Y'all probably already know this but I just figured it out last night. I have a Bunn coffee maker and the carafe is a commercial one that it stainless steel on the bottom half and clear plastic on the top. Well, I make a lot of coffee and my pot gets coffee stains almost overnight. I usually spend a lot of time about once a week trying to scrub it out, but it's hard to get in there since the spout part is really small. So last night, I sprinkled a fair amount of powdered dishwashing detergent in the bottom and filled it with hot water. When I came back about 20 minutes later, I just ran my brush lightly around the inside of the pot and voila! It looks brand new!