Hi guys,

So I've taking apart my Rocket Cellini because of a faulty pressure stat (hopefully - I'm still waiting for it to arrive).
So I thought about deep clean it..
The boiler is scale free so does the heating element but I still see a tiny bits of scale and I thought that cleaning it will make it last longer.

What should I use to clean it? Does home use citric acid will do the trick? Should I boiled it?

Can I deep the entire group?
Should I deep the heating element?

I couldn't find any videos on YouTube which is wired LOL..

Any help would be appreciated

If you're seeing calcium on the outer surface of the mushroom,you may want to descale the brew circuit.

If you remove and inspect the boiler fill probe and find calcium on it, you may want to descale the boiler.

Since the mushroom is already out of the machine in your hand as you're looking at it, see if you can see into the upper port of the E61 head. that's another place where superheated water is turns to steam and deposits calcium.
There are many ways to descale a a brew circuit. It can be done as simply as putting citric acid in the reservoir and pumping it through the brew circuit just like brewing coffee.

If descaling ONLY the brew circuit, I have become fond of doing it with the boiler hot and the mushroom out of the machine. The brew valve will stay fairly securely closed, even without the mushroom and by being able to see the water pouring out of the upper E61 Port, you can confirm that the thermosiphon effect is returning to the machine. Just keep the water level barely below the upper head-port. The heat of the boiler will keep the water flowing down through the lower port and pouring in through the upper. Add the citric acid to the flowing water, the flow will mix it and carry it through the entire heat exchanger. This will not, of course, descale the check valve. If you're descaling to try to clear a blockage, you might want to run the citric acid all the way in from the reservoir as if the machine is brewing.

I could elaborate if you can tell us why you want to descale it. Is something clogged? I don't like encouraging people to put things in acid (or vice-versa) if there's not a good reason.

Hi,

thanks for the detailed reply.
Well the main reason I would like to deep clean the boiler, pipes and the E-61 group is that I've disassembled the boiler and the group because of a faulty pressurestat.

I took it apart because I thought that I might have a scale build-up which have caused the pressurestat to stuck or get damaged.

I found out that I don't have any scale build-up inside the boiler or the heating element itself or on the E61 group or the parts inside the group.
I did find only a bit of white-residue on each part, I guess leftovers from the previous clean-up (by the previous owner), I don't believe that the finding have caused the pressurestat to get faulty or any faulty behavior of the machine.

I saw the following Youtube which the user have deep clean his machine and the idea and motivation came from this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM4VYOTehxs

mosheva wrote: I found out that I don't have any scale build-up inside the boiler or the heating element itself or on the E61 group or the parts inside the group.
I did find only a bit of white-residue on each part,

I would suggest not descaling it if you've found no reason to do so, but if you've disassembled the boiler just because the pressostat has failed, and you really want to do more, then sure, a mild descaling of the parts you see calcium on won't hurt them.
Submerging the brass parts in a mild solution for 20 to 30 minutes would make them shiny.

Thanks!

I've disassembled the boiler just to verify that I don't have any scale in addition to the faulty pressurestat (and also because I love taking things apart )

Funny how little information is found regarding how to descale E61 machines.. I guess everyone sends it to a technician..

Hi Moshe! Awesome thread and JRising's insights are always the best! Pure Gold and many of us have learned so much reading his and other expert's posts here on HB

There's lots of ways to descale/clean up a boiler. One quick and simple method that works sometimes utilizes the Heat Exchange principle, Citric Acid, a plastic trash pail, and a sink. NOTE: Remove any electrical components/fuses (heating element contacts etc.) before submersing a boiler like this. Try to keep the contacts/terminals to the boiler's Heating Element from getting wet if possible and removing the heating element is the way if a full submersion is going to be attempted. Also be sure no protective coating is on the outside of a boiler if submersion is going to be done and check for any boiler labels as well in case you don't want those to be affected by the Citric Acid solution.

Here's a video showing a removed and submerged 2 Liter (quart), Bezzera Magica S HX ("Heat eXchange") Steam Boiler. The pail is a $2 plastic trash receptacle purchased at a local dollar store (just big enough to get the 2 Liter boiler into). The reason for this configuration is so the pail can be filled with a Citric Acid solution (about 10 Tablespoons of Citric Acid powder) and then hot water filled and drained regularly around it in the sink. This allows for the solution to be heated by heat-exchange of hot water around the pail. By putting it in the workshop sink, it is possible to fill-and-drain hot water in the sink around the pail so the temperature can be increased in the pail (to about 50℃/110℉). This boiler was submerged for about an hour . . . to get it cleaned out. After each half hour, the attached components (internal level probes, fittings etc.) were inspected. A simple thin spout/bottle/pipe brush is used to plunge the fittings every so often to help encourage any stubborn mineral scale to dislodge.

Awesome !!
Thanks!

Can I keep the vacuum valve? can I use the same method on for the copper pipes?