- Coffee prep
How to keep your portafilter spic and span.
The holy grail of ambitious coffee people – the portafilter machine – is, to be honest, a diva. It doesn’t only want to be fine-tuned, polished, and admired. Hissing and humming for attention, “La Macchina” also insists on regular wellness treatments with descaling liquid.
Kristin Oldenburg
At least that’s the case with our machine – and the best of all men attaches great importance to ensuring that “his Vibienne” still looks brand new, even at the tender age of 15. Well, then… So, how does cleaning a portafilter machine work?
Long live the user manual.
“Oh, no!” you might be thinking now. “Nobody really reads them!” But you should. Because every machine has:
1. its own descaler (caution: no citric acid!) – it is best to follow the manufacturer’s recommendation.
And 2. each portafilter also has its own design. Apart from whether it is a single circuit or dual circuit model.
But: The basic principle is the same for most machines (here for a dual circuit portafilter):
- Pour the descaling agent (according to instructions!) into the machine
- Drain the water from the steam boiler and heat exchanger
- Fill steam boiler with descaling solution
- Fill heat exchanger with descaling solution
- Remove the filter & disassemble the brew group
- Rinse steam boiler & heat exchanger by running a brew cycle with descaling solution
- Fill fresh water into the machine
- Rinse the steam boiler & heat exchanger by running a brew cycle with fresh water
- Reassemble & lock the brew group
But please don’t just blindly follow these steps. Always follow the instructions for use – amongst other things because the descaler also needs time to take effect (the times vary from model to model) – then nothing can go wrong. Otherwise, it would be such shame for the machine and espresso. It goes without saying that the water tank and drip tray should also be kept meticulously clean, otherwise you could end up with mold in the machine – especially in the drip tray – and nobody wants that. That leaves the actual coffee portafilter. But you clean it after every espresso anyway. (Right?)
So that’s it for cleaning and descaling your portafilter machine. In the next part of our little series, we’ll tell you why you should NOT clean your stovetop pot with dishwashing liquid.
