How to Clean, Maintain, and Service Home Espresso Machines? How to Clean the Distribution Screen and Steam Wand?

When making espresso coffee, we all pay meticulous attention to every detail to ensure complete extraction. However, after brewing is complete, people often neglect the maintenance and cleaning of the coffee machine.

You should know that if coffee machine maintenance is not timely, various problems can easily occur after a period of use, affecting extraction. Therefore, maintenance is extremely important! Today, FrontStreet Coffee will share which parts of the coffee machine need maintenance. Although today's demonstration model is a small coffee machine used at FrontStreet Coffee store, most coffee machines are cleaned in similar ways, so this cleaning tutorial is almost universally applicable.

I. Cleaning the Dispersion Screen

The dispersion screen is the first part you can see when looking up at the brewing head from below. It comes into direct contact with coffee grounds during extraction. When pressure reaches a certain level, hot water passes through the dispersion screen, carrying coffee substances downward and dripping into the cup. When the valve is closed after extraction, some coffee liquid that hasn't fully dripped out will be "sucked back" up.

Although it will be discharged immediately, some oils and coffee residue will remain on the dispersion screen. If not cleaned promptly (as shown in the picture above), these coffee particles and oils will be dried by the high temperature of the brewing head, and after multiple accumulations, they will affect extraction. Therefore, we need to perform different levels of cleaning on the dispersion screen at different times.

Simple Cleaning: After extraction, we can open the water valve to release a small amount of hot water to rinse the coffee residue and oils adsorbed on the dispersion screen. Then, after accumulating a certain number of extractions, use a cleaning brush to thoroughly scrub the dispersion screen. After all, hot water cannot completely clean residue and oils, so some force is needed for proper cleaning.

Deep Cleaning: At the end of the day when preparing to shut down the machine, we need to start cleaning the inside of the dispersion screen. No matter how thoroughly you brush, you're only cleaning the surface of the dispersion screen - the dirt accumulated inside still remains. Therefore, we need to replace the portafilter basket, switching from the perforated basket to a seamless blind basket, then pour 2-3g of specially prepared coffee machine cleaning powder into it, attach the brewing head, and perform internal cleaning of the dispersion screen.

The specific operation is to open the valve. Because the blind basket has no holes for liquid to pass through, hot water will continuously circulate inside the machine for about 15 seconds, then we can close the valve. The coffee machine will draw the cleaning solution from the blind basket into the pressure relief channel and discharge it, achieving the internal cleaning effect. Repeat this process 3-5 times without needing to remove the portafilter or replace the cleaning powder. The reason we don't just rinse for one minute straight is to avoid the risk of damaging the pressure relief valve from prolonged operation. After backflushing is complete, remove the portafilter and flush water once more. Diligent users can also brush it once more with a brush, and the cleaning is complete! (Remember to discard the first espresso extracted the next day when starting the machine~)

II. Cleaning the Steam Wand

The steam wand is a very important functional part of the coffee machine - essential for frothing milk for hot milk coffees. Therefore, its maintenance is also very important. Similarly, its cleaning is divided into simple and deep cleaning methods.

Simple Cleaning: After frothing milk, both the surface and inside of the steam wand will have some milk residue. If not cleaned immediately, this milk will be dried by the high-temperature steam wand within just a few seconds, sticking to the inside and outside of the wand, making it very difficult to clean at that point.

Therefore, after frothing is complete, we need to immediately use a clean damp cloth to wipe the milk from the surface (you can prepare a dedicated clean cloth for wiping the steam wand), then release 1-2 seconds of steam to spray out the milk residue from inside.

Nozzle Deep Cleaning: Since it's called "simple cleaning," there will definitely be areas that aren't thoroughly cleaned - such as the inside of the steam wand holes. Because there are still some dead spaces inside the holes, steam cannot reach the milk in these corners. So, also when shutting down or closing, we can remove the nozzle, find a container, pour in cleaning powder and hot water, and let the nozzle soak overnight. The next day, it can be cleaned and ready to use.

Steam Wand Deep Cleaning: Similarly! Since we're cleaning the nozzle, we shouldn't neglect the steam wand itself. Use a suitably tall cup, pour in cleaning powder and hot water, and let it soak overnight. Then, when starting the machine the next day, steam for a few minutes to complete the cleaning.

(They can also be soaked together~)

III. Portafilter Cleaning

Many friends use portafilters with spouts for extraction, and these portafilters have many dead spaces at the spout area. If not cleaned regularly, they can develop unpleasant odors and other negative flavors. Therefore, we must not forget to clean the portafilter.

Prepare a container that can accommodate the entire portafilter head, then pour an appropriate amount of cleaning powder and hot water sufficient to submerge the head, and let it soak overnight! The next day, take it out and clean it thoroughly.

These are all the areas we can clean ourselves. When these areas receive regular maintenance and cleaning, the coffee machine can maintain "health" and reduce the probability of problems. If major problems occur due to untimely cleaning, and then you need to send it for maintenance and repair, you'll have to spend a considerable amount on repair costs!

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FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)
No. 10 Bao'an Qianjie, Yandun Road, Dongshankou, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473