Hey everyone,

I have a somewhat new (2013) cimbali that looks great from the outside but has a pretty significant amount of scale inside. The scale has clogged the grouphead and some of the plumbing along with debris floating around the boiler.

I've tried looking for info on descaling TEA coated machines but couldn't find much.

What's the protocol for descaling a TEA coated boiler? Is the TEA coating pretty sensitive to descaling with citric acid? I'd love to preserve the coating as much as possible but I'm worried that the amount of descaling needed will remove it.

Any info would be really appreciated!

Did you try your retailer? I have a TEA and Chris Coffee highly discourages descaling. Not sure exactly why though...

It sounds like it is pretty bad if it clogged the grouphead. I don't think you have any other options, but to go ahead and descale. Even if it will damage the TEA coating. What other options are there? If the machine is going to be rendered useless because of the scale then what do you have to lose.

Use citric acid as it works well for descaling but not as bad as other mfg products
I don't see how you can protect the tea coating only using any cleaner like citric acid as I believe it will take out both
May quick descale like 5 minutes? See how it goes?

I have a somewhat new (2013) Cimbali that looks great from the outside but has a pretty significant amount of scale inside. The scale has clogged the grouphead and some of the plumbing along with debris floating around the boiler.

Your best (and safest) course of action is to disassemble this machine bit by bit and soak the offending parts in a descaling solution whether it be citric acid (2 tbl per quart) or simply distilled white vinegar. Unfortunately, this is no trivial adventure.

Attempting to descale this machine in place will give you a 50/50 chance of causing more problems than the ones you are trying to fix. This is my "top of the head" rationale from reading countless descaling adventures on this site. It is also one of the reasons (perhaps others) why Chris' Coffee does not promote descaling.

In addition to this, you need to "improve" the water you are feeding this nice machine.

If you would let us know what path you take and the success you have
Best of luck
Bill

I really appreciate all the input and I agree with everyone's thoughts and concerns.

The first step will be to take the machine completely apart and have a thorough look inside. From what I've already seen though, the machine will need a complete descale but I'm hoping looking inside the boiler might indicate otherwise.

I'll keep you posted on the state of the boiler innards as well as how the TEA takes to descaling.

thanks again

In our shop, when we are dealing with nickel coated boilers
we descale "just" the inside,
which means of course that all ports need to be close/cupped , and of course the heating element in place as well, pipes all remove and soaked with no special attention since they are copper,
in your particular machine,
I would personally first descale the machine as is without dismantling (as long as is not leaking and doing so it could do further damage),
the convenience of doing so is that you take advantage of the heating (which make the solution work better) and you can take care of passages, heating exchanger, steam and hot water valves,opv (with a simulation of backflush of course once the solution already saturated the HeEx line) pipes etc etc.

Then after flushing the solution if still needed remove the boiler, pipes and descale them separately,
or just remove the pipes to insure that nothing clogged anything.

Note that those Isomac Copper boiler (pre S/S one) are seam prone to get damaged by descaling solution (or mineral from water used) quite more often that I've seen on other boilers,
therefor I suggest doing MORE setting of descaling with less acid
then fewer one using a stronger solution.