Caring for your coffee machine

The single most important thing in regard to caring for your coffee machine, whether it's a traditional style machine, a pod machine or a fully automatic bean to cup machine is descaling. This cannot be stressed enough!

Most manufacturers state that if the machine is not descaled correctly the warranty is invalid.

You will need to descale your machine every 3 to 6 months depending on the hardness of the water you are using in your machine. Even if you use filtered water you will need to descale your machine occasionally to remove traces of limescale from pipes, valves, and the boiler. If you are not already using filtered water then we would recommend that you do - even if you live in an area with soft water a water filter will still remove impurities and improve the taste. The harder the water is the more often you will need to descale your machine. Water test strips can be used to find out how hard the water is in your area. Additionally if you have a Jura coffee machine we would strongly suggest using the Claris filters.

The descaling process itself will vary depending on the type of machine and descaling product you are using; as such the procedure outined below is intended as a rough guide only and you should always follow the instructions provided by the manufacturer of the machine and descaler where possible.

Empty the water reservoir and fill with an appropriate amount of descaling solution. Run the machine to fill the boiler and pipes with the descaling solution. If you have a heat-exchanger machine it is important to run water through both the hot water wand and the group head as they have independent pipes and sections in the boiler. Run some of the descaling solution through the hot water wand and group head, and on professional machines also use the backflush procedure to run some of the descaling solution through the pressure release valve. Leave the machine switched on with the descaling solution in it for about half and hour, and then empty the water reservoir and refill with clean water.

Flush the clean water through the boiler, pipes, steam wand, hot water wand, group head, and pressure release valve - you will probably need to use 1 or 2 full reservoirs of clean water. When you are satisfied that the boiler and pipes are full of clean water make at least one cup of coffee and throw it away. You can also use PH test strips to check that all the descaling solution has been rinsed out.

For fully auto bean to cup machines simply follow the onscreen prompts.