Does Coffee Maker Boil Water: Everything You Need To Know
Coffee makers have become a popular appliance among home kitchens. They make delicious coffee and save you the daily cost of store-bought coffee.
It is easy to use a coffee maker. All you have to do is to fill the water tank, fill the coffee chamber, wait for the water to be heated up, and allow your coffee to be extracted to the carafe.
Yet, since the coffee maker can make hot coffee fast, you may wonder if you can use this machine to boil water without the coffee grounds in the coffee chamber. Read on to find out everything you need to know.
How Does A Coffee Maker Work?
A coffee maker machine is designed to brew coffee. A traditional drip coffee maker has 4 main parts/components:
- A water tank in which you put water.
- A coffee chamber in which you put your paper filter and ground coffee.
- An inner tube that drives water through the heating system to the coffee chamber where hot water would extract coffee.
- A coffee carafe in which your extracted coffee would end up.
Thanks to this machine, making coffee is simple. All you have to do is to put water into the water tank, put coffee grounds into the chamber, and wait for your coffee in the coffee carafe.
Does Coffee Maker Boil Water?
Since a coffee maker can always keep hot coffee in its carafe and does produce hot water to extract coffee from the coffee grounds, many people may assume that the coffee maker boils water. Thus, they may want to use a coffee maker as a kettle to boil water because this machine produces hot water faster.
However, a coffee maker does not boil water. The heating motor within a regular coffee maker only brings water to between 180F and 200F, which is near the water’s boiling point. Yet, this temperature is not high enough to boil water.
Water boils at 202F. A good coffee maker can bring water up to 205F, but most coffee makers do not. If you need hot water quickly, you can use your coffee maker. Yet, you should not trust a coffee maker when it comes to boiling your water.
Does A Coffee Maker Kill Bacteria In Water And Coffee?
Since the water in a coffee maker never reaches a boiling point that kills bacteria and germs, a coffee maker doesn’t kill bacteria in water.
This leads to the question of whether or not bacteria remain in the coffee produced by the coffee maker. The answer to this question is yes, bacteria do remain in our coffee since the water extracting coffee is never hot enough to eliminate all the bacteria. Hence, if you use water that is not safe for drinking to make coffee in your coffee maker, the chances are the bacteria remain as they are and would end up in your coffee.
Therefore, you should put clean water (like bottled water or filtered water if your tap water is not good enough) in the tank whenever you want to make coffee. Unclean water can result in a weird odor in your coffee so do not take the risk. Remember that your coffee maker only heats cold water to produce hot water that extracts coffee from the coffee grounds.
Moreover, leftovers and residuals remaining inside your coffee maker also make a great environment for bacteria to grow and invade your coffee. This results in bacteria in your coffee even though you use clean water. Hence, you should give your coffee maker a deep clean once in a while to keep your coffee clean and safe from bacteria.
Here is a helpful video on how to clean the water tank of your coffee maker for your information:
FAQs
Can you put hot water in the coffee maker?
The water you use will affect the quality of your coffee. You can put boiling water into the water tank of your coffee maker and let the machine do its job. Yet, this may result in too strong and even burnt coffee, for hotter water means more coffee extraction from the coffee grounds.
Preferably, you should put cold clean water into the tank and trust the heating system of your coffee maker since the temperature setting of this system is designed for the ideal extraction of your coffee. You should keep your coffee maker at around 195F to 205F for the best extraction.
Does hot water make better coffee?
For a coffee maker, water should be maintained between 195F and 205F. Colder water means less coffee is extracted during this process, leading to under-extracted and mild coffee. Thus, it also takes a long time for cold water to extract coffee.
Yet, hotter water means the extracting process is faster and more powerful. This is not necessarily a good thing. Although hotter water gives you stronger coffee faster, it may also give your coffee over-extraction and a burnt taste, which is not at all appealing.
Can I make tea in my coffee maker?
You can brew the tea the same way you brew coffee with a coffee maker. Put water in the tank, replace the coffee with tea bags or tea leaves in the coffee chamber, and repeat the same brewing process. You will have your delicious tea quickly with this machine. Again, remember to put clean water into the water tank to protect your tea from potential bacteria.
Read More:
Rice Cooker Vs Crock Pot: Which Will Best Suit You?
Conclusion
Now you have everything you need to know about whether or not a coffee maker boils water. Remember, you can use your coffee maker if you need hot water quickly, but you should never trust a coffee maker to boil your water and remove the bacteria from your water.
