If the coffee at home doesn't taste right, the coffee machine is often not clean. Cleaning your espresso machine is quick to do and is the prerequisite for delicious coffee. In particular, coffee oils build up in the coffee machine, making the coffee taste rancid and unpleasant. We will show you how cleaning can be done quickly and easily.
What makes an espresso machine dirty?
Coffee consists of cellulose, proteins, acids, and other substances, including 7 to 17% oil depending on the variety. These oils love to deposit themselves in the shower screen, the portafilter spout, under the gasket, and in every available crevice. These oils quickly start to taste rancid and overpower the coffee flavor with a bitter edge.
The coffee itself loves to clump together in tiny particles with the old oil and continues to extract bitters. All in all: very, very unappetizing!
While the fat mainly tastes bad, the steam wand is a real hygiene issue. Because bacteria love to throw a mold party there.
Cleaning for every day and in between
- Before every espresso extraction, perform a short rinse without the portafilter. This loosens the remnants of the last brew from the group screen. Conveniently, older coffee machine models also use this to level out their brewing temperature.
- Always wipe out the basket in the portafilter with a cloth before grinding new coffee into it. This prevents coffee from being brewed multiple times, which would make it extremely bitter.
- If you are making a lot of coffee, it is worth using a “blind filter” every now and then to perform a backflush. Simply lock in the portafilter with the blind filter and draw water for 10 seconds, just as you would for normal coffee brewing. If you are unsure how to do this, it is best to watch our video on how to clean an espresso machine.
- You should purge the steam wand before and after every milk steaming. Simply turn the steam on full blast once. This removes water from the wand and ensures you get steam exactly as it should be. Very important: also wipe the steam wand with a clean cloth before and after each steaming.
This might sound like a lot of effort, but it quickly becomes a habit once you start doing it. This keeps your machine clean every day. Provided you also do the weekly cleaning. 😊
Cleaning for every week or after heavy-use days
Stubborn deposits cannot be removed easily. For this, degreaser is the method of choice.
For the weekly cleaning, you need the following materials:
- Coffee machine degreaser
- Blind filter or rubber insert
- Group head brush
- Container for soaking – ideally a 1l milk pitcher
- Clean cloth
And this is how the weekly cleaning works:
- Remove the portafilter. Remove the filter basket and replace it with the blind filter. Alternatively, a sealing rubber insert that covers all holes can be used. A blind filter has the advantage that it seals perfectly and the filter basket can be soaked at the same time.
- Put half an espresso spoon of degreaser into the blind filter. This is enough for almost all products from almost all manufacturers. Of course, the manufacturers recommend larger quantities so you buy more sooner.
- Lock in the portafilter and build up pressure 10 times for about 10 seconds each by pressing a brew button or operating the lever of your espresso machine. When you finish the cycle, the cleaning water flows back into the drip tray. The shower screen, gasket, and openings are cleaned. This process is called backflushing.
- After ten cycles, rinse the blind filter and repeat the procedure with water only. This removes the remaining cleaning agent.
- Then empty and clean the drip tray so that the cleaning water does not damage the plastic.
- On many Faema E61 group heads, you can push the shower screen out with a spoon. For some machine types, you need a screwdriver. Place the filter basket, the shower screen, and the portafilter (underneath the handle) in the 1l milk pitcher with degreaser (for about 15 minutes). Then rinse everything thoroughly under clear water.
We recommend not drinking the first espresso after cleaning. But by the second one, you will notice how good coffee tastes from a clean espresso machine.
If you have questions about the process, write to us or watch the video on cleaning the espresso machine on YouTube.
Cleaning the coffee grinder as well
After cleaning the espresso machine, we recommend also cleaning the espresso grinder immediately. Only then can you really taste the “success of the cleaning.”
