I've owned a Bezzera Magica for a little over a year now with light residential use (approx 5-10 espressos per week)...But while using my hot water tap today, the metal screen on the inside of the water tap was (much to my surprise) very corroded and simply fell out (see below).



The water tap still works (though the flow is not as smooth without the screen in place) but I notice that there seem to be endless specks of corroded metals that come out with the water and into my mug (see below).



There is also some slight brownish liquid (corrosion?) around where the valve is flush against the face of the unit, and when wiped with a tissue, it leaves a brown stain on the tissue.

I had recently had an issue with a leaky vacuum breaker value on top of my boiler, and I had it serviced this past weekend where they replaced the valve and gave my machine a descale with a 'stronger than normal' descaling solution (as they maintained that this was the reason for the leaky breaker valve).


- Has anyone ever had their entire hot water tap corrode this quickly (after only a year of light use)?

- Could the 'stronger than normal' descaling agent be at fault for this corrosion?

- Or is this just a case of a poor quality metal being used by Bezzera that is prone to corrosion?


I'm concerned that this corrosion may be occurring in the boiler as well, as there doesn't seem to be any end to these specks of metal that are coming out of the hot water tap.

Any thoughts or advice is much appreciated!

Here is a photo of the slight brownish liquid (corrosion?) around the area where the valve is.

I have also a Magica, for more than a year;
5-6 doubles daily;
no descaling yet, usually 2-3 backflushes after a session, but no chemicals;
hot water tap used only for occasional cups warming and frequent boiler water refreshing, cca. 6 oz. daily;
water softener cartridge and a reliable (IMO) bottled water;
a couple of weeks ago, I've cleaned the vacuum breaker and the autofill probes (nothing alarming);

so, I would consider the water you've used, or the descaling procedure;
this is how the hot water tap looks right now disassembled, no cleaning:



p.s.
about descaling, Bezzera is quite restrictive: no chemicals in the circuitry, only descaling individual parts as I've understood; and I intend to do so, sometime in the future..., by individual parts disassembled;
ok, with a grain of salt, but I am on their side, as they say:
"It is not admitted to use any chemical product to descale the machine, (also inside the manual, the chemical descaling was not mentioned). Using chemical solution for descaling, you could damage the o-ring of the pump and in that case should change entire pump. To improve the machine life you can prevent the limestone with water softener, but to descale the machine after long time, you have to operate only on manually cleaning of the parts."

Before assuming the worse, follow the instructions in Checking an E61 Espresso Machine for Scale. IF the E61 mushroom is clogged with scale or damaged from the descaling treatment, it's a safe bet the steam boiler is worse and merits its own inspection by peering in the steam boiler through a removed fitting on the top of the boiler (you could remove the heating element, but they are usually very hard to loosen and you'd need a new gasket to avoid leaks).

Thanks for the reply.

But seriously...you have not descaled your machine to date?
I was under the impression that this was a critical component to espresso machine maintenance.

Like you, I also conduct about 3-4 backflushes after every use to keep the grouphead nice and clean. I also use the hot water tap only for warming up my cups, but I tend to use it about 5 days a week.

In the year that I've had my machine, I've descaled it once every 4 months with Dezcal. The first two times I actually only used one package in the reservoir (you're supposed to use two) and this is the reason (as per the service technician) why my vacuum breaker valve needed to be replaced.

The water I use in my machine is straight from my tap after I run it through a Brita filter first. The TDS reading on my tap water is 200 ppm and after it goes through the Brita filter, it drops to around 100 to 120 ppm, so it becomes significantly softer.

The only "chemicals" in Dezcal solution is citric acid (and I think some aluminum salts) and I've never heard of it actually corroding the machine after a couple of uses. I've actually heard that it inhibits corrosion.

Maybe it was the stronger concentrated descaling solution they used after replacing my vacuum breaker valve. But I still find it hard to believe that something could cause such an advanced state of corrosion so quickly.

HB wrote:Before assuming the worse, follow the instructions in Checking an E61 Espresso Machine for Scale. IF the E61 mushroom is clogged with scale or damaged from the descaling treatment, it's a safe bet the steam boiler is worse and merits its own inspection by peering in the steam boiler through a removed fitting on the top of the boiler (you could remove the heating element, but they are usually very hard to loosen and you'd need a new gasket to avoid leaks).

Thanks. In terms of functionality, the mushroom has perfect water flow and there are no bits and pieces of anything (scale, metal) found in the water.

The same cannot be said from the water coming out of the tap, which is why I'm concerned about the state of the boiler and this this the source of this water.

In either case, it looks like I will have to take this thing back to the technician and ask him what the heck happened.

I was just wondering if anyone else had an experience like this.

Yours is a heat exchanger espresso machine. The pathway through the heat exchanger is short and offers few places for scale / gunk to accumulate. The steam boiler, on the other hand, is perfectly suited to collect all sort of nasty things since it allows only steam to escape through the steam wand and limited syphoning of boiler water thorough the water tap. The flecks of metal you found could be from overly aggressive descaling stripping off chrome from the E61 mushroom, the surface of the heating element, or even nickel plating from the boiler, if it has such a plating.

If it really bothers you, an inspection and, if necessary, stripdown/descaling will return the boiler to like-new condition. There's lots of threads showing the horrors that often lurk in steam boilers, but almost all of these threads have happy endings.


Not for the squeamish...

I was just wondering if anyone else had an experience like this.

And that's fully understandable. To the best of my knowledge, the problem you experienced with the HW dispersion screen has not been discussed before. I would lean towards thinking that the cause of same was due to the descaling solution used.

A possible remedy would be to simply run water through the HW wand until there are no more particles showing up. I would definitely inspect the mushroom as Dan suggested in his link for "Checking an E61 Espresso Machine for Scale".

Radu gives an informative post re Bezzera's attitude on descaling. The need for descaling depends GREATLY on the quality of your source water and how you treat it (if at all).

Franck wrote: But seriously...you have not descaled your machine to date?
I was under the impression that this was a critical component to espresso machine maintenance.

I have not descaled my HX after four years of daily use. I use unfiltered tap water that is rated at 3.1 grains of hardness. I figure the machine will let me know when it is time for a descale. So far though I have not had any problems that I could attribute to scale build up.

Ed

Franck wrote: I was under the impression that this was a critical component to espresso machine maintenance.

The following is taken from the Quickmill Anita Owner's Manual that is available on the Chris Coffee web site:

Chris' Coffee wrote:Descaling
Descaling is the process of running a descaling agent such as citric acid through the machine to remove the accumulation of mineral deposits.

If you are using softened water then it should not be necessary to descale the machine.

Often times descaling can cause more problems than it solves. It can react to the minerals and foam over ruining electrical components. If the solution is too strong it can cause the chrome plating inside the group to flake off and get in the coffee or if it's too weak it can dislodge minerals and cause a blockage. For liability reasons we strongly discourage descaling and will not provide any instructions on the process.