#desclaer

Descale Your Coffee Machines

Think about that time when you first unbox your coffee machine.

It was a sight to behold, wasn't it? You finally got what you wanted for the longest time and its beauty was only eclipsed by its promise: the rich, aromatic coffee it will provide every day, for the rest of your days.

Fast-forward to the present and suddenly, things are not looking so well. Your machine has aged a bit. The coffee it makes is not so rich and aromatic anymore. And you have no idea why.

But, we do.

Scale builds up in your espresso machine over time. While it's a perfectly normal reaction to how often you use your machine and how hard the water you use is, it's also detrimental; it blocks the internal water circuit tubes and sometimes, even damage machine parts.

So, you just have to give it a bit of tender loving care – by descaling it once a year.

To descale your machine, Nespresso recommends its Descaling Kit over household products such as vinegar. The Nespresso descaler comes with 2 bags of 100ml descaling solution that are formulated with Citric Acid to dissolve scale without damaging any machine parts.

How to descale using the kit? Here's a step-by-step guide for you, so your coffee machine keeps giving you that perfect cup of coffee for a long time to come:

Step 1: Disassemble, wash, reassemble.

Take your machine apart – remove its lid, drip tray, coffee capsule container – and give each of these components a good, thorough soap wash in warm water. While you leave them out to dry after rinsing them, wipe down the body of your machine with a damp, soapy cloth.

Once all the components have dried up, it's time to reassemble them so the descaling process can begin.

This step will take about an hour.

Step 2: Prepare your Nespresso Descaling Kit

The Nespresso Descaling Kit is designed to gently eliminate the limescale that builds up in your machine over time, so your coffee tastes great today as it did on the first day.

Put in 100ml of Nespresso's descaling agent into the water tank of your machine, before filling the rest with clean water.

Step 3: Start the descaling process.

Make sure that your machine is set to its Descaling Mode. This usually involves holding down both Espresso and Lungo buttons for a few seconds. Once the buttons begin to blink, press the Lungo button to allow the descaling agent to run through your machine and fill up your cup, as you would a cup of coffee. Once it's filled, pour its content back into the water tank to repeat the rinsing cycle.

Descaling Mode differs from machine to machine. To find out how to enter Descaling Mode on your machine specifically, refer to our guide

Step 4: Run it through clean water.

Carefully clean the water tank and wipe down the inside of your machine to remove all traces of the descaling agent.

Finally, fill up the water tank with clean water to flush out any remaining agent.

Step 5: Fill, pour, fill, pour.

Similar to Step 3, set your machine for a regular, full cup of coffee. Then, pour it away and have your cup filled again. Repeat this process until you've depleted two full, water-filled tank, as that's the amount needed to flush your machine properly.

Step 6: Taste-testing.

Once you're convinced that you've flushed your machine properly, perform a taste test. See if you could taste any of the remaining descaler agents in the water. If you could, that means you'll have to flush your machine once more.

Repeat this tasting-and-flushing process until you can't taste the agent any more.

Step 7: Coffee time!

Make yourself a cup of coffee, because its time your machine worked hard for you in return.

Descaling your machine is no easy feat. This guide itself is enough to put some people off, so if you managed to see everything through, you deserve a treat. And as you fall in love all over again with your coffee machine, remember this: it won't last unless you make it last.