Buying an espresso machine is a sure step for any coffee enthusiast who decides to enter the espresso world. Even if you decide on a semi-automatic or even a manual machine, some maintenance to a certain level is compulsory to serve good coffee. For many, one of the most critical maintenance tasks is descaling.
In the long run, water accumulates scales, mineral residue, or limescale, lowering the machine’s operational capacity and final coffee beverage quality. Today, I will illustrate how to describe your espresso machine correctly and ensure that it is always in the brewing position.
Importance of Descaling
The short answer is yes if you still have not decided whether to sell your espresso machine. Every appliance that involves water has lots of calcium and magnesium as minerals, especially in tap water. Therefore, these components are trapped inside the machine, forming or forming a layer of limescale over a very long time.
Unfortunately, it damages the heating and pressure systems internally within the machine in the long term. This, in turn, is pretty key if you want to have high-quality espresso shots. Not to mention, limescale can clog a steam wand or even water lines, leaving someone in quite a poor state of operation and a very unsatisfied coffee maker. Descale ensures that your machine will be working at its full potential and the quality of the cup. Deposits such as limescale and other water and coffee residues that could take place between periods can cause a resultant effect of lower temperatures in brewing or even less water flow through; this means weak shots or, even worse, bitter-tasting shots.
How Often to Descale?
It depends on whether the water is soft or hard and whether the person uses it often. So, the machine will have to be descaled once every 2-3 months for tap water users. For bottled or filtered water users, you can go once every 4-6 months.
But even though you use filtered water, it is still very important; no filter would ever filter 100% of the minerals; hence, descaling cannot be avoided.
What You’ll Need to Get Started
Before you begin, you will need to get the following:
- Descaling solution: A commercial product sold by those manufacturers who specifically designed it for espresso machines. Both tablet forms, powder forms, and liquid forms work. Several prominent companies specialize in descaling products made specifically for espresso machines, such as Cafetto and Dezcal.
- Water: To be used, aside from its essential use, since water is an additive to the removal of the descaling solution after it has done its intended function.
- Time: The total time taken for the whole process is thirty to sixty minutes, from the beginning to the end.
How to Descale Your Espresso Machine Step by Step
- Turn off the machine and let it cool down. First, ensure that the equipment has been turned off and that all the remaining heat has dissipated. If you try to turn the water valves, you will likely get burnt, as the equipment may still be warm.
- Prepare the descaling solution: Mix the recommended solutions according to the package label. Whenever a solution in tablet or powdered form is used, mix the product completely in the solvent. When finished, drain off any excess solution from your machine’s water tank.
- Drain the descaling solution from the machine. Now switch on the espresso machine and the pump. Add the solution inside the group head of the espresso machine and simulate shooting a brewing cycle for about 30 seconds. Then switch off the machine and let the solution remain there for 15-20 minutes. This would be long enough for the descaling agent to act well in loosening up while homogenizing lime deposits inside the pipes and the boiler.
- Clean the steam wand. This cleaning job does not go unnoticed. Some of this descaling solution is intended to pass through the steam wand into the opening and circulate for a few seconds. Then turn it off, and the steam wand will fill up with solutions that will eliminate scaling inside it.
- Repeat the cycle. Continue pumping the solution through the group head and steam wand a few times to consume half of the tank’s volume of water. During these flushes, maintain intervals to allow the descaling solution to be effective on any buildup.
- Clean the equipment. In this respect, following the application of the descaling solution on the machine, it could then be siphoned by fresh running water. Drain and flush out the water reservoir, refill it with fresh, clean water, and circulate it several times through the machine. Do not forget to pump enough clean water through the group head and steam wand to flush as much of the descaling solution as possible out of the system. This is important to avoid a chemical-tainted taste in your next shot of espresso.
Avoid Common Descaling Mistakes
As many tips are given on how to descale, a few things go wrong, likely saving you from damage to your machine.
- Add vinegar. Vinegar is an excellent household cleaner. However, it is not recommended to descale an espresso machine using vinegar. Vinegar is known to eat some of the aluminum components of the machine, which it leaves inside the coffee machine for some time based on the residue that influences the flavor of the coffee. Therefore, it is advisable to use a descaling solution specifically produced for espresso machines so as not to break your equipment.
- Ignore routine descaling. Although filtered water is used, descaling is also important. Filtered water can retard the scale formation but cannot entirely stop this process. Failure to regularly descale compromises the whole operation of your machine, and expensive repair work may be required.
- Failure to rinse thoroughly. If the machine is not rinsed after a descale, where this is necessary, the coffee prepared will have a bitter taste. Bathroom tissue isn’t the only thing that needs to be cleaned from your mouth after treatment showering. There are much worse odors that could be stuck in your coffee machine, especially after a descaling procedure.
Maintenance Processes
Regular mechanical depreciation works only partially in properly caring for your espresso machine. Here are some other suggestions to ensure that your machine runs without problems, though such problems are unlikely:
- Clean Group Head Daily: When the group head is used every time, sweep off the coffee oils or ground or movement of the group to dislodge the plugs.
- Purge the steam wand: After steaming milk, purge off the steam and blow the steam wand, which prevents milk from getting inside the wand.
- Use filtered water: This will reduce the formation of scales, though this does not eliminate the need to descale your machine entirely.
Final Thoughts
This is a dirty job, but cleaning the espresso machine is necessary to prolong the espresso machine, and its taste is very important. With the products and the right process, you will find that the machine keeps working at the utmost levels, and consequently, coffee quality will be improved. All machines, single boilers, double boilers, and heat exchangers require periodic descaling for them to function at best and avoid some repairs that were not initial necessities.
Treat your machine right, and it will take good care of your coffee.
