Hi, I need clean the the vacuum breaker valve on my espresso machine. The picture below shows the valve in consideration, How do I go about cleaning it, do I need to remove it? the area is pretty tight.



As you can probably see in the picture, the valve has been stuck open and is splattering the area around it.

Put a socket around it and just break it free. You can soak it in citric acid or vinegar to descale, but they are cheap to just replace outright.

Thanks for the response. There is not enough room to put a socket on it, the water level probe is too close!

I just removed it by first removing the water level probe with a wrench, then used a 19mm socket to remove the vacuum breaker. Thanks again.