Should I Descale My Pasquini Livia?

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Cavallino
Posts: 6
Joined: 7 years ago

#1: Post by Cavallino »

I recently purchased an 8 year old Livia in very good shape. I have heard different things about whether the machine should be descaled, some sayings their Pasquini manuals say not to descale. The machine works great but I'm sure there's some scale because the water spout had been clogged due to scale buildup in the line (which I cleaned and now works fine). If I should descale, what particular product should I use?

h3yn0w
Posts: 476
Joined: 13 years ago

#2: Post by h3yn0w »

Tough call IMO. The idea of not descaling assumes you instead use good water that does not cause excess scale. This is preferred, compared to using hard water and having to descale, because descaling always runs the risk of a clog or leaving descaler in the machine. Since your livia is 8 years old and was bought used, you have no idea of what water was used and how much scale is built up. So descaling does run the risk of dislodging a big chunk of scale and causing a clog somewhere.

Perhaps someone who owns a livia knows of a way you can easily check for scale buildup.

As for what product to use, Dezcal is pretty popular.

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Cavallino (original poster)
Posts: 6
Joined: 7 years ago

#3: Post by Cavallino (original poster) »

Thanks. Yeah, I've also heard that because of the way the system is, you may not be able to clear out all the descaler out of the machine. Don't know enough to say whether that's true or not.

cafe102
Posts: 131
Joined: 10 years ago

#4: Post by cafe102 »

I recommend leaving well enough alone. If it's running fine and you're using quality water going forward...no need to anger the espresso gods.

Renegade
Posts: 73
Joined: 8 years ago

#5: Post by Renegade »

I won't. If the mechanics are working properly and the taste is good, I will leave it like that and use it with quality water.

If it is not, I will do a complete rebuilt of the machine and cleans things out manually. An 8 years machine descale may lead to some blockage somewhere and the hassles to troubleshoot/clean/replace parts is something big vs a manual rebuild and peace of mind.

z400central
Posts: 22
Joined: 9 years ago

#6: Post by z400central »

I own a Livia. I just recently tore into it to fully rebuild it after we got a Linea Mini at work. Machine is about 6 years old and we used OK water.

Here's what I found:


Cavallino (original poster)
Posts: 6
Joined: 7 years ago

#7: Post by Cavallino (original poster) »

z400central wrote:I own a Livia. I just recently tore into it to fully rebuild it after we got a Linea Mini at work. Machine is about 6 years old and we used OK water.

Here's what I found:

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Wow. Ok so that's my concern. When I turn on the water spout my water is cloudy and I see little particles of scale. Who knows if mine is as bad as yours, but I'm fairly certain there's some scale in mine as well and my inclination now is to descale. The question is whether to simply run a descaler through, or should I try to disassemble as you have done.

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z400central
Posts: 22
Joined: 9 years ago

#8: Post by z400central »

Depends how deep you want to go. Lol.

If it's cloudy, then a good tear down and soak in citric acid for a few days will help.