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Limescale

What is it? In simple terms, it is that white to green buildup that occurs in appliances where "hard" water is heated and/or usually boiled. From a different perspective, it is the high amount of magnesium and calcium in water that tend to build up and form a scaling on the inside appliance surfaces that are exposed to the "hard" water. In an espresso machine, this includes the boiler, heating elements, and grouphead assembly.

What could be done? Well, some of our customers have used water and vinegar as a simple maintenance solution, but as they are learning, this is not always effective in preventing and removing lime scale in your espresso machine. In addition, lime scale build up can become costly in the repair of your machine as it can affect an espresso machine's steam or solenoid valve by keeping it open when the knob is in the closed position. Lime scale can make heating elements less effective by coating their surface. And, lately, we have seen increased incidences of limescale in coffee makers and expresso machines that have become non-operational.

Prevention

The main question now… Is what can I do? We have two alternative solutions that you an follow for your home equipment. Most importantly is the "preventative" recommendation. Prevention of water high in magnesium and calcium is essential to the longer useful life of your home equipment. There are a few ways to accomplish this. First is to purchase bottled water that has been "softened" (term describing water that has had magnesium and calcium removed) or to purchase "Reverse Osmosis" Water. Second is to install an in home water softener - this is a good idea if many of your appliances and faucets have lime scale build up. The one we recommend most (and most affordable) is to purchase a Brita pitcher at your local department store. The prices range from $20-$50 plus about $6 each for the cartridges. The Brita pitcher not only filters the water, but it also has a mechanism (ion exchange) to remove the calcium and magnesium from the water being filtered. The only downside is that the cartridge needs to be changed at least every three weeks. Failure to replace the cartridge on schedule would eliminate the effectiveness of the Brita pitcher. Also note that we do not recommend other brands (such as PUR or the filters that fit on your tap (including the Brita one) since our research has indicated that these systems only filter the water, not soften it. We would be interested to hear of any other brands that you know have the ion exchange so as we may post it in our next e-mail.

For our customers who have semi-commercial or commercial equipment, an inline, rechargeable water softener is essential for direct water connect machines. For tank models in this category, we strongly recommend the Brita pitcher. Unfortunately, reverse osmosis or distilled water will not allow your equipment to function properly with respect to automatic refilling of the boiler with water.

Maintenance

The second recommendation and line of defense is a maintenance schedule utilizing CleanCaf. According to the manufacturer, it is a light duty cleaner and descaler for home use. We have found this product to be very effective when used on a regular basis. As a cleaner, it removes the rancid oils that can build up in your coffee maker or espresso machine. As a descaler, it eliminates the start of lime scale build up inside your machine. Although the manufacturer recommends weekly usage, we feel once a month is good enough (except for those cases where water is highly concentrated with calcium and magnesium, it should be every week to two weeks).

Now, Cleancaf is only good for home model coffee and expresso machines. For semi-commercial and commercial equipment, CleanCaf can not be used due to the difficulty presented in removing the solution from the machine's boiler. In these cases, a qualified commercial equipment technician should be utilized to perform this task incorporating a commercial grade (haz mat classified, which can not be shipped) descaler.

If you are interested in purchasing CleanCaf or for more information, you may do so on our web site here: CleanCaf

We hope you found this topic interesting. We would love to hear from you about this and any suggestions you may have for topics to be discussed. Thank you.