How to Clean A French Press After Use: An Ultimate Guide for 2022

If you already know how to clean a French press after use, then you shouldn’t forget your first experience with it.
The little shiny cute Coffee press is a special kit for any Black coffee lover. You will often find someone who never brings it down from the kitchen cupboard.
Don’t Get Surprised! I picked a comment below from Quora.

One of the reasons I rarely use a French press is because I consider them a pain to clean after use.

Kirk A. Janowiak

French Press Coffee Maker

If you know about it, you can skip to the next part. But my friends from Germany would wonder about what is a French press? Cause he knows it as Stempelkanne means stamppot.
You will find as many as ten different nomenclatures if you visit Wikipedia. Yet it was named French press as Mayer and Delforge from France patented the device in1852. Though Bodum French press is a genericized trademark, still many coffee lovers know it as the only French press.

A cylindrical coffee brewing device uses ground coffee and hot water. People call it a coffee plunger as it presses down the boiling water.

Parts of the French Press

Before you proceed further to know about how to clean A French press after Use, I would like to introduce all the necessary parts of it. Not every French press coffee maker comes with the same parts/ accessories. Yet in common a French press has the following accessories/ parts below:

Parts of the French Press to understand How to clean a french press after use
Various Parts of the French Press Coffee Maker
  1. Plunger. It fits the cylinder/ faucet well
  2. Rod. It can be stainless still or plastic.
  3. Lid. It can be metal or plastic and remains attached to the plunger.
  4. Spiral Plate. It keeps the filter in place.
  5. Filter/ Screen. It can be a paper filter too.
  6. Cross Plate. The filter remains between the Cross plate and the spiral plate.
  7. Faucet/ Carafe. It comes in many forms. Stainless steel, Glass, and Plastic are usual.

How to Clean A French Press After Use

If you go through your French press user guides/ manual, you rarely find the cleaning process and way to clean it. We carried out extensive research for you. Apart from the regular cleaning of a French press coffee maker, we found out the best tips for in-depth cleaning materials and alternatives. Here are your French press hacks.

Two things you should know:

  • Cleaning your French press coffee maker is never so hard.
  • If you don’t clean it thoroughly, then you get a mediocre coffee.

I will tell you more about it in the latter part. It is going to become easy to understand.

There are two types of Ways to clean:

  • We do daily/quick cleaning just after brew.
  • For long-term maintenance, you need to go for deeper cleaning.
How to Clean a french Press After Use

5 Easy Steps on How to Clean a French Press After Use

Is a French press hard to clean? Cleaning your French press is not that difficult. Well, if you are a newbie then how to Clean A French Press After Use may turn into a hard job. It takes just a moment. After we use the press, there is not only spent ground, but there are also coffee oils stuck on the top of the container. This oil results from the preparation process. A lot of those coffee oils are transferred into coffee when you make it, but the actual problem is the used grounds. How do you get them out?

Step 1: Pour out Remaining Coffee

The first step is easy enough.

  • Just make sure that the wire mesh filter is pressed down.
  • Pour out any remaining coffee that’s left in the press. This step is a pretty obvious first step because you don’t want the extra liquid to end up in your trashcan.

Step 2: Empty Your Press

Not too difficult either.

  • Pull out the wire mesh filter and gently tap off the extra grounds that are stuck to it. If you’d like, you can gently tap it on the edge of your press. Just be careful of the glass, or you can tap it on the side of the trashcan.
  • Remove most of the grounds by upturning the French press coffee maker and shaking.

Note: I prefer doing it this way, but some people use a spatula to get rid of them. But I would rather not dirty another utensil.

Step 3: Rinse the Faucet and Flash it Down

Then turn your faucet onto a light flow of water and put some of it inside of the carafe.

  • Make sure you let the water run down the sides and get all the grounds down the sink down to the bottom.
  • Give it a little swirl and make sure that most of the grounds are in the water.
  • You can quickly get rid of this water by flushing it down the toilet.

Note: Some people prefer to pour the mixture down the sink merely. If you would do this, you can filter out the grounds by putting a paper towel over your drain. But I prefer flushing the water because it’s less work and I don’t like a lot of coffee grounds get into my garbage disposal.

Step 4: Rinse it Well

There might be just a few spare grounds left in your press, but there aren’t many.

  • So at this point, I just rinse out the last spent grounds and dump them down the sing.
  • Turn the hot water and rinse off the wire mesh filter.
  • I would suggest not to use soapy water. If you use soap, then make sure there is no odor left after rinsing.
  • Be careful while rinsing out underneath the filter. Gently pull back the mesh filter with your thumb.

Note: Coffee grounds may stick between the spring and the filter. It is better to take a minute to water rinse off all the oils that remained on the sides of the top of the lid. After a while, this oil can build up and make your press feel greasy.

Step 5: Dry it off

  • Now all that’s left to do is dry off your press using a paper towel or soft clothes.
  • Never scratch the glass.

Note: Don’t forget to dry off the wire mesh filter and lid well as well. You can take this opportunity to clean off doing excess oils that might be left.

Special Tips

  • It is better to clean your French press after every use.
  • Keep in mind that some pairs of devices are machine washable. You should always check your instruction manual for sure.

Deep cleaning: How to Clean a French Press With Vinegar

Deep cleaning is of immense necessity to use the French press coffee maker for a longer duration. You may still have confusion about how to clean a french press after use especially the deep cleaning. and For deep cleaning, many French press lovers use vinegar. But you carefully see the user manual first. Some manufacturers suggest not to use vinegar. The acetic acid compound causes harm to the rubber seals.

How much vinegar should you use to clean your French press?

Well, let’s make it simple. You can use one cup of vinegar with two cups of water. Again you must ensure that the water is cold.

Now the question comes. If you don’t have vinegar, then how to clean a French press?

Many natural and artificial cleaning agents available readily. Lemon is a good alternative. The citric acid of lemon is sufficient enough to clean your plunger press. It removes odor, cleans stains, and oil deposits. The only drawback is you need to crush lemons to extract the juice.

Baking soda is another option. But if you use baking soda, then rinse it enough for further use.

Can you use Apple cedar vinegar?

Never use apple cedar vinegar. It may leave some residue. It is better to use distilled vinegar.

We recommend vinegar for the coffee press as it doesn’t have a rubber pump/ seals.

You can also follow the video embedded below. I would suggest you to follow the info graph too.

Quick Cleaning of a French Press

How to Clean a French Press After Use: Four Easy Steps for the Deep Cleaning

  • Disassemble the filter. There are three separate filters: spring mesh and the cross.
  • Rinse them well.
  • Then soak them in the diluted vinegar solution for 3-4 hours, depending on the age of the French press coffee maker.
  • Finally, assemble the filter back to the place in reverse order. Place the filter assembly top of the chamber of the coffee press. Push the plunger down.

Note: You need to go for deep cleaning frequently when it gets aged.

Info graphic for how to clean a french press after use
How to clean a french press after use

French Press Cleaning: Why is it Necessary?

  • It creates a terrible odor unless you clean it after each brew.
  • Coffee grounds impart oil, and it will turn into stale. You never feel comfortable when you find that your press is greasy.
  • The French press is a shiny device. It looks gorgeous if you keep it clean. Otherwise, it would turn into an old cloudy chimney of outdoor lights.
  • The stuck up grounds will reduce the quality of your coffee. A simple deal is that to get a mind-blowing coffee, and You need to clean it thoroughly.

American Coffee Press: A Better Alternative

If you still find that Cleaning your French press is a messy thing, then here is a better option. You would need a different coffee press to ease up your experience. You should see a gadget called the American coffee press.

The unique reusable pod technology has a self-contained basket filter that holds the grounds. Unlike the flat filter, it merely pushes the coffee grounds to the bottom.

Frequently Asked Questions: French Press and its Cleaning

How much should the plunger go while using the french press? Should it be pressed so hard to the bottom?

The best practice is to apply a little bit of pressure to lower the plunger. It is to use until it pressed the grounds against the bottom of the glass carafe. Remember, The entire process has to be a slow one.
The classic french press devices are not designed well. There are a few where you may find the plunger gap.
What happens when you don’t press it slowly? Well, this can result in the following:
1. You may miss the exact brewing experience.
2. Your filter may get clogged by the fine particles of the ground. In that case, I have a small tip for you.  Pull the filter. Stir the coffee and compress it again.
3. Excessive stress may cause scalding of water from the pot.

Why do I find it hard to push the French press screen?

French press Screen

Be very careful while pushing the screen down. It can happen typically for two reasons.
If Your ground coffee is too fine-particle, then it can clog the screen. The best form of ground coffee for the french press is the coarse ground.

If the device is old enough, then you may face the same difficulty. Yet you can always change the french press screen/ filter.

Be very cautious if the device is a glass one. Pressing hard can cause a severe accident.

Which one is better: pour-over or French press?

It varies. However, Both the coffee are black. The apparent taste is quite similar. Yet people love to have french press because it is more comfortable than the pour-over.

To me, coffee is a bean that is full of emotion. It’s you who can decide about the best possible coffee for you.

Summary

French Press coffee is an obsession. Only black coffee lovers can understand how much craving it can create.

How to clean a french press after use? Is it Quick or deep? What could be the best solution to clean your coffee press? These thoughts eventually evolve in a french press lovers mind.

We carried out extensive research to find out the simple but an effective method for you.

We never want to leave you in the endless volume of contents where you never get an exact solution. Here is an endeavor to solve endless mysteries of how to clean a french after use.

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