Back to previous page

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 espresso 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.

***Effective March 28, 2012 - 1st-line no longer recommends using any water pitcher filtration system as their cartridges usually are nto effective enough to remove magesium and calcium from the water. If you are solely using a water filtration system, please ask them if they have a water softening system included or a mechansim to remove magnesium and calcium or exchange these minerals into salt ions.

Maintenance

The second recommendation and line of defense is a maintenance schedule utilizing Ascaso Detergent. 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, Ascaso Detergent is only good for home model coffee and espresso machines. For semi-commercial and commercial equipment, Ascaso Detergent 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 (hazmat classified, which can not be shipped) descaler.

If you are interested in purchasing Ascaso Detergent or for more information, you may do so on our web site here.

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.

Reverse Osmosis

The idea of an RO system is to purify water. That means giving you H2o, and H2o ONLY.

The H2o molecule is non-conductive. It is the minerals that make water conductive, and your auto-refill electronics used this conductivity to sense the water levels.

Pure H2o would simulate "No Water" causing the boiler to overfill itself.