The Surprise Reason Your Coffee Maker Is Overflowing

It's natural to assume that an overflowing coffee maker probably means that something is very wrong with the coffee machine and it's finally time to buy a new one. However, if your coffee maker suddenly decides to act up and refuses to stop making coffee, resulting in hot coffee spilling all over your countertops, there is good reason for it.

According to My Recipes, one of the main reasons why a coffee maker overflows is a mucky brew basket. The brew basket is the tray in which you place the coffee filters and coffee grinds. A clogged brew basket often results in an overflowing pot of coffee, but a good scrubbing of the brew basket should do the job. The site also suggests cleaning your coffee maker regularly to keep it running like it's new. To clean your coffee maker, fill the water tank with one part white distilled vinegar and two parts water (via Martha Stewart). You should run this cycle twice followed by a few cycles of fresh water to ensure the taste of vinegar has dissipated.

Not using the correct grind size of coffee for your coffee maker can also cause it to overflow. If the coffee grinds are too fine, they can turn into one big lump of coffee, which can block the water from passing through to the pot and cause it to overflow (via Eleven Coffees). Putting too much coffee powder into the filter can also cause a water block and lead coffee to spill out. An effective way to ensure that you are using the right amount of coffee is to keep the coffee powder somewhere between three to five centimeters deep inside the filter.

If your coffee maker continues to overflow, you should also make sure that the filter paper has not folded inside the brew basket while brewing (via My Recipes). Chances are, if the filter is too large or too small for the brew basket, it will fold over and cause an overflow. The site suggests confirming and using the correct filter size for your coffee maker or buying a reusable filter, as it will never fold over.