Cleaning a Poly Perk

[justjunque]

Hi all.
I don't know if anyone can help me with this.
I know some of you collect percolators. Out of those collectors, some probably own a Poly Perk or two.
Out of those, perhaps you've encountered this problem.
A recently acquired Poly Perk has a sort of musty smell; presumably, from wherever the previous owner had it stored.
Since I like to occasionally use the percolators in my small collection, I want to get rid of the smell, so it doesn't translate to taste in the coffee.
I've washed it inside and out with dish soap and water.
Normally, I would run a percolator through a cycle with vinegar and water. But, since the parts of this one are part plastic and part aluminum, I ruled that out.
I did run a cycle with cream of tartar. But, that didn't seem to remove the smell.
Others have warned of the possibility of nasty chemicals from the plastic getting into the coffee. I'm aware of that, but I only have a couple of Poly Perks, and don't use them often.
But, I definitely don't want to drink coffee that tastes like a musty basement.
Has anyone managed to get that smell/taste out of a coffee maker?
Thank you in advance for any suggestions!

Barry

 

[sudsmaster]

Never heard of a "Poly Perk" before.

 

However, based on my knowledge of chemistry, I would avoid plastic items intended to heat water to the boiling point.

 

Glass is better.

 

 

[henene4]

Generally, an acidic cleaner shouldn't be a problem with either plastic or aluminium.

If vinegar isn't to your liking I go for citric acid.
That is usually OK with almost everything.

These smells might be soaked into the plastic.
It's the same as stained cutting boards out of the DW: Not much you can do, just clean again and again.

Going with low concentration bleach soak might be an option.
Careful dosing, timing, heat control with proper rinsing afterwards should be used.

Does it come apart?
Cause as long as there is no residue on the metal parts, these can't really get smelly.
Metal just dosen't absorb stuff.

Treating the plastic parts seperate would make things easier and safer.

On the topic of chemicals getting into your food:

That is technically a concern.
BUT for the past 20 years basically any food grade plastic item will not contain any chemicals that easily migrate.

Having it heat up several times with water before using it first reduces that.
That's why kettles and electric coffee makers always tell you to do one or two runs before actually starting to use the appliance.

Bigger "problem" there are actually things like the seels in plastic bottle caps or the lining of tins.
There are some chemicals that get into your food. Those aren't considered harmful in amy way, but can be easily detected in blood samples.

 

[ea56]

I used to collect percolators. In my experience nothing cleans a dirty percolator better than just adding 1 or 2 tbs, of dishwasher detergent to the basket or use 1 pod and fill to max capacity. Complete a brewing cycle and then let the pot sit for 30 to 60 mins. Then pour out the dirty water and add fresh water to max level and run thru another full brewing cycle and discard the water. It should now be pristine.

But if the pot is aluminum then do the same thing, but use cream of tartar instead, dishwashing detergent will turn aluminum black and its difficult to get the black off after it happens

HTH
Eddie

 

[justjunque]

Rich,

Poly Perk is a line of percolators made by Regal. I'm no expert on them, but I believe they probably came out in the late '60s/early '70s. Some were also branded for Sears.
They're made of plastic, with some aluminum internal parts.
As infrequently as I use them, I'm not too concerned about the plastic.

Henrik and Eddie,

Thank you for the suggestions.
I was under the impression that vinegar, like dishwasher detergent, would turn aluminum black or dark.
Am I mistaken?
Because, like I said, I would normally clean a coffee maker with vinegar. But, I avoided it in this case because of the aluminum parts.
And, yes, I suppose there is a possibility that the the smell has just permeated the plastic. That would be unfortunate.

Barry

 

[henene4]

Anything basic (bleach, DW detergent etc.) can lead to these etching like patterns and color changes.

Acids usually don't, but don't quote me on that.
At least my mum uses acidic solutions (mainly concentrated vinegar) to remove these color appearances on her pots after the DW.

The color change dosen't really affect anything though and should revert over time.

And unfortunately, the reason a color change would occur is the reason you would want to do it.

Some areas might have thin coverings of residue on them, others don't.
The cleaner would dissolve those plaques - but at the same rate would attack the aluminium oxidation layer.

So yeah. I guess you have to make decision there to risk the item in question - but it's basically useless to you now already, so even if you "ruin" it, you don't really lose anything, right?
So I'd say just try it, don't sweat it.

 

[ea56]

Barry,
Vinegar will remove tarnish from metal like aluminum. I’ve owned a few Poly Perks and I used DW detergent to clean them and it worked fine on them. And it never changed the color of the plastic. The stems didn’t discolor from the DW detergent either. BTW, coffee is acidic too. I’ve never used vinegar either straight or diluted with water to clean a percolator so I have no idea how it would work in that application, but I do know that DW detergent works like a charm.

I once bought a vintage West Bend aluminum electric perk that had the original instruction book and it specifically advised using a couple of tbs. of Cream of Tartar in the pot with water to clean it. It worked when I used it that way as instructed. Cream of Tartar is acidic. Its the alkali in DW detergent that turns aluminum black.

I’ve also used ketchup to remove the tarnish from copper cookware and ketchup is acidic. But then that really has nothing to do with a percolator because I’ve never seen one made of copper that wasn’t lined with chrome.

Eddie

 

[ozzie908]

Poly perc

A couple of Denture Cleansing Tabs and hot water !

 

[henene4]

Denture cleaning tabs

They often get overlooked but are amazing!
Anything with lots of small nooks and crannies that is somewhat sensitive to strong chemicals is a very good candidate for them.
They are great at attacking food residues and smells.

My grandma used to use hers for thermoses, some cheaper jewelry etc.

Very good advice!

 

[kevin313]

I have a number of Poly-Perks, including some 20-cup and 36-cup Poly-Perk urns. I found the plastic material to be pretty resilient to acidic additives like vinegar. Here are the things I keep on-hand to clean percolators - depending on the materials of the appliance (most have already been mentioned here):

White vinegar
Powdered dishwashing detergent
Denture cleaning tablets
Cream of tartar
Bon Ami cleanser
Dawn dishwashing soap (just a few drops)

To freshen, I have perked a pot of plain water, unplugged, and stirred in a couple good tablespoons of baking soda and let stand for a few hours.

 

[sudsmaster]

And if none of Kevin's remedies work, perhaps the best destination for a stinky Poly Perk is the trash can.

 

 

[foraloysius]

I forgot all about the cleaning ability of denture cleaning tabs. I put them on the shopping list straight away!