Cleaning your espresso machine might be a tedious process, yet it is an integral part in making sure your machine lasts long enough to return your initial investment.
An espresso machine would have a lot of signs when it is in need of maintenance. Something you would notice is your shots would start to taste off and inconsistent. Sometimes the machine would start operating louder than usual and your steam wand would be noticeably weaker. You would also notice your shower screen would disperse water unevenly. Ultimately making your operations a lot more inconvenient. So, how do we maintain our machine? And, how often?
First, let us start with a checklist on what you will be needing. For the grouphead, you will need a grouphead cleaning brush and a backflush pin or a blind basket, which are usually already included when you purchase any machine. Depending on the machine model, you will also need either a phillips screwdriver or a teaspoon. And to top it all of, a cleaning solution to get all the oils stuck inside. For the steam wand, you can use any steaming pitcher you have.
To maintain our machine daily, we first need to get the grouphead cleaning brush. Next we let water run through the grouphead and brush the shower screen to remove coffee grounds left on the screen.
Fun fact: Some specialty coffee shops purge AND brush their group heads after every shot!
Then we can use the blind basket or the backflush pin, put it on a portafilter, attach the portafilter on the group head and let water run for around 15 seconds. Turn the water off and let it rest for 10 seconds. Then, run it again for a couple more times. This flushes leftover coffee grounds inside the machine down the drip tray. To clean the steam wand, get your steaming pitcher and fill it with cold water the way you would normally fill it with milk (you can put ice too, the colder the water the better). Then, steam the cold water the way you would with milk until the water boils. Afterwards, just purge out the contents for a couple of seconds. Then make sure the external parts of the machine are clean too! Drain the drip tray and the water tank and wipe it dry to avoid molds or scaling.
This next step depends on whether you use your espresso machine for home or for your café. If you are using your machine for home, you can do this step every month. Whereas, if you are using it in your café, best to do this step every week.
Do this step after you finish cleaning your machine. First you get your blind basket or your backflush pin and put it on your portafilter. But before you attach it to your grouphead, get your cleaning solution and add around 3-5 grams of it on your portafilter. Then you can proceed to backflushing the machine. This gets rid of all the oils that are not flushed out by backflushing with only water. Then, we can grab a phillips screwdriver to unscrew the shower screen off of the grouphead. If your machine does not have a screw in the middle, you can remove the shower screen by getting a teaspoon and wedging it on the sides of your shower screen to remove it. Afterwards, you can get a tub of hot water, mixed with cleaning powder, and submerge overnight the shower screen along with the other removable parts of the machine (steam wand tip, basket filters, etc.).