Cleaning of atta chakki is a tedious task; unfortunately, you can’t avoid it.
In this article, I will show you how to clean atta chakki at home in under 30 minutes with the easiest and perfect method.
Atta chakki cleaning mainly refers to clean visible parts of the atta chakki after every use. However, it is also essential to clean the atta chakki from the inside.
I will show you how to clean atta chakki at home from the outside (routine cleaning) and how to clean the atta chakki by opening it entirely and cleaning it from the inside (deep cleaning).
Cleaning is essential to get a healthy atta and maintain the atta chakki itself. In fact, cleaning is the most important part of maintaining atta chakki at home for a safe and uninterrupted operation for years.
If you have no idea about the maintenance of atta chakki, you can read my complete guide on how to maintain atta chakki at home and can do basic maintenance on your own.
If you don’t clean the atta chakki properly, you will get a bad taste of your flour (atta) when you operate it next time or after a few days.
I know that you think there is no rocket science involved in cleaning the domestic atta chakki but let me tell you that it is super important to know the correct method to clean the atta chakki to protect your family from unwanted diseases and allergies.
How To Clean Atta Chakki At Home With 10 Easy Steps (Routine Cleaning)
You have two options to clean the atta chakki at home. One is manual, and the other is with the help of cleaning appliances like a vacuum cleaner or air blower.
You might also know about the auto-clean atta chakki; if you do not, you can read my article on what is the auto-clean atta chakki.
In fact, there is nothing like auto clean because, in auto clean atta chakki, you have to remove the residue or leftover wheat pieces or flour first, and then you can use a vacuum cleaner.
So practically, there is nothing like auto cleaning. Before I explain the cleaning method, you might have questions like,
- When to clean home atta chakki?
- Why clean atta chakki (domestic flour mill)?
Let me give the second answer first.
Why do you need to clean the atta chakki?
It is to make sure that the atta you are getting is 100% healthy and safe. Not only that, the life of the atta chakki(domestic flour mill) will increase if you do cleaning at regular intervals.
You can also save huge money on repairing when you clean the atta chakki and find any issue at the very beginning and get it solved.
When to clean atta chakki?
For normal or routine cleaning, you should clean the atta chakki after every use. For deep cleaning, I have given the table of cleaning schedules later in this article.
Now let me explain the exact step-by-step procedure to clean the atta chakki at home with a regular cleaning approach.
Steps To Clean Atta Chakki At Home (Regular Cleaning)
I encourage you to wear a mask and goggles while cleaning the atta chakki.
Step 1: Switch off the power supply and remove the power plug
Skip this step if your atta chakki has an in-built vacuum cleaner.
Step 2: Let the temperature come down
Please wait for 10-15 minutes after the atta chakki is stopped. Because once the hot flour is cooled down, you can easily remove the fine atta.
Step 3: Remove the atta collecting drum or vessel/utensil along with its cover ( nylon cloth or plastic protected cover with cloth)
Keep it at a distance from the cleaning because it will require separate cleaning.
Step 4: Clean the feeding hopper from top
You can easily clean the hopper with a vacuum cleaner or hand air blower.
The correct way is to ensure that the gear located just below the hopper should be emptied. Because even a single whole grain or atta remains inside the gear, it will help pests development.
You should completely remove the leftover in gear with an air blower or vacuum cleaner
Step 5: Open the front door and then open the grinding chamber
If you don’t clean the grinding chamber first and clean the rest area, you will have to again repeat the cleaning because the grinding chamber will have around 90% of accumulated fine atta.
So always clean the grinding chamber first.
Step 6: Use long handle hard plastic wire brush
If I am not wrong, you will have an atta chakki cleaning brush that comes with the atta chakki by default.
However, if you think the nylon brush is enough for cleaning, you are making a big mistake. The nylon brush can’t reach up to the inside of the cutter blade slots, and the residue remains intact over there.
With a long handle hard plastic wire brush, you can easily reach hard to access area and thoroughly clean the inside of the grinding chamber.
Sometimes, you will see that the fine atta has stuck to the grinding chamber walls or teeth and is not easily removable.
In that case, you can use any hard and thin wire for scratching it up. See the picture below for an easy explanation of the use of hard wire.
This step is most important because if you ignore this step, the remaining atta will attract mites & insects and develop fungi that cause allergies.
Step 7: Vacuum cleaning
You can use a hand air blower if the atta chakki is in an open place like a balcony or courtyard because the pressurized air of the hand air blower will spread the atta in the surrounding.
If you do not have space, I don’t recommend you use an air blower inside your home. In that case, a vacuum cleaner is needed.
Many atta chakki comes with an in-built vacuum cleaner, and you can use that to clean the internal and external side of the atta chakki.
However, suppose you are planning to buy the atta chakki. In that case, I recommend you buy a standard atta chakki and separately buy a good quality handy vacuum cleaner that you can use for many purposes rather than the fixed type vacuum cleaner.
You don’t need to buy a separate vacuum cleaner for atta chakki in case you have one at home.
Alright.
Now use the hose pipe provided with the vacuum cleaner ( in the case of atta chakki with a vacuum cleaner, you will not get different types of connecting accessories except one round brush type suction hose of limited length) and keep close to the grinding chamber shaft area.
This way, you can easily clean the inside area by suction. A brush alone can’t perform this crucial task.
You can also use the vacuum cleaner as a blower to throw pressurized air from the hole near the cutter blade’s shaft.
Now, rotate the cutter blades with your hand slowly. This will help remove the stuck wheat grains inside the atta chakki if any.
After cleaning the top area and grinding chamber, close the door of the grinding chamber.
Step 8: Cleaning of lower portion and cabinet
You have closed the grinding chamber door and removed the atta collecting drum, and now it’s time to clean the remaining general areas of your atta chakki.
With the help of the vacuum cleaner, gently clean every side of the cabinet along with the air vents.
The air vents can be fixed type or removable types, so clean them accordingly. In most cases, the air vent covers are made of plastic, and you can clean them with your desired cleaning solution if they are removable.
Just make sure that when you fix them again, they are completely dried up.
Step 9: Use a dry and clean cloth to wipe the complete atta chakki
You might have a question If you have already cleaned the complete atta chakki, then why do you need to clean it with cloth again?
It is because no vacuum cleaner or blower can remove 100% residue from atta chakki.
To have healthy and hygienic atta, you should not miss the cleaning with a cloth.
Take a neat, clean, dry cotton cloth ( please do not use any faded or used cloth) and gently clean every part. This activity won’t take more than two minutes, but you will be surprised to see that your cloth will have residue that was invisible at the first instance after cleaning.
Step 10: Collecting drum & cover bag cleaning
Finally, you are at the last stage, and in this step, you have to clean the atta collecting drum and its top cover or cloth bag.
You can easily remove the cloth bag from the collecting drum. Treat the stainless steel drum like any other utensil and wash it with your preferred cleaning agents like soap, bartan bar, or any liquid gel.
Cloth washing is important. You can wash the cloth bag with mild washing powder or liquid gel.
Let soak the cloth in water for 10 minutes. Add powder or liquid gel and wash it with your hands.
Never use a washing machine to wash the atta chakki drum cloth. It might get reshaped and damaged. Rinse it with clean water until the cloth is completely free from cleaning powder or soap.
You can check the watercolor during rinsing. After that, let the drum and drum cloth dry in the sunlight if possible.
This is to ensure that no germs or bad smells remain in it.
Pro tip: When you are going on vacation or not going to use the atta chakki for a long time, you can put naphthalene balls inside the atta chakki to keep insects away. And, even if you have kept the atta chakki ideal for a longer period after cleaning, always check thoroughly for any abnormalities and clean it before using it.
How To Clean Atta Chakki At Home From The Inside (Deep cleaning)
Manufacturers recommend that at least every six months, you should clean your home atta chakki(domestic flour mill) from the inside.
But the cleaning frequency depends upon the actual operating hours of the domestic flour mill or home atta chakki.
Below is the table to help you decide on the home atta chakki cleaning schedule from the inside. For routine cleaning, it is recommended to clean the atta chakki after every use.
Recommended cleaning schedule of atta chakki from inside
| Run Hours | Cabinet Walls Cleaning | Filter Cleaning | Hopper Cleaning | Motor Fan Cleaning | Sensor & Gear Cleaning |
| < 20 Hours | Yes | Yes | No | No | No |
| > 20 Hours | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| > 50 Hours | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Procedure to clean the atta chakki from inside
First, you need the proper tools to open the cabinet cover & feed hopper.
Good-quality screwdrivers, a vacuum cleaner, and a small spanner set are highly recommended.
You can also use the tester if you don’t have a screwdriver, but it will be hard to open or tighten the screws. Atta chakki cleaning brush with a long handle is all you need.
Note: Never let children clean the atta chakki because not all atta chakki are safe for children. Read my article on Is atta chakki safe for children? for more info.
Steps to clean atta chakki at home (Deep cleaning)
Step 1:
First, clear all the other things from the surroundings so that you can clean the atta chakki comfortably. I recommend using open space because there will be many dust and debris inside the atta chakki.
Also, remove the atta (flour) collecting drum and its cover and keep it in a safe place so that the dust will not accumulate on that during cleaning from inside.
Step 2:
Have a power supply arrangement in advance for a vacuum cleaner or hand air blower.
Step 3:
Keep all necessary tools handy.
Step 4:
Keep a small plastic box when you are opening the screws of the cabinet and hopper because it might be possible that the screws will be missed during cleaning, and you won’t be able to assemble atta chakki if you don’t have the correct size of screws.
The plastic box will keep all the screws safe.
Step 5:
Open the backside air filters and side filters with the help of a screwdriver or tester. Mostly the air filters are made of plastic and easily washable with any cleaning solution.
Step 6:
Remove the feed hopper carefully with the help of a screwdriver or tester.
Usually, you will have to remove the four or a maximum of six screws to remove the feed hopper. After removing the hopper screws, keep them in that plastic box.
Remember, the size and type of feed hopper screws and air filter screws will be different, and you won’t be able to use them alternatively.
Now you have the air filters ( plastic ) and feed hopper ( stainless steel ). You can wash them the way you want.
In case you don’t want to wash the air filters, you can use a nylon brush for initial cleaning and then use a vacuum cleaner.
However, I highly recommend you wash filters and hopper with good soapy water and dry them under the sunlight.
Step 7:
Clean the electric motor
Caution: Always wear insulated hand gloves even if you have switched OFF the power supply of atta chakki. Because the capacitor of atta chakki might be charged, and if you accidentally touch the naked wire with bare hands, you might get shocked due to static discharge.
The better solution is to avoid deep cleaning immediately after use. As soon as you open the back cover, you will see the backside of the motor with the cooling fan and its enclosure.
Check the bolts of the cooling fan enclosure; if found loose, tighten them with the appropriately sized spanner.
With the help of a nylon brush, remove the accumulated dust of fine old atta(wheat flour) that has turned into brownish color dust.
You can easily rotate the cooling fan and clean it. It is absolutely safe and okay. Please do it.
Never try to remove the cooling fan or its enclosure because there is a high chance that you won’t be able to fix them back accurately, and it may create other problems during operation.
Step 8:
Clean the feed gear, its motor, and sensors
When you see the atta chakki from the top where you have removed the feed hopper, you will see the motor, the back part of the grinding chamber, and a small arrangement between them.
The arrangement is to let the wheat grains slowly enter the grinding chamber for processing. Gently lift the gear assembly and clean it with a soft nylon brush.
You can also remove the sensors if you want. Gently pull the sensor from the side, and it will come up.
There will be two sensors, mainly known as infrared sensors.
You can see that one sensor will have a small black lamp, and the other one will be a crystal color lamp. They are transmitters and receivers and detect the availability of the grains falling and accordingly start and stop the atta chakki motor with the help of a controller.
Anyway, clean the sensors with a dry and clean cloth and fix them precisely into the same position.
After that, re-assemble the complete gear and install it at the actual position.
Ensure that the position is exact and balanced; otherwise, the hopper will not be fixed properly, and the atta chakki will not start.
Step 9:
You have done an excellent job. You have removed all the necessary parts to clean the atta chakki from the inside. Apart from this, please do not remove any other accessories, like,
- Opening of any wires
- Removing motor foundation bolts
- Removing capacitor
- Removing buzzer
- Removing microcontroller
However, you can check the tightness of wires and tighten them with the help of an insulated screwdriver. Next, clean the entire atta chakki with the help of a nylon brush. Now, if you have a hand air blower or vacuum cleaner, use it for cleaning.
A vacuum cleaner has two functions; one is to blow air, and the other is to suck the air.
If you are cleaning the atta chakki inside your home, you can use the suction method with a vacuum cleaner, and if it is outside of your room, I recommend you use the blower function first.
Modern atta chakki (domestic flour mill) comes with an inbuilt vacuum cleaner, but those vacuum cleaners are not as powerful as regular portable vacuum cleaners.
The vacuum cleaner is good when you clean the atta chakki without dismantling any parts like a routine cleaning.
Air blowers are more useful when you disassemble the atta chakki for deep cleaning. But, you should use both functions when you are doing deep cleaning to double ensure the perfect cleaning.
Recommendation: Instead of buying an auto clean atta chakki, buy a standard atta chakki and buy a separate portable and good quality vacuum cleaner to use for multi-purpose. The inbuilt vacuum cleaner is not so powerful, and you can use it for atta chakki only.
Step 10:
Thoroughly clean the entire atta chakki with a dry cloth.
Make sure that the cloth you use is not dirty or faded. Physically check for any leftover material or tools inside the atta chakki.
It is quite normal to forget the screwdriver or small screws inside the atta chakki, but it can cause major problems during the operation of the atta chakki.
Inspect all the accessories for normal restoration and prepare for the next step.
Now, as you have first used an air blower and then used a vacuum cleaner, it is time to assemble the atta chakki again.
First, fix the feed hopper with all the screws. Please do not tight one screw completely until you fix the rest of the screws.
Otherwise, you might see that the screw holes do not match. Gently place all screws and fix.
Coming to the backside, restore the air filters and again check for any foreign material inside the backside. Foreign material means tools, nuts, bolts, screws, insulation taps, etc.
Congratulations! You are now an expert in cleaning atta chakki at home.
FAQs:
Can you clean the atta chakki with a wet cloth?
No. It is not advisable to clean any part of the atta chakki with a wet cloth. If moisture remains inside the atta chakki, it will start damaging the cabinet material (plywood or wood) and also electronic components.
Should you paint your atta chakki?
Modern atta chakki has good attractive designs from the outside, and you don’t need to do any painting.
However, if you are creative, you can go for painting, but it won’t have any benefits doing that except look. Inside, you can paint the wooden parts to make them useable for a longer period in case the wood is damaged.
Can you clean a domestic flour mill without a vacuum cleaner?
Yes. You can, but you have to apply more effort to clean every corner from residues, and the only way to ensure that is to dismantle the atta chakki completely.
Every time, dismantling is not possible and is not recommended at all. That’s why cleaning tools like a hand air blower or vacuum cleaner are necessary.
Should you keep naphthalene balls inside the atta chakki?
Unless you are going for a vacation or are damn sure that you will not use the atta chakki for a long time, you can keep naphthalene balls inside the atta chakki to prevent insects or termites.
Do I need to have an atta chakki cover?
Atta chakki cover is not costly; you should always have one to protect your flour mill from dust and other foreign material entry.
Which are the best atta chakki for home?
Please read my article on the top 10 best atta chakki for home to buy online.
Wrap up
I am sure with these two methods, you are now well aware of how to clean atta chakki at home with or without a vacuum cleaner.
You also understood how to dismantle the atta chakki and clean it from the inside.
During cleaning, if you feel like using insulated tape on any wire, you can do that but don’t overdo it. It won’t help with anything.
For commercial atta chakkis, there is an atta chakki cleaning machine specifically designed for cleaning.
Still, for domestic atta chakki, a good quality vacuum cleaner is more than sufficient, along with manual cleaning.
You may also read: Most common atta chakki problems and how to solve them