Best grouphead and descaler cleaners for ECM Technica 4 Profi?
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BKSinAZ
- Posts: 103
- Joined: 11 years ago
I've have a ECM Technika 4 for almost a year now and I would like to back flush and clean the group head and descale.
I am also curious on how often a descale should be done?
What reasonably priced cleaners does everyone recommend to maintain my machine?
I am also curious on how often a descale should be done?
What reasonably priced cleaners does everyone recommend to maintain my machine?
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JRising
- Team HB
- Posts: 3736
- Joined: 5 years ago
Cleaning: I prefer Cafiza over many of the other brands. Perhaps it's familiarity more than anything, but it dissolves quickly, flows well, rinses easily, it just plain works.
Descaling: It should be done rarely. Perhaps a mild descale yearly, on each circuit, just to inspect the acid coming out to get an idea of what is in the machine. If there's no issue that you're trying to fix by descaling, there's no reason to do anything harsh like a concentrated descale. You can judge the boiler scale by its probe and the HX scale by the mushroom without having to actually put the acid in there. Some of the Dezcal that comes in little envelopes of powder would be my go-to, but I know a lot of people prefer pure citric acid or the pre-mixed liquids. It's up to you.
Descaling: It should be done rarely. Perhaps a mild descale yearly, on each circuit, just to inspect the acid coming out to get an idea of what is in the machine. If there's no issue that you're trying to fix by descaling, there's no reason to do anything harsh like a concentrated descale. You can judge the boiler scale by its probe and the HX scale by the mushroom without having to actually put the acid in there. Some of the Dezcal that comes in little envelopes of powder would be my go-to, but I know a lot of people prefer pure citric acid or the pre-mixed liquids. It's up to you.
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BKSinAZ (original poster)
- Posts: 103
- Joined: 11 years ago
Can you describe how the mushroom valve can tell if my machine needs descale as you eluded to in you response?
When you say mild descale, do you mean 1/2 or 3/4 dosage?
When you say mild descale, do you mean 1/2 or 3/4 dosage?
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Nunas
- Supporter ♡
- Posts: 3691
- Joined: 9 years ago
Whoa, let's take a step back. Descaling and backflushing are two entirely different things. Moreover, there are two sorts of backflushing, one with plain water and one with a chemical.
Backflushing with water: You should be doing this every day after you've used the machine.
Backflushing with chem: You only need to do this when you find deposits of coffee that don't flush off with water. You'll typically see this when you drop your group head gasket and screen for monthly maintenance.
Descaling: You should not need to do this for years if ever, providing you're feeding your machine decent water. There are plenty of posts here about that. How hard is your water? Why do you think that you need to descale after only one year of operation? As already mentioned, on an e61 group, you can get a rough approximation of the scale in the boiler by pulling the mushroom and looking for any scale. One caveat here is, with your HX if you use a lot of steam but don't periodically renew the service boiler water, the boiler will likely build up more scale than is shown on the mushroom.
But, to respond to your question directly, I like Cafiza (sodium percarbonate) for removing coffee stains and oils and Dezcal (citric acid) for removing scale, as already mentioned by others. I don't like to use either unless necessary. Cafiza will not just get rid of coffee oil, it will strip your group head of its lubrication. Thus, you will also need a food-grade lubricant (plumbers grease) such as DOW 111 after you backflush with chem.
Backflushing with water: You should be doing this every day after you've used the machine.
Backflushing with chem: You only need to do this when you find deposits of coffee that don't flush off with water. You'll typically see this when you drop your group head gasket and screen for monthly maintenance.
Descaling: You should not need to do this for years if ever, providing you're feeding your machine decent water. There are plenty of posts here about that. How hard is your water? Why do you think that you need to descale after only one year of operation? As already mentioned, on an e61 group, you can get a rough approximation of the scale in the boiler by pulling the mushroom and looking for any scale. One caveat here is, with your HX if you use a lot of steam but don't periodically renew the service boiler water, the boiler will likely build up more scale than is shown on the mushroom.
But, to respond to your question directly, I like Cafiza (sodium percarbonate) for removing coffee stains and oils and Dezcal (citric acid) for removing scale, as already mentioned by others. I don't like to use either unless necessary. Cafiza will not just get rid of coffee oil, it will strip your group head of its lubrication. Thus, you will also need a food-grade lubricant (plumbers grease) such as DOW 111 after you backflush with chem.
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JRising
- Team HB
- Posts: 3736
- Joined: 5 years ago
You can take the mushroom out, look at it and put it back in literally 2 minutes, so it's a great place to have a look at what your brew circuit looks like.BKSinAZ wrote:Can you describe how the mushroom valve can tell if my machine needs descale as you eluded to in you response?
When you say mild descale, do you mean 1/2 or 3/4 dosage?
It is the highest point so water won't run out, nothing needs to be drained (Machine COLD of course). Also gives quick access to examine the brew valve.(The boiler-fill probe can be a good component for a look inside the steam circuit).
If your mushroom looks like this you can make the assumption that there are going to be deposits at other locations throughout the brew circuit and probably should do something about them, like descaling, and then maybe changing your water accordingly.
If the mushroom comes out without anything on it, it's an indication that the whole brew circuit is probably not picking up small restrictions or blockages of calcium that would interfere with the thermosyphon flow. (Not absolute proof, but an indication).
A mild descale in my opinion is about 1/2 strength so as not to do anything aggressive if you don't need to, leave it in for only 3 - 5 minutes and run it out through the showerface filter (If descaling brew circuit) or the Hot Water Wand (If steam circuit) so you can check the screen/showerface/aerator for particles, into a clear pitcher so you can examine the results for cloudiness, green/blue/grey, etc, see how much of a reaction the mild acid had to gain some idea of what it encountered.
