I was in Portland this past Summer and was told both by the folks at Clive Coffee and Seattle Coffee Gear that they do not recommend descaling a heat exchanger machine. I found this pretty curious and haven't descaled since then but am now starting to wonder if I should descale.

I understand HX can be harder to do and I am not too handy with the guts of my machine but should I continue to descale? They recommend to just use very soft water and leave it at that.

I use a La Nuova Era Cuadra if that makes any difference.

I don't think it's heat exchanger specific. Many vendors and manufacturers, from La Marzocco to Rocket and others are now recommending using softer water and not de-scaling on all their machines. I believe it's due to the risk of dislodging a chunk of scale that gets stuck somewhere and clogs.

Yeah, that is exactly what I was told. What do they recommend regarding descaling then? It seems they are trying to be more proactive than reactive but that also causes trouble for people who need to descale.

Especially for an espresso machine which highlights a descale feature with the newest iteration (looking at you, BES 920XL). I haven't heard Breville comment on not descaling...maybe dual boilers with smaller brew boilers are a special case?

Slayer recommends no descaling (double boiler), and as stated prior, rectify the water issue before it becomes an issue.

After my second descale of my Hx I came to the conclusion I was wasting my time. I will inspect the machine annually, but my water softener system makes it unlikely that I will do anything. There are other things that need cleaning, but descale is not on the list. All of this to say I agree with their recommendation completely.