Espresso Machine maintenence

adrian522

Hi..Looking for a bit of advice here, I have a Rancillio Silvia espresso machine, used about twice per day,

Basically my question is how often should I back flush with detergent, I usually do it about once a month, but I've seen places online where they recommend doing this weekly.

I also remove and clean the shower screen and portafilter and soak those in cafiza about once per month.

Secondly what about descaling, I've read that this should be done about once per year, but I found the steam wand to be really struggling to generate any microfoam and it is performing much better since I descaled the machine. This would have been after 7 months or so.

What are your cleaning regimes like? Any advice is welcome.

BTW I also clean out the grinder about once per month, do you think this is sufficient?

aristotle25

I have the same machine and make about 10 espressos a week on it.

I descale, backflush and clean the machine and clean the grinder every 6 months. After using it for nearly 2 years its operating ok so far.

I would say how often you should descale depends on the water. I use bottled water which I dont know how much scaling it causes.

adrian522

aristotle25 wrote: »

I have the same machine and make about 10 espressos a week on it.

I descale, backflush and clean the machine and clean the grinder every 6 months. After using it for nearly 2 years its operating ok so far.

I would say how often you should descale depends on the water. I use bottled water which I dont know how much scaling it causes.

I think 6 months is fine for descaling but I would think general cleaning including back-flushing should be done more often,

donnacha

adrian522 wrote: »

I think 6 months is fine for descaling but I would think general cleaning including back-flushing should be done more often,

I'm fairly good with my backflush/screen/portafilter cleaning routine - well at least I think I am in that I do it every 4 weeks (ish)

As for descale - once a year - I use filtered water and didn't notice any change after the descale. Mind you I barely ever use the steam wand.

Now as for cleaning the grinder - that is something I need to do more often - probably once a year. Might have to do that this weekend ...

adrian522

donnacha wrote: »

I'm fairly good with my backflush/screen/portafilter cleaning routine - well at least I think I am in that I do it every 4 weeks (ish)

As for descale - once a year - I use filtered water and didn't notice any change after the descale. Mind you I barely ever use the steam wand.

Now as for cleaning the grinder - that is something I need to do more often - probably once a year. Might have to do that this weekend ...

To me that seems about right, I think weekly detergent/backflush might be a bit of over kill.