way down to add to the leaking. I completely disassembled my coffeemaker (3 of the screws in the upper compartment are hidden under small circular plugs that look like they are part of the plastic surface), and used high temperature automotive RTV sealer to help the rubber grommet seal better, and to seal the 2-piece hot water tube. Works great now! But I must say that I have seen better engineering in childs' toys!

My experience has been that an aggressive cleaning, by "brewing" 6 cups of straight (undiluted) vinegar will eliminate this problem.