Hi everyone,

I'm pretty brand new to espresso making and just bought a Francis Francis X1 at my apartment in Europe where I spend most of the year. I made a few coffees there but I was coming home to North America a few days after buying it.

I cleaned the machine, emptied the water tank, and unplugged it before coming home. I'm a little worried though, because now I'm hearing people say that you should empty the boiler to store a machine. Should I be concerned that something will happen to my machine in a few months while I'm gone? The machine is just sitting on the counter as it usually would, and there won't be any issues with freezing or anything like that. What would be the problems of not emptying it?

Thanks so much for any help!

Your machine won't blow up I would drain the water because it won't taste good setting there for a month. It shouldn't hurt anything, just taste funny. If you already left then just run a bunch of clean water through it when you return. This will help flush out the stale water.

I don't think you would have any mold growing, but if the water tastes really funny then you might have to do a more thorough cleaning. Good luck!

Thanks very much, I figured it would be okay, but wanted to be sure! I'll be doing a whole decalcification when I get back so that should take care of it. Thanks again!

Hmm-m, an espresso imponderable.

Since this is a single boiler, there's no air space above the water like a heat exchanger. Given the water will be sterilized at brew temperature, the opportunity for mold growth should be meager. The water will leech out some metals from the boiler, so I would definitely flush the boiler a few times. The Francis! Francis! has a small boiler, so flushing it for 30 seconds on/30 seconds off (repeat twice) should be more that enough. If you really want to go OCD on it, flush with Cleancaf or a mild solution of citric acid as you would for descaling.

For the sake of completeness, a heat exchanger boiler is only half full and open to the air via the vacuum breaker, so the opportunity for mold to make itself comfortable is far greater. On the other hand, heat exchanger boilers are used for steam production, so the water you could consume would "only" be condensed steam in your cappuccino/latte. I can confirm from experience that steam boilers do get a funky smell after long idle periods. Flushing cures it, but I recommend draining the steam boiler if it will be idle for more than a few weeks.

Thanks HB, for clarification, is it a heat exchange boiler that is used on the Francis! Francis! for steam production, or were you just going into more detail for other machines? If so, will a really good flushing be okay even after a few months of sitting? I assume since it's only water sitting there it should be fine, just fairly stale. Thanks for your help!

Your espresso machine is a single boiler, not a heat exchanger. Espresso Machines 101 covers the differences. Unless there was a risk of freezing, I wouldn't bother emptying its boiler, I'd just flush thoroughly when putting it back into service (for those who are interested, Advice about bringing an espresso machine out of storage? covers this topic in detail). The Francis! Francis! has a small boiler, so flushing 30 seconds on/30 seconds off twice is adequate (or until funky taste disappears + an extra flush).

Many thanks!