Today I replaced the portafilter gasket and cleaned the grouphead and shower screen on my Silvia. The machine is exactly 5 years and 1 months old and I have used it nearly daily. Only once have I removed and cleaned the shower screen...and yet today I was surprised to see some coffee residue built up behind the shower screen. Residue was also lodged around and behind the portafilter gasket.

As I cleaned the grouphead with the original gasket removed, the smell was disgusting like sewer water. YUCK!!

My friends call me "hard core" as if this type of cleaning is only performed by insane coffee freaks. After the cleaning I noticed cleaner and more even water flowing from the PF during warmup flushes, and my espresso today was incredible. It was good before, but I think the cleaning gave me a little more clarity in the cup.

Nevertheless, I recommend that you keep up on your scheduled maintenance, cleaning, descaling, gaskets, etc. Your friends might laugh, but your coffee will reign supreme.

Please post some photos of your maintenance to show everyone how important it is to maintaining a clean machine. I wish I had photos to post, but alas I spent all my $ on a Mazzer Mini and do not own a suitable camera.

best,
Don

I go a week between chemical backflushes and shower screen removals, and just making 2-3 espressos a day makes for plenty of gunk up there!

I wish I had photos to post, but alas I spent all my $ on a Mazzer Mini and do not own a suitable camera.

You made the right choice!

ok, now you have my attention.

I pull a shot a day and I do a water back flush daily, and a chemical back flush each week, but I have never removed the screen to cleen up in the grouphead. My unit is currently 9 months old so i guess i'll need to do that soon?

Is there an "industry standard" on how often to physically remove the showerhead to "deep-clean" the machine and parts???

Rob - my shower screen just falls out when I remove the center bolt. I soak it, the bolt etc. along with any baskets and portafilters I have used that week in cleaning solution. I automatically do it along with a backflush.

I find that the times that I haven't removed it before the backflush, taking it out afterwards shows that coffee gunk gets trapped behind there and isn't flushed out with the backflush alone.

hmmm...i'll have to give it a try soon, unfortunalty mine won't be as easy as removing a bolt - with the QM Alexia, you've got to sorta "pry" it out with a flat head screw driver after removing the rubber gasket. I am having visions of 9 months worth of old beans sitting behind that screen now!

Yum!

Although, the chemical backflushing should've removed all the coffee oils from them, so if there is any coffee back there, it shouldn't be imparting much flavour -or- go rancid

vanboom wrote:(...)The machine is exactly 5 years and 1 months old and I have used it nearly daily. Only once have I removed and cleaned the shower screen...

My friends call me "hard core" ...

OH MY GOD!!!
cleaning that rarely is hard core indeed

I have read so many reports like yours, and how horrible things can get behind the shower screen. Remember that the same sort of curd will be in the brew path behind the shower screen. So yes, you need to remove the shower screen periodically to clean the brewhead even if you backflush with a proper detergent once or twice a month. And even if you remove the shower screen regularly you still need to be doing a chemical backflush once a month or so.

For those that have an E-61 machine the same level of maintenance is necessary to keep your machine working smoothly. Of course, as was mentioned, removal of the shower screen is a bit trickier on those machines... BUT WAIT! I happen to have a lesson posted on my website, with images, that explains, step by step, how to safely pry out the shower screen. It is in the "How-To" section, number 13. It even has an animated gif showing me taking my screen out.

As always, no ads, no banners, nothing for sale... Just lots of information... some of it even useful!

A small clarification: my Silvia is 5 years old and I have just now replaced the original portafilter gasket. I have performed some maintenance: I removed the shower screen and cleaned behind it a couple years ago and I run Cleancaf about every 2 months. There was plenty of coffee gunk around the outside of the brewhead under the lip of the shower screen when I removed it to replace the portafilter gasket. I think I will start removing the shower screen every 2 weeks.

The machine seems to be working better - clear water coming out during my warming flushes and a smoother flow during the shot extraction. (My espresso is better than ever these days - thanks to everyone at home-barista.com!)

Based on this experience, I think I will replace the gasket every 24 months from now on. It's 2:08am...6 hours to espresso!