Prolonging the Life of Your Coffee-Making Machine with Regular Maintenance

Many people buy a coffee machine for the sake of having a real, fresh coffee taste delivered to them with the press of a button. However, they often forget to properly care for such expensive equipment, either full or semi-automatic machines, or even a carob one.

Such a reckless attitude shortens the coffeemaker’s service life and spoils the taste of the drink. If you read this article, you’ll see that caring about your coffee machine is not difficult.

Why Should You Clean and Maintain Coffee-Making Machines? 

With regular use of the coffee machine, deposits of coffee oil accumulate in the brewing groups. Coffee oil is quite greasy, and it cannot be completely washed off with simple water.

The dispersion mechanism of a coffeemaker accumulates residual oil, and heats it, turning it into soot, which greatly affects the drink's taste, making it bitter and burnt. 

If no action is taken for a long time, your machine can break. Since you didn’t follow the basic care instructions, your warranty will most likely be invalid. In that case, your best option will be to call a professional repairman,  unless you want to buy a new expensive coffeemaker, of course.

Recommendations from Professional Baristas

The very first and most important rule is to maintain regularity in care. The following simple care routines will help you to avoid most problems with your coffee machine:

• wipe the body and external parts with a paper towel every day;
• keep the tray, coffee container, and milk jug clean;
• clean the coffee grinder at least once a week;
• thoroughly wash the water tank approximately once every 10–14 days;
• clean the brew group thoroughly to remove any coffee oils;
• remember to descale.

Let's take a closer look at the last two points.

Cleaning from Coffee Oils

Coffee beans contain oils, which accumulate on the internal parts during the use of the coffee machine. If you don't do anything, it may simply break. On average, cleaning with oils should be done once or twice a month. More often with intensive use. 

This task is greatly simplified by the use of special cleaning products in the form of tablets. Remember, that if you don’t do this maintenance, the taste of your coffee cup will suffer first, followed by malfunctioning of the machine with enough time passing.

Descaling

Limescale is one of the most common causes of coffee machine failure, so it is important to remove it regularly. The sediment must be removed at least once or twice a month or after 200 cups of brewed coffee.

You are late with descaling if the gadget begins to make a louder noise than usual during operation, the heating temperature drops, or you notice a light sediment at the bottom of the cup.

For coffee machines with automatic cleaning, everything is extremely simple. Start the appropriate program and follow the instructions that appear on the display. During the process, you will need to clean the pan and add the required amount of water. The entire procedure takes, on average, 30–40 minutes.

If the automatic cleaning option is not provided, you need to do the following:

• Fill the water reservoir to the top with cleaner (tablets, or powder).
• Place a cup or other container under the dispenser.
• Start the coffee machine, open the tap, and drain approximately 100–150 ml.
• Leave it for 10–15 minutes so that the cleaning agent has time to soften the limescale.
• Drain the remaining liquid in the same portions of 100–150 ml with a break of 5 minutes.
• Rinse the water tank well, fill it with clean water, and flush the system.
• Start the standard coffee preparation program and pour the first 2–3 cups of the beverage into the sink.

You can now enjoy your favorite tasty coffee knowing that your coffee machine is as good as new.

The Bottom Line

Any equipment needs to be serviced. The more intensively you use our coffee machine, the more often you need to carry out its maintenance. Usually, in modern fully automatic machines, a standard cleaning procedure using tablets or powder resembles killing two birds with one stone. You get rid of the coffee oil buildup and clean the mechanism from limescale simultaneously.

At the same time, the frequency of a descaling, when carried out alone, will heavily depend on the water hardness – the concentration of dissolved minerals, primarily calcium and magnesium ions, in water. The harder the water, the more often one has to do the descaling.