Keep it clean

“One major difference between a home user and a professional café is cleaning. When you’ve invested money in your home coffee machine to produce great-tasting specialty coffee, the last thing you want is for it to become faulty because you aren’t cleaning it correctly.”

Ryan McLachlan, Coffee Specialist at Breville, Sydney, Australia

Know how and when

There are two main reasons to keep your machine clean. The first: coffee made in a clean machine will taste better, plain and simple. Secondly, regularly cleaning and maintaining your espresso machine will help it last longer.

Cleaning and maintenance covers all aspects of your machine, from cleaning your group head and steam wand to descaling and regularly changing the water filter. As a general rule, if you’re making between two and five cups of coffee a day, you need to clean most parts once a week. Some, however, such as the grinder and water tank, will only need to be cleaned once every two or three weeks. 

In this video, you’ll learn about the four main areas that you’ll need to keep an eye on to effectively maintain your home espresso machine.