Stephanie Brauns always started her day with a lift from a cup of joe, then her home-brewed beverage began to make her feel low. But it was when she investigated the problem that she really got sick.

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Ohio’s Stephanie Brauns found herself feeling ill – day-in, day-out – for six long months, beginning in late 2016. Eventually, the 53-year-old realized that the onset of her sickness bouts seemed to coincide with the first coffee of the day. So the resourceful woman opened her coffeemaker up, and what she found inside gave her grievous grounds for complaint.

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For many caffeine fans, starting the day without a cup of coffee is simply unimaginable. And it was the same for Brauns, who lives in Withamsville, outside Cincinnati in Ohio. However, towards the end of 2016, the human resources manager began experiencing worrying symptoms every morning after her habitual cup of joe.

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Apparently, Brauns had owned her trusty coffeemaker for years and relied on it to fix her a brew before she left for work each day. She has not reported any previous problems with the machine. So her sudden instances of illness following her morning drink percolated no little confusion.

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Indeed, Brauns said as much in an interview with ABC-affiliated Cincinnati TV station WPCO in March 2017. “I always had my coffee at home,” she explained. “And within three sips… um, having severe reactions.” Regardless, she carried on drinking her daily dose.

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In fact, Brauns persisted with her morning perk until a friend alerted her to an online article. The report in question highlighted the dangers of coffeemakers, and the dirt that they can collect and conceal. As a result, Brauns decided to open hers up and see what lurked within.

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Consequently, perhaps because she was a busy woman and did not want to waste time at home, Brauns brought her coffee machine to work. When the time was right, the coffee lover prized open the top of the appliance using a screwdriver right there in the office. And the grime she found inside completely grossed her out.

The internet piece Brauns had read warned coffee fans that their machines could be harboring a range of bacteria and mold. A 2011 study by health and safety product testers NSF International concluded that traditional carafe-style coffeemakers can often have higher germ counts than toilet seats.

In 2014 germ expert Kelly Reynolds, associate professor of public health at the University of Arizona, spoke to The Huffington Post about the study. “[Coffeemakers] are certainly a moist environment where mold and bacteria are known to grow in high number,” she confirmed. “Our bodies can deal with them, but at some point they’ll grow to levels high enough to cause sickness.”

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And sure enough, when Braun cracked open her machine, she could not believe the high levels of calcium build up – never mind the brownish mold-like substance that had collected over the years. “It was horrifying,” Brauns told WCPO. “Horrifying, is what was my reaction was.”

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What made the sickened woman even more baffled was the fact that the inside of her coffeemaker was so hard to access and clean. As a result, Brauns was not sure what she could have done in order to prevent such a disgusting build up, or how she could do now to remove it.

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Brauns discussed her dilemma in the WCPO segment. “It is impossible to get to the full tank, unless you dismantle this machine, which I haven’t figured out yet,” she explained. “Outside of taking a hammer to it, I don’t know how to completely open it and see what’s inside.”

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Following her dread discovery, Brauns was keen to warn other coffeemaker owners about the dangers dwelling deep in their devices. And she wanted to make sure coffee geeks no longer turned a blind eye to hidden horrors inside their gadgets. “You need to be able to clean that area,” Brauns insisted.

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With this in mind, it is important that everyone with a coffee machine knows exactly how to clean it. Most manufacturers include wash instructions in user manuals for these appliances. However, to a make sure everyone was crystal clear, Carolyn Forté from the Good Housekeeping Research Institute had some expert advice in 2014.

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As quoted in The Huffington Post article, the director of the U.K. magazine’s Home Appliances and Cleaning Products Lab said that vinegar was the secret weapon here. And it was due to the fact that the wonder product not only sanitizes but also has the ability to decalcify.

For those with classic coffeemakers, Forté went on to recommend gentle daily cleaning and a deeper occasional cleanse. “The carafe, lid and filter basket should be cleaned daily with warm, sudsy water,” she explained. “A coffeemaker that’s used daily should be decalcified about once per month in hard-water areas and every two to three months in soft-water areas.”

And Forté added that pod coffeemakers should be tackled in a similar way. While these gadgets may be more advanced than their carafe-based counterparts, they can still fall victim to calcium build ups. As a result, pod devotees should run vinegar through their devices about four times a year.

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But not only will cleaning a coffeemaker regularly yield a better tasting brew, the simple task can also protect a coffee lover’s health. Brauns sent samples of the crud she found in her machine off to a lab to be tested. However, in the NSF International study, one in ten appliances were found to contain coliform bacteria.

Nonetheless, these germs do not usually cause illnesses in fit and healthy people. But they are often found alongside other more dangerous pathogens. These potentially sickness-causing micro-organisms include bacteria, viruses, and a number of multicellular parasites. Moreover, their presence can also indicate fecal contamination.

However, after news of Brauns’ sickening experience broke online, seasoned coffeemaker users were happy to report that vinegar cleaned up. “We use the vinegar trick all the time with ours, also clean the coffee pot after every use,” one YouTube user wrote when the WCPO clip was uploaded to the video sharing website.

Too much coffee can be bad for your health, they say, but few expected the humble coffeemaker to be dangerous. Nevertheless, while technology has made it easy to achieve the perfect brew, but also easy to make the user feel perfectly awful, there is an answer. To ensure that all your coffeemaker gives you is a spring in your step, regular cleaning is key. And remember, vinegar is your friend.