Don’t Leave Used Pods in the Brewer, Mashed Says, Citing Keurig

Leaving a spent pod sitting in your brewer is a habit worth breaking, Mashed argues in a piece carried by Yahoo Shopping, and it points out that Keurig’s own care instructions say the same thing.

The reasoning is simple. A used pod is full of damp grounds, and left in the holder it keeps moisture and residue right where your next cup gets brewed. Mashed says that’s an open invitation for mold and bacteria, and that a stale pod can leave an off taste in the next drink, which matters more on a shared office machine. Its fix: once the pod is cool enough to handle, toss it. If you find one someone else left behind, run a cycle of plain water before you brew.

The rest of Mashed’s routine is standard Keurig upkeep. Rinse the pod holder and wipe the drip tray on days you use the machine, check the needle for clogs once a week, hand-wash the pod holder assembly with dish soap, descale every few months depending on how hard your water is, and swap the water filter every three months if your model has one.

Our take: the pod habit is free and takes two seconds. The weekly needle check is the step most people skip, and packed grounds in the needles are the most common reason a Keurig brews nothing at all. Our guides to cleaning Keurig needles and descaling a Keurig cover both, model by model.