I just yanked the group head mushroom on my 2015 Profitec Pro 700 and the results are below. What am I looking at? How bad is it?

I don't have much of a reference, but my Pro500 looked at least that bad after 3 years.. yours is 7, so I would think that isn't too bad. The mushroom is plated like mine and they really are scale magnets from what others have told me. Profitec switched to Stainless mushrooms and they won't collect as much scale (think they are $70 Can here; so you might want to replace). With that much scale buildup you might expect your boiler pressure gauge to clog (mine did) with some scale bits as it is quite a thin tube going to your gauge.. (at least it is a thin tube on the Pro500). I descaled the group and tubes to/from boiler, but not the boiler itself. Others will have more experience with scale than I and can give you better maintenance info.

Thanks for your reply. I have noticed my brew pressure has been creeping up over the last year. I'll adjust it back down, then it'll slowly creep back up.

I see copper corrosion deposits but not limescale. They do tend to accumulate over time on those plated brass mushrooms, especially near where the plating has come off. If your water has low alkalinity and/or high chloride you may expect lots of this corrosion. For 7 years use this doesn't look too bad. You can scrub it off with a green pad. If you switch to a stainless mushroom it won't get any of these green deposits.

You should also pull the water level probe from the steam boiler and see what that looks like. If you have an endoscope you can also look into the steam boiler. The inside of your group does not look bad. When my mushroom looked like that I took the seals off and cleaned it on a grinder with a wire brush to remove any scale and loose chrome, then descaled the remainder. I considered the mushroom to be a sacrificial indicator of the condition of the rest of the machine. It is better to let it collect scale so you know what to do and to learn the descaling interval.

homeburrero wrote:If you switch to a stainless mushroom it won't get any of these green deposits.

Randy G. wrote:I considered the mushroom to be a sacrificial indicator of the condition of the rest of the machine. It is better to let it collect scale so you know what to do and to learn the descaling interval.

This is a question that I have for e61 groups. Let's say you had a non-scaling mushroom; stainless, teflon, whatever. What happens? Do you just get precipitation somewhere that's less accessible and harder to see? Would it be worse to have a non-scaling mushroom? Taking it to another extreme, would it be even better to devise a super-scaling mushroom?! Eg. perhaps if we made a textured mushroom with lots of nucleation points to encourage precipitation onto the mushroom as opposed to, for example, in the metal tubes?

The best solution is likely to have non-scaling water. The mushroom is easiest to remove and does not even involve opening the cabinet.

It's like the canary in the coal mine. The mushroom lets you know ahead of time that there is a problem.
Using a non-scaling material or treatment on the mushroom is like giving the canary an oxygen mask.
You still have the bird but the miners are dead.

When I had the E61 I would pull the group apart every six months or so; sometimes a bit more often when I was bored. Not only for scale but to check lubrication, the condition of the rubber seals on the valves, wear on the cam and valve friction points, etc. It also allows examination of the gicleur.

Remember to not over-tighten when re installing. Rule of thumb is finger tight then 1/4 to 1/2 turn with a wrench. Then check for leaks and give it another 1/4 if needed. You can crush the Teflon gasket and tear/burst it. That is one of those very inexpensive parts you should have a couple of.

Thanks everyone. So if my mushroom has this much scale and/or copper corrosion, does this mean my boilers, water lines and inside of my steam wand will be equally bad? Or does it not work that way?

I did mention that.. The mushroom scale is an indication that you should check the steam boiler by removing the water level sensor and seeing it is is scaled. Then look inside the boiler to check its condition.