I removed the heating element from my Europiccola the other day and the inside was pretty scaled up. The scaling was a bright blue color, the same color as Cleancaf when dissolved in water. It seems that the Cleancaf got absorbed into the deposits, and it might be because I used too much Cleancaf relative to the amount of water the boiler will hold. I've sent this machine to be repaired and bought a new one. Does anyone have recommendations about which cleaner to use and how much of it to put into the machine? I would prefer a pre-dissolved liquid cleaner rather than a power which I must mix myself, so that this doesn't happen again.

Are you sure the blue color is because Cleancaf got absorbed into the deposits? Or, do they just have a similar color? I bought a used Europiccola that had a similar look to the scale and just descaled it multiple times until the scale dissolved away. There was no need to fix it further. And although there may be some predissolved descaling agents, all you need to do is heat a litre of water, pour the right amount of stuff in and stir. Takes about 30 seconds to dissolve and you're in business. I used Urnex Dezcal to descale my Pavoni. I don't believe Cleancaf is a descaler but is a detergent for dealing with coffee oils. When you first mix Dezcal, it isn't blue, BTW. You can find it through a number of sources on the web.

Orphan Espresso sells citric acid powder for descaling and other good cleaning and maintenance gear: http://www.orphanespresso.com/Espresso-Housekeeping-Cleaning_c_292.html . They also have a wonderful "nag" about maintaining the group on a Cremina that can be applied to lubricating the pins and piston shaft of a Pavoni (I used the canola oil in our cupboard. Worked like a charm). See: http://www.orphanespresso.com/Olympia-Cremina-Group-Maintenance-NAG_ep_622-1.html . For easy instructions on taking apart the Pavoni parts for servicing (that can be followed in part without replacing the gaskets), see: Refeathering the Peacock - Pavoni head gasket replacement

There are good articles on this site for descaling a lever machine. See for instance: The embarrassments of irregular descaling

I cannot be sure that the blue color is due to cleancaf, nor that it is a detergent. Here's the composition:
Sodium tripolyphosphate
Sodium carbonate
Tetrasodium EDTA
Sodium dodecylbenzene sulfonate
Monosodium phosphate
Colorant
Water

The only one which might be a detergent is Sodium dodecylbenzeze sulfonate.

Tetrasodium EDTA is a chelating agent used in many biological experiments. So I am guessing that it is a combination of descaling agents and detergents. I'm going to go with the citric acid solution and do it intelligently this time- dissolve it in the appropriate volume of water and pour the water into the La Pav.

Thanks for you response, and sorry for cross-posting, I'll be more careful next time.