How To Clean Your Espresso Machine
It is very important to keep all your coffee equipment clean in your coffee shop, restaurant or espresso bar. You should do a routine cleaning of your commercial coffee equipment on a daily basis. (Every day after closing)
Cleaning your commercial coffee equipment should not take you longer than 10 minutes from start to finish. Keeping to this cleaning routine will not only pay off with general customer satisfaction, but it will also help extend the lifetime of your equipment. There is 9 steps to help you clean your commercial coffee machine.
Step 1
Take a clean cloth run under hot water, and wipe off your steam wands. Remove any milk that has been scorched onto the wand. (Do not scrape the wand with anything sharp. It is stainless steel, and it will scratch. And some wands are chrome plated which will eventually rub off) If the tip of the wand is threaded on and will unscrew, take it off and clean it. Make sure that the end of the wand is free and clear. If needed, use the end of an opened paper clip to scrape out the inside of the tip. Put the tips back onto the steam wands./
Step 2
Fill a small plastic bucket with hot water. Pour in a some(not too much) commercial espresso machine cleaner to make a solution in which to soak parts overnight.
Step 3
Remove the group handle. Use a screwdriver to dislodge the filter basket. Clean off the filter basket under running warm water using a scouring pad and soap. Then put the filter basket in the bucket of solution to soak overnight.
Step 4
Put a blind-filter into the group handle. Put ½ teaspoon of commercial espresso machine cleaner (like Puly Caf) into the blind-filter. Lock the group handle into the group head, and then use the manual override to flush water into the group head. The blind-filter will cause the cleaner to backwash into the machine. Do not merely turn the water on. You will burn out the solenoid that operates the valve. Rather press and hold the manual override for a full count of three seconds. Turn it off, and repeat 8-10 times.
Step 5
turn off the espresso machine (if this is what you do), and open the steam wands to purge the steam and to release the pressure of your commercial espresso machine. Leave them open overnight. (Some shops leave the commercial espresso machine on overnight so that there is no warm-up period in the morning. This is not always a good idea as it will reduce your machines work life.
Step 6
Take the group handle out, remove and rinse the blind-filter, and put it away. Use your scouring pad to clean out the basket-end of the group handle under warm running water. Stick the basket-end of the group handle into the soaking bucket to soak overnight. Always remember to never allow any portion of the plastic handle to remain immersed. Prolonged soaking of the plastic handle will eventually cause it to dry out and crack.
Step 7
Clean the shower heads. The shower heads are up inside the grouphead. Look up inside the grouphead. There will be a screw that holds in a shower screen and a brass plate. Take the screw out, and put it into a cup that you will leave on top of the commercial espresso machine so that you will know where it is in the morning. Remover the screen and brass plate. Scrub them both with your scouring pad, and put them in the soaking bucket.
Step 8
Pull the gratings off of the drip tray. Pull the drip tray out and drain it. Clean the drip tray and gratings, and leave them out to dry overnight. Don’t put them back into the commercial espresso machine until morning, when they have completely dried.
Step 9
Use paper towels to buff up your commercial espresso machine. Go out onto the coffee shop floor – where the customers stand – and look at the back of your commercial espresso machine. Buff it up with cleaner and make it shiny and clean.
The taste of coffee for a dirty machine compared to a clean one is mind blowing! Keeping your coffee machine clean will also help extend the life of your machine. So remember to clean your machine regularly for better tasting coffee and better functionality.