Updated:
Step by step
Check your water hardness
Water in Kraków is medium-hard to hard, so descaling every two to three months with daily use is a sensible rhythm. Many manufacturers include hardness test strips; if you use a tank filter, replace it as instructed.
Use the right descaler
Use a product made for coffee machines. Vinegar and vinegar essence are too aggressive for seals and the aluminium parts of the thermoblock — saving a few zloty ends in a several-hundred-zloty component replacement. Citric acid is gentler but copes poorly with old scale.
Run the menu programme
Pour the solution into the tank, place a container of at least one litre under the outlet and start the descaling programme. Do not interrupt it halfway — an aborted cycle leaves acid in the circuit, which is worse than not descaling at all. Afterwards flush the circuit with two full tanks of clean water.
Remove and clean the nozzle separately
The descaling programme does not clean the outlet nozzle or the milk system. Take them off and rinse them by hand in warm water. It takes two minutes and accounts for most complaints about weaker-tasting coffee after descaling.
When the menu programme is no longer enough
The descaling programme pushes solution through the circuit but will not shift deposits that have hardened into a crust. If a machine has run for years without descaling, scale narrows the hoses and thermoblock enough that the acid simply cannot flow through.
You will recognise it by the symptoms: coffee comes out as a thin trickle or not at all, the machine is louder than it used to be, and the drink is noticeably cooler. Repeating the menu programme changes nothing at that point — what is needed is a workshop descale with the circuit dismantled, PLN 150 with us.
There is a second, costlier consequence of neglect. A pump working against increased resistance wears out faster, and a scaled thermoblock can crack. Replacing either runs to PLN 330–380 — twice the price of the descaling that was skipped.
What not to do
Do not use vinegar or vinegar essence. They circulate online as a cheap substitute, but they are too aggressive for seals and aluminium — we see the results in the workshop regularly.
Do not open the machine to reach the thermoblock. A coffee machine contains live electrical parts and a pressurised circuit; dismantling it without knowing the design usually ends in a snapped clip or a cut hose, which raises the cost of the eventual repair.
Do not interrupt a descaling cycle once started. If you must stop it, run a full rinse with two tanks of clean water before brewing again.