Just like any cooking appliance, your Ninja coffee maker needs frequent cleaning. If you neglect it, your coffee will start tasting stale. This coupled with the fact that dirty utensils and cooking appliances are a health hazard, makes cleaning your coffee maker paramount.
Luckily, some Nina coffee makers come with an auto-clean function that makes cleaning the unit as easy as pressing the button. Ninjas with this function have a Clean Cycle button or menu and even a ‘cleaning’ indicator that turns on to remind you when it is time to run the cycle.
Why is My Ninja Coffee Maker Not Cleaning?
Though simple and straightforward, the clean cycle can fail if you prepare for it wrong or if something is faulty in your coffee maker.
Here is a look at a couple of things that could be preventing your Ninja coffee maker clean cycle from kicking in.
A Badly Seated Brew Basket
Your Ninja coffee maker will not run if the brew basket is missing or badly seated. This is a fail-safe engineered to ensure you don’t make a mess by brewing coffee (or the cleaning solution) out with nothing to contain it.
A well-seated carafe will push the lockout switches and activate the coffee maker. If it doesn’t push these switches, you won’t get the coffee maker to run the clean cycle or even brew coffee.
- Align the brew basket with the guide rails
- Hold it perpendicular to the rails
- Push it straight in and slide it back until it clicks in place
If you don’t get the click or the alignment correct, the coffee maker will think the carafe is missing and won’t activate the clean cycle.
You are Not Pressing the Clean Button Right
Though trivial, there is the chance that you are pressing the wrong button. Needless to say, this won’t activate the cleaning cycle.
If you are cleaning the correct button, but it is faulty, the coffee maker won’t get the signal. The button could be sticky if you are using an old unit or you just pulled your coffee maker out of storage.
The button should be tactile and spring back once you press it. If it is a touch button, the touch panel could be experiencing localized failure.
Clean the outside of the coffee maker using a brush and some damp cloth to remove any gunk that could be making the button stick.
There are too many Hard Water Deposits.
If the clean cycle activates but the coffee maker doesn’t clean up, perhaps it has more deposits and calcification than the normal clean cycle can handle.
This will be characterized by a clean light that won’t go off even after running the clean cycle. You can use a vinegar solution to dissolve the calcium deposits.
- Make a 50% water and 50% vinegar solution
- Fill the water reservoir in the coffee maker
- Remove any cables and gently shake the coffee maker from side to side
- Let the unit soak in the vinegar solution for up to 4 hours
- Drain the solution and try to run the clean cycle again
If this doesn’t work, you will have to get a descaling solution for a more thorough cleaning. Remember, the clean cycle is working. The problem is your coffee maker is too dirty to fix in one clean cycle.
You are Using Hard Water for the Clean Cycle
Calcification happens when your coffee maker heats up hard water. Since hard water makes terrible coffee, most consumers avoid brewing their coffee with hard water.
However, they don’t extend the same care when cleaning their unit. Running the clean cycle with hard water from the tap will bring the calcification you so much fear during the clean cycle.
If your tap water supply has high mineral content that can cause limescale, consider running it through a softener, reverse osmosis, or purchasing soft water in jugs for cleaning or brewing.
Constantly Interrupting the Clean Cycle
Running repeated incomplete cleaning cycles will damage the effectiveness of the clean cycle. Temporary cleaning will encourage calcification.
If you have been doing this, you must descale your coffee maker from the bottom up. You can do this using a vinegar solution or a specialty descaling solution to soak up the calcium and dissolve it away.
Once the coffee maker is properly descaled, the cleaning cycle will work efficiently. After all, the manufacturer recommends descaling your Ninja coffee maker at least once a month.
Check this too: How to Clean a Cuisinart Coffee Maker
Power Cycle Your Ninja Coffee Maker
If you have tried all the above fixes and your Ninja coffee maker doesn’t go into the cleanup mode, you should consider resetting it by power cycling. Even though your coffee maker is robust and rarely has software glitches, power cycling could still fix temporary problems.
- Remove the power cord from the wall outlet.
- Wait for five minutes or until all the lights on the coffee maker go off
- Plug the coffee maker back in
- Test to see if the clean cycle is working
If you can’t get your Ninja coffee maker to implement the clean cycle even after the above fixes, you can send it back to the manufacturer for servicing. If that sounds like a hassle, you could opt to clean the unit manually.