G'day all,
Any advice for descaling these machines? I've had my Factory for about a year now. After the first two months I used Cleancaf according to the directions, all seemed well. My normal pattern of usage is two doubles in the morning, two doubles after work. With this pattern, I've pretty much used the full boiler in one day with pulling shots and flushes for after shot rinses. I always just top up the boiler rather than discard and refill. Yesterday I brought the machine to a mate's house for lunch, and when I poured out the cold boiler water for transport, there were heaps of mineral flakes/chips coming out as well. This caused a bit of paranoia, and set me off wondering if these mineral bits have been getting sucked into the grouphead and lodged between the nylon liner and walls, or even the grouphead feed tube from the boiler. Does descaling with Cleancaf breakdown these mineral bits small enough to pass through the system? Perhaps it's just my imagination, but the amount of water coming through the grouphead without the portafilter attached seems a tad restrained compared to when I first got the machine. I removed the piston and made sure it was tightly screwed onto the shaft for proper inlet clearance, and I didn't see any mineral bits in the shower screen after I removed it. Should I unbolt the grouphead and soak it in Cleancaf or Cafiza, or is the standard procedure with Cleancaf enough? Any advice?
Ta, Hogfire
