How important is it to clean and decalcify your coffee machine?

December 2023

Whether we are talking about a capsule coffee machine, a pad machine or a filter coffee machine, every coffee machine has to be cleaned and decalcified regularly. With the following tips, we explain why descaling your coffee machine is important and how you can do this!

When does a coffee machine need to be cleaned and descaled?

If the quality, amount or temperature of the coffee does not meet the standards, it is time to decalcify and clean your device. An excessive amount of steam or noise can also indicate that your coffee machine is in the need for decalcifying and cleaning.

Why is it important to decalcify and clean your machine?

By decalcifying and cleaning your coffee machine regularly, you will ensure that you can enjoy optimal flavours and temperatures. While decalcifying your machine, water lime scale will be removed from all the places that water runs through. While cleaning your coffee or tea machine, you will remove all the residue that has been left behind. Water lime scale can seriously damage your device and by consistently cleaning the machine it will provide the best flavoured coffee! We recommend you to clean your machine every six months to extend its life span.

Types of decalcifying products

The operation of the different methods are equal, however the preference for tabs, liquids or powders is personal. A big difference can be found in the active elements from decalcifying- and cleaning products. The most common elements are:

  • Vinegar is a product that we strongly advice against. While cleaning your coffee machine with vinegar, it will absorb the unpleasant flavour of the product which will negatively affect the aroma of the coffee.

  • Citric- and lactic acid are biodegradable and the safest manner of descaling. Furthermore citric acid neutralizes bad smell from your coffee machine. Descales 20x faster than vinegar.

  • Sulphamic acid (also known as amidosulfonic acid) is a powerful descaling agent. Cleaning with this product is 20 times quicker as cleaning with vinegar and 10x faster than citric and lactic acid. Furthermore sulphamic acid is colour- and odourless.

New: cleaning  beans for grinder 

Cleaning the grinder system of your coffee machine often is seen as a difficult task. In most cases, the complete grinder system has to be removed. Nowadays, there is a more efficient way of cleaning the machine, namely with the grinder cleaning beans from SCANPART. The cleaning beans are grinded and absorb the fats and oils from the coffee beans. In addition, they remove the old coffee pulp that has accumulated between the grinding discs during normal use. After this process, the grinder of your electric or hand-operated coffee mills, grinders in automatic machines and espresso machines are clean.

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