Did you flush the group through with citric acid? Should have cleaned it right up... And if you used the machine after the cleaning, the yellow water is due to coffee oils, you need to flush some more water through in that case...

The blue water syndrome is probably due to copper dissolving from the acid, not dangerous for you or your machine if you don't drink it...

Is it safe to use Urnex Cleancaf in these machines? TIA

Cathi wrote:Is it safe to use Urnex Cleancaf in these machines?

Sure, it's nothing more than citric acid and mild detergents with a 1000% markup.

Madroaster wrote:Green water...interesting. Wasn't expecting that. Citric acid never turned my pancakes green...

I think the blue-green color is the citric acid removing some of the oxidized copper. Not an issue to worry about. Have used a citric acid solution on the Elektra for descaling maintenance probably half-dozen times. No problems with the machine yet. Only scaling problem or maybe use fatigue has been the Mater pstat. Piston gaskets and grouphead gaskets replaced due to normal wear with use. Well built and easy to maintain machine.

Yellow tinge water? Have you pulled the piston assembly out for inspection. Check for coffee residue, mold at the piston base, if gunk found trapped between seals/gaskets maybe time to replace them. Hopefully it's just some residual water in the boiler, transfer tube that can be purged, dumped and flushed out.

Madroaster wrote:I'll try the citric acid and see how that works first. What solution do you suggest? I have some, but I only have 4oz left.

When I asked the folks at the Reneka factory about descaling my Techno, they recommended the gentlest possible approach. That was to use 5 grams per liter and leave it cold for a day or so, then repeat and rinse.

Best,
David

narc wrote:Yellow tinge water? Have you pulled the piston assembly out for inspection. Check for coffee residue, mold at the piston base, if gunk found trapped between seals/gaskets maybe time to replace them. Hopefully it's just some residual water in the boiler, transfer tube that can be purged, dumped and flushed out.

Yeah, I pulled all that out. It all looked very clean, although I did clean it of course while it was out; I do that quite regularly.

I think you're right that it was just some residual water; it seems to be running clean now.

On a performance-related note, I'd forgotten what a steamer these things are...much better than my Europiccola was. The shots aren't as good still, but practice makes coffee, if not perfect.