Ok I'm worried...

Worried about scale in my E61. Life got busy and I didn't test my water or check my mushroom until today. No excuses, but that's where I'm at. I've had my machine since last August and haven't descaled yet. Bad -- I know.

My water So...I tested with a Hach total hardness titration kit. Also the Hach 5-in-1 test strips for good measure.
Total hardness = 10-11Gpg / 171 to 188ppm
Alkalinity = 80ppm
pH = 7.8 (approx)
Total chlorine = 0.1ppm
Free chlorine = 0

The mushroom...the horror! I pulled the mushroom, and while not the worst I've seen, I'm concerned. I've only had the machine for 9 months. Used everyday, but not on 24/7. Pulled an average of 2 or 3 doubles per day. Frequently used the hot water wand and released steam, even when not steaming milk.

One side of the mushroom wasn't so bad. The other side was having a green limestone party. (see pics below) So I followed Eric's procedure to clean the parts and chamber with vinegar. The chamber's sides were virtually clear of scale. Just the bottom of the chamber had some buildup. After the vinegar soak, I carefully sucked the loosened scale out with a syringe and then put everything back together after flushing thoroughly.

Next step...DESCALE??? The next step is a full descale. But I'm worried about clogging or damaging things. I was planning on doing the boiler fill method by disabling the water probe sensor. As seen here: What'd you think? How concerned should I be and can I safely do a full descale at this point? I'm concerned about the boiler's condition inside.
Many thanks!

Your next step should be to treat your water. Based on what I've seen yousr doesn't look too bad but I'll leave it to the experts to comment on descaling or not.

canuckcoffeeguy wrote:The chamber's sides were virtually clear of scale. Just the bottom of the chamber had some buildup.

The reason you check the E61 mushroom is because it shows the first signs of scale buildup. As scale buildup goes, it's not that bad. Since you've regularly flushed the steam boiler, I would expect it to have less buildup than the mushroom. Should you be scared? No.

Thanks Dan. I've left my panic room!

Regarding a full descale...is it safe to go ahead? Was concerned about clogging up something with loose scale pieces. Planning to use Urnex Dezcal.

And based on my water hardness, how often should I do a full descale (every 6 months or sooner? ) And for a group/HX only descale (every month?)

EDIT: I have Erics group thermometer. My group is now idling almost 2 degrees Fahrenheit higher after removing mushroom scale. So as Eric has said before, gradual temp change is one sign of grouphead buildup.

Thought I'd report back and close the loop with an update.

All is well after a full descale. I used Urnex Dezcal with the boiler overfill method. I descaled both the boiler and HX circuit/group.

However, the well documented gremlin showed up for two days after descaling. I'm talking about the dreaded thermosyphon stall. For two days my group idled too cool. It would max out at 196F instead of 204F. But today I woke up to 204F again.

I assume it was air in the system somewhere. Because the gremlin is now gone and the machine is running great.

Is doing doing a full boiler descale every 3 months too frequent? I was thinking of doing the HX circuit more frequently. Say every 2 months.