Do you clean your tamper base periodically?
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- Posts: 381
- Joined: 8 years ago
I have a silly question to which I couldn't find the answer in the threads. Do folks clean your tamper bases? We clean all the parts that touch coffee because the oils grow rancid over time. I know that the tamper base doesn't stay in contact with the coffee for that long, but it frequently touches it. I was just curious as to whether people clean the bottom of the tamper base every so often as part of their maintenance schedules.
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- Supporter ♡
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- Joined: 7 years ago
After each session, I wipe my tamper base with a dry paper towel, and occasionally I use a moist paper towel. When it was new, I cleaned it with alcohol prior to using it.
Rocky
Rocky
- bluesman
- Posts: 1594
- Joined: 10 years ago
I wipe it with a microfiber towel after each use. Once I noticed a faint brownish discoloration on the "mat" in my tamper rest (which happened many years and tampers ago), I realized that a tiny bit of coffee and/or oil was still on the tamper even though it looked clean. One wipe proved me correct when I saw the discoloration on the towel, and I've been doing it ever since.
I keep separate toweling for the PF and baskets, the tamper, the steam wand, and general cleaning up so that I don't cross-contaminate with milk, stale coffee, or debris. I buy microfiber towels in bundles (like these from Amazon at $11.77 for a pack of 5 each in 4 different colors) and do my best to reserve a different color for each task. Sadly, my wife and our housekeeper do their best to thwart my best. When I discover a coffee towel in the pile of cleaning rags (or anywhere else that suggests it's been used for evil), I throw it out and add a new one from my stock. I may break down and have them embroidered with a skull & crossbones over the legend "NEVER USE THIS TOWEL!"
Maybe I expect too much - I can see how confusing a statement and policy like "the blue ones are yours to use as you wish" can be.
I keep separate toweling for the PF and baskets, the tamper, the steam wand, and general cleaning up so that I don't cross-contaminate with milk, stale coffee, or debris. I buy microfiber towels in bundles (like these from Amazon at $11.77 for a pack of 5 each in 4 different colors) and do my best to reserve a different color for each task. Sadly, my wife and our housekeeper do their best to thwart my best. When I discover a coffee towel in the pile of cleaning rags (or anywhere else that suggests it's been used for evil), I throw it out and add a new one from my stock. I may break down and have them embroidered with a skull & crossbones over the legend "NEVER USE THIS TOWEL!"
Maybe I expect too much - I can see how confusing a statement and policy like "the blue ones are yours to use as you wish" can be.
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- Posts: 365
- Joined: 7 years ago
I wash it with water and washing up liquid once a week at least
- tohenk2
- Posts: 314
- Joined: 9 years ago
I wipe it after each use on leather (got the idea from a leather strap for a razorblade)
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- Posts: 256
- Joined: 11 years ago
I haven't cleaned my Reg Barber in 12 years, may be due for a cleaning