he must be right, hes a nuclear engineer!

how come no one ever says something like 'a wise man, who spent his life as a sanitation man, and is now a certified LM tech...'

good info, either way.

im assuming a foot of tubing would be on a commercial machine. id love to see the innards of that setup!

Randy G. wrote:As far as the pipes not handling the load, it would be interesting if you could quote the source. As I mention in my article, there is virtually no difference at all between a choked shot and backflushing. The major difference is that a user will tend to run a choked shot for fifteen seconds waiting for something to dribble out while a backflush only runs the pump for two three seconds once pressure is built. How many manufacturers void the warranty if a shot chokes the machine?

The source was off the WholeLatteLove forum back in 2005. The information was from a staff member at the time (have no idea if he/she is still there). A poster was asking about cleaning the Silvia. In addition to other items, the individual was advised by the employee not to backflush. I posted a question asking for more detail as I was under the impression that all machines with a 3-way valve were to be backflushed. As noted in an above post, the tubing isn't supposed to be able to handle the pressure of a backflush. I was further advised that the valve would have to be physically removed should cleaning be required. I'm sure the info was offered in good faith as they were basing it on Rancilio's guidelines.

Please don't shoot the messenger.

cafeIKE wrote:- On a machine used, and plain water backflushed, daily,

Just 'cause it's a thread for newbies, I usually flush a little water through the group and into the blind filter, letting it cascade over the edge of the filter before I backflush with clean water or with detergent. This flushes most of the brew path out into the drip tray (or some other receptacle, like a large much or bowl, whatever), and cleans quite a bit of stuff off the PF gasket, too. Get all that out of the way before you backflush, and you have clean water going back up into the brew path and out the bottom of the three-way into the drip tray.
This cleans the dispersion screen and send the gunk straight out of the group instead of back through the brew path, and THEN I backflush with clean water.
Izzat what you guys are doing as well, or am I being really anal/OCD?

Psyd wrote:Izzat what you guys are doing as well, or am I being really anal/OCD?

As your description does not include the precise 13.65° degree wiggle angle, I'd say your description is nowhere close to typical H-B OCD guidelines. Heck, sometimes I splash out and do a full 15° wiggle!

Mark08859 wrote:The source was off the WholeLatteLove forum back in 2005. The information was from a staff member at the time (have no idea if he/she is still there). A poster was asking about cleaning the Silvia. In addition to other items, the individual was advised by the employee not to backflush. I posted a question asking for more detail as I was under the impression that all machines with a 3-way valve were to be backflushed. As noted in an above post, the tubing isn't supposed to be able to handle the pressure of a backflush. I was further advised that the valve would have to be physically removed should cleaning be required. I'm sure the info was offered in good faith as they were basing it on Rancilio's guidelines.

Please don't shoot the messenger.

The messenger doesn't have to worry... I'm not even armed... Of course, I have shown in the past that the pen is, indeed, a mighty weapon.

If that information is accurate, in my opinion, the person at WLL who stated that either is merely reading off the company's policy sheet, or doesn't have a clue as to what they are saying. If the tubing can't take backflushing it was not correctly spec'd and will eventually fail from choked shots.

2005 was before Rancilio started putting the adjustable OPV on the machine iirc. I wonder what they say about the user adjusting that in regards to warranty? The one part that is designed to protect the machine is now adjustable in a way that it can be defeated, leading to damage... If we assume that Rancilio's policy really is against backflushing, then the addition of the adjustable valve on a machine with no brew-pressure gage is senseless to me.

Well, I have owned my Gaggia Classic for about 3 weeks now. I have read and reviewed so many forums regarding espresso machine maintenance, I now have a serious headache!!
Anyhow, I decided to backflush my gaggia tonight for the first time!
MY GOODNESS!! The colour of the water coming out of exhaust tube was seriously black!! Unbelievable!
I could not believe how dirty the machine was!
Very pleased with the result. No doubt the coffee will taste better now!
I may do a backflush every 2/3 weeks.

I may do a backflush every 2/3 weeks.

Go here & download some of the goodie manuals for your machine - http://www.partsguru.com/GaggiaClassicCoffee.html

Do a backflush with plain water after each espresso "session". In addition to the backflushing, remove the screen and dispersion block and soak in hot water/Cafiza (or equivalent) every week or so.

Thanks for that.I'll have a look at the link.

It make sense to do a "plain water" backflush after each usage. I will start doing this from today.
The machine I have was bought second-hand and I have a feeling it was never backflush before!

erics wrote:Do a backflush with plain water after each espresso "session". In addition to the backflushing, remove the screen and dispersion block and soak in hot water/Cafiza (or equivalent) every week or so.

+1

From the OP's observations of the results of a plain water backflush, it's likely that the original owner never did that and if he didn't, one would have to assume that the machines never had a proper chemical backflush. In other words, there's most likely a fair amount of "junk" that could be removed by doing that, at least once, and maybe a couple of times.

Anyone thinking along the same lines?

Just done a plain water backflush and again, there was a lot a crap coming out. I might do a backflush every day for the next couple of weeks and hope to get rid of all the rubbish that has been inside my machine for probably a few years! The risk in this I suppose it's putting too much stress on the pump! I'll have to be gentle.