Descaling at what temperature?

[stevenzaat]

It is maybe not the most sexy subject in this forum, but at what temperature (hot or cold) should you descale your espresso machine.

I bought a bottle of Eco-calc (a natural dedicated espresso descaling liquid) with a sticker added which said that you should use it while your machine is cold. When I was in another espresso store they also sold this stuff and they told me that you should use hot water to dissolve the lime.

So I am very confused, but I still use the stuff while the machine is warm, for the only reason that I always in a need of an espresso before I start cleaning the machine .

At te site of www.koffiewarenhuis.nl (where they sell another descaling solution for espresso machines) they also state that the machine should be cold at the moment you descale the machine (despite the fact that your machine will warm at the moment that you pump the liquid through the system).

Although the issue is not a fancy discussion item, I still think it is important, because a scaled machine will not produce the high quality espresso where we all looking for every day.

Best regards,
Steven

[Ian]

I started with the machine cold, then flushed through with descaler (in my case citric acid) and let the boiler come up to temperature then turned it off. After about half an hour I then flushed through with fresh water.

Jim Schulman has posted a fair bit about descaling so it may be worth searching for some of his posts on a.c. and CG.

Ian

[jumper]

never ever descale your machine when its hot!
really it makes the descaler expand and you have an increased risk of blowing your gaskets its one of the biggest problems we get with espresso machines at work.
mark

[stevenzaat]

Ok thanks Ian and Mark. I leave the machine cold and it only gets a little bit warmer when I flush the descaler through the system. I do not have a boiler, the water is heated through a metal thermo-block. But I assume that this will have no impact. The only thing is that the metal thermo block gets very quick (it's in the name) hot and therefore it is almost impossible to flush cold water through the sytem. Anyway thanks for the tips and I will work on it. BTW Mark did you make a decision on La Spaziale?

Best regards,

Steven

[Ian]

never ever descale your machine when its hot!
really it makes the descaler expand and you have an increased risk of blowing your gaskets its one of the biggest problems we get with espresso machines at work.
mark

Why would descaler expand more than water?

[phil]

Perhaps the comment is more related to the initial reaction rate and the consequent large volumes of gas released over a short time?

[jumper]

i think thats what i mean its a translation thing.
when the descaler comes in contact with calced materials the chemical reaction is usually so that it start foaming and (especially in thermoblocks) this can cause gaskets to burst.

steven, i decided to buy it but at the moment i cant reach the owner so i might lose it wich is very dissapointing after making the decision.
cheers mark