Loading…
6
PSA: That 'descale every 3 months' sticker on your espresso machine is a lie
Ignored mine for about 8 months. Machine started pulling shots in 45 seconds instead of 25. Took me 4 hours and 3 descale cycles with a vinegar solution to get it back to normal. Should have just done it monthly. Anyone else find the manual's timeline way off?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
stone.simon5mo ago
Yeah, the 'every 3 months' thing is pure fantasy for most people. I ignored mine for about 6 months once and my shots were running 10 seconds too slow. Ended up doing 4 descale cycles with citric acid to get it right. What kind of water are you using? That's a huge factor nobody talks about. Tap water vs filtered vs distilled changes everything. Your machine's timeline is probably based on perfect soft water, not what most of us actually have coming out of the faucet.
0
spencerm525mo ago
3 pounds of beans later and my flow rate was half what it used to be. @stone.simon did you have to pull the shower screen too or just the descale cycles?
2
patb862mo ago
Man I feel your pain. I went through almost the exact same thing about a year ago. After like 4 pounds of a dark roast my flow slowed WAY down and I kept getting these sour, choked shots. I ended up pulling the shower screen AND the dispersion screw because there was a solid disc of compressed coffee oil and fines stuck right behind it that no amount of backflushing could touch. I did a citric acid descale first but it barely helped because the real problem was that greasy sludge. Once I cleaned the screen and the group head gasket area everything went back to normal. Now I pull the screen off every 2 months and give it a soak in Cafiza just to be safe.
9