How to Effectively Clean your Coffee Machine
Many domestic coffee machine owners have never cleaned or descaled their coffee machine and lots of owners clean their machine less than once a year. The less you clean your coffee machine the more likely that it could suffer from breakdowns and blockages. The descaling aspect of the cleaning process is most important to avoiding those annoying problems. The cleaning you have to undertake largely depends on what coffee machine you own. Each coffee machine has a slightly different cleaning procedure, the machine should come with its own cleaning process. In this blog we will give you some professional tips to cleaning the machine. Just remember to switch the coffee machine off, unplug it where possible and let it cool down before getting started…
Traditional Espresso Machines
To clean the brew head of the machine (where the hot water is dispensed), you need to flush thoroughly with water using a blank screen and a portafilter. People will often have a spare for this specific purpose. The other thing you need to take into consideration is the portafilter may need unblocking with a small object e.g. pin. You should also think about over tamped coffee grounds, this is when water cannot move through the coffee grounds. This unfortunately causes a build-up of pressure and water leaking could occur.
Capsule Coffee Machines
Capsule machines are known to be the simplest machines to clean and maintain. They’re also the easiest way of making an espresso, although something to bear in mind is that this type of capsule is costly in the long term. Capsule coffee machines need water flushed through it and regular descaling. This type of machine often come with a separate milk-frothing machine. The milk-frothing machine also requires cleaning to prevent milk hardening, damaging internal parts.
Descaling your Capsule Coffee Machine
Let’s not forget about descaling your coffee machine, it’s an important job to keep your machine in working order. Many coffee machine manufacturers provide warning signs in the instructions. If you find that you live in an area with hard water, scaling can negatively impact the performance of the machine. Coffee machines often come with water hardness strips to test your water. The regularity of your descaling will depend on the type of water in your area and how often you use your machine.
Coffee machines often recommend using different descaling products. Some will say using vinegar will do the trick and others have their very own product.
Bean-to-cup Coffee Machines
These machines are more suitable for commercial business since they take a lot of time to look after. Many bean-to cup machines have a set of sensors and warning lights to direct you through the cleaning process. The internal components of the machine will need to be dismantled from the machine and cleaned. Ground coffee can often get trapped in the internal workings of the machine, the manual for the machine will explain how to remove this.
Descaling of this type of equipment requires the attention of a coffee technician. Please contact us on And if scales become a regular issue ask us about Hydracs
Contact Us for Domestic Coffee Machine Maintenance Services
Get in touch with our experienced engineers for home coffee machine maintenance by phone 02039 574961 or through our contact form.