So, if you’re considering buying a coffee machine, it’s a smart choice and can help you curb the cost of buying coffee out, while also getting you quality coffee from the comfort of your home. But, if you’re hoping to buy a coffee machine with a grinder, you’re in for some maintenance.
Why Cleaning Is Important
Correctly caring for your coffee machine will keep it running for longer, and will lead to a better tasting brew. If you don’t maintain your machine, the taste of the coffee can be butter, sour or even salty due to coffee and calcium build-ups.
Some sure signs your machine is in need of TLC include the following:
- Your coffee tastes burnt or bitter.
- Your machine’s coffee pour is at the wrong temperature.
- Your machine is making strange noises.
- The pour is slower than it usually is.
How To Correctly Maintain Your Coffee Machine
No matter which type of machine you have, you’ll need to give it a little bit of love, and this is what you can do.
Daily:
Every day or after every use, you can clean the most used aspects of your coffee machine to save your work later on. This includes:
- Wipe the external areas with a damp cloth.
- Wipe down the steam wand you use to froth milk.
- Refill the water tank.
- Clean and remove the drip tray.
Weekly:
Here’s what you can do once a week to improve your coffee machine’s lifespan.
- Empty and then rinse the capsule or pod box on a pod machine.
- Empty used grounds from a manual machine.
- Run a cleaning powder through the manual machine.
Monthly:
Once a month or once every few months, there are some things to do that are a little more of a deep clean.
- If your machine has a cleaning cycle, you should use it once a month.
- If it doesn’t have a cycle you can backflush the machine using a coffee machine cleaning solution. You can repeat this with clean water to flush out chemicals.
- Clean build-up from the part that diffuses the water flowing from the group head.
Annually:
Here are some things you can do once a year to keep your machine really, very clean.
- Soak the components such as the group head, shower screen and portafilter in a cleaning solution.
- Brush loose grounds from the grinder.
- Polish the stainless-steel aspects.
- Descale as needed.
When shopping around, considering the maintenance that needs to be done is only half the job, you will also want to make sure you buy a quality machine from experts like the team at Espresso Connect. With a great machine and maintenance routine, your machine will last you for years!
