Dear all,

I have discovered that there is a lot of experience in this forum regarding my Vibiemme. I am using the Synesso double ridgeless and the IMS competition um 200 shower screen. Brew pressure according to the manometer is 10 bar.

I am struggeling to make good espresso for quite a while now and I assume that it must have something to do with the machine itself and not the user anymore since I tried a lot of different coffee beans (which I know for a long time and which used to make great espresso) and played around a lot with different grind settings, quantities, etc. The machine was serviced by a shop three months ago but I do not know what was done.

Currently, the beans need to be grinded very fine in order to prevent edge channeling and to receive drinkable coffee. There is only very few crema although the beans normally create a very thick crema. The puck is very soggy and wet and falls apart when knocking it off. Also the surface of the puck is troubled.




My current assumption is that the brew group is not hot enough since I do not burn myself immediately when touching the brew group after being warmed-up for hours. Unfortunately I have no possibility to check the temperture with a thermometer.

Therefore, I wanted to descale the thermosyphon system in order to see if it helps to increase the brew group temperature.

I read a lot of threads in this forum about my machine but I was not able to find a hint how to remove the mushroom flange (see picture):



How do I remove this mushroom flange?

Thank you very much and best regards,

Philip

It just "pops off" once the allen head screws are removed. Use a small screwdriver with the tip covered with electrical tape or a wooden shim or a rubber mallet.

I will try to do so but it sits very tight.

Eventhough I removed all screws there was no chance to extract it...

Hi,

I was able to remove the mushroom flange by carefully using tongs.

What I saw was shocking...!

The mushroom itself was crusted with scale and there was a lot of loose scale in the chamber so I deceided to completely descale the HX-curcuit and the brewgroup.

I am particular angry at the company who serviced the machine 3 months ago for not doing their job correctly.

After stripping the machine I found a lot more scale in the HX-curcuit.

For cleaning I used amidosulfonic acid which worked fine.

Now everything works perfect again. I can easily burn myself and the espresso is not comparable to strange stuff I had before.

Thank you for your help!