Looking After Your Espresso Machine

Looking After Your Espresso Machine

Whether you are a barista in a coffee shop, or fancy yourself a barista at home, chances are you use your espresso machine, a lot!

With each use your machine has a build-up of coffee grounds and oil on the group. To keep your machine running at a high level, as well as ensuring the taste of your espresso remains good quality, cleaning of the machine is essential. It is recommended that you scrub your group gasket with a grouphead brush regularly, preferably after every shot, for professional users, but try to do this at least once a day.

To clean your machine, it is best to use the ‘backflushing’ method. This method is only relevant if your machine has a 3-way solenoid valve, if not, most smaller machines can be cleaned by placing a detergent in the tank, and then letting this run through the entire machine, but please check with your manufacturer.

To backflush your machine, you will need a couple of tools, all of these are available to buy at The Espresso Shop:

• A grouphead brush
• A portafilter
• A blind portafilter
• Espresso machine detergent

To backflush your machine, follow these steps:

1. Scrub the group gasket with the grouphead brush to loosen up and remove and build up that has been left on the group head.
2. Add the recommended amount of espresso machine detergent to the blind filter and run the pump for 10-15 seconds. This should be repeated 4-5 times, but do not add any more detergent.
3. Wash the detergent off the blind portafilter and scrub the group head again, to make sure any grime that was loosened up is removed.
4. Run the pump again, without any cleaner to make sure the detergent has all been washed away.
5. Pull a shot of espresso and discard this, your machine should now be clean and ready for your next perfect cup of espresso!