# Puly vs Fairy liquid



## numb15 (Mar 24, 2021)

Newbie here, and I couldn't find anything in older threads, so here goes: what's wrong with just using old fashioned Fairy liquid to clean your basket, portafilter and shower screen and then giving them a good rinse and dry? Surely it's considered food safe, so what's the benefit of a specialist product like Puly over Fairy or other similar washing up liquid?

I see Puly do descaling solutions too, but would these be similar to just a regular supermarket bought descaling product?

thanks


----------



## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

numb15 said:


> Newbie here, and I couldn't find anything in older threads, so here goes: what's wrong with just using old fashioned Fairy liquid to clean your basket, portafilter and shower screen and then giving them a good rinse and dry? Surely it's considered food safe, so what's the benefit of a specialist product like Puly over Fairy or other similar washing up liquid?
> 
> I see Puly do descaling solutions too, but would these be similar to just a regular supermarket bought descaling product?
> 
> thanks


 Shhh...that's what I do (but I remove the shower screen first...even do the inside of the group with it once the shower screen is out)!


----------



## numb15 (Mar 24, 2021)

DavecUK said:


> Shhh...that's what I do (but I remove the shower screen first...even do the inside of the group with it once the shower screen is out)!


 that's a relief I'm not the only one!


----------



## Jony (Sep 8, 2017)

I did the same with my V😁


----------



## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

numb15 said:


> what's the benefit of a specialist product like Puly over Fairy or other similar washing up liquid?


 If you leave a shower screen soaking in fairy liquid, or a coffee flask, it will do very little in removing the coffee oils. Puly is detergent specialised in removing that sort of thing. The closest thing is washing powder, but Puly has one big advantage: it does not cake AND it does not have perfume!



numb15 said:


> see Puly do descaling solutions too, but would these be similar to just a regular supermarket bought descaling product?


 You'll find that 99% of what you buy in supermarkets is citric acid. Just buy that on Amazon - it's also used for brewing, it will last you a long time and doesn't cost a lot.

and most importantly... prevention is better than remedy. Avoid descaling by preventing scaling from happening in the first place.


----------



## 7493 (May 29, 2014)

Not at all sure back flushing with Fairy Liquid is a good idea...


----------



## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Rob666 said:


> Not at all sure back flushing with Fairy Liquid is a good idea...


 Gets very foamy......


----------



## numb15 (Mar 24, 2021)

MediumRoastSteam said:


> If you leave a shower screen soaking in fairy liquid, or a coffee flask, it will do very little in removing the coffee oils. Puly is detergent specialised in removing that sort of thing. The closest thing is washing powder, but Puly has one big advantage: it does not cake AND it does not have perfume!
> 
> You'll find that 99% of what you buy in supermarkets is citric acid. Just buy that on Amazon - it's also used for brewing, it will last you a long time and doesn't cost a lot.
> 
> and most importantly... prevention is better than remedy. Avoid descaling by preventing scaling from happening in the first place.


 Thanks, I hadn't thought about soaking, but are the coffee oils that strong that the bits should be soaked rather than just get a vigorous scrub with a sponge?

Yes I do want to prevent scaling, in fact I have two options for my water:

- Brita jug water, which comes from my hard water tap (but I don't think Brita filters are good at helping with limescale?)

- water dispenser built in to my fridge (also comes through an in-built filter in the fridge, but I believe our plumber set this up so that the water feeding in to this comes through our water softener machine first). The trade off here is less limescale in the machine, but water with more sodium than I'd like


----------



## numb15 (Mar 24, 2021)

DavecUK said:


> Gets very foamy......


 do you use Puly for back flushing?


----------



## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

numb15 said:


> do you use Puly for back flushing?


 Absolutely


----------



## MediumRoastSteam (Jul 7, 2015)

numb15 said:


> Thanks, I hadn't thought about soaking, but are the coffee oils that strong that the bits should be soaked rather than just get a vigorous scrub with a sponge?
> 
> Yes I do want to prevent scaling, in fact I have two options for my water:
> 
> ...


 How do you scrub the inwards of a portafilter spout? You have to soak it.

You can try yourself with Fairy, let us know your conclusions. 😉

limescsle... tricky. It depends on the quality of your water. Brita filter in the Thames Valley will last you a couple of weeks at most.

There are lots of threads about water on this forum. Best advice is an Osmio Zero.


----------



## Coff Hey (Mar 19, 2021)

numb15 said:


> Newbie here, and I couldn't find anything in older threads, so here goes: what's wrong with just using old fashioned Fairy liquid to clean your basket, portafilter and shower screen and then giving them a good rinse and dry? Surely it's considered food safe, so what's the benefit of a specialist product like Puly over Fairy or other similar washing up liquid?
> 
> I see Puly do descaling solutions too, but would these be similar to just a regular supermarket bought descaling product?
> 
> thanks


 Hi mate. Fairy liquid does not dissolve coffee. Puly does, and very well. No scrubbing required.

Generally speaking... supermarket descaler does not dissolve scale. It dislodges it. This is a problem in a coffee machine where you have 0.7mm to 1.5mm orifices internally they'll get blocked up.

Hope this helps


----------



## Nopapercup (Nov 6, 2016)

PulyCaf is also amazing at getting grease off of things. We currently have a kitchen without an extractor, we cook a lot and everything is caked in grease. Soak anything overnight in puly and it comes straight off.

My wife also left a Le Creuset pan on the hob and forgot about it. I thought we would have to bin it but Puly rescued it.


----------



## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Nopapercup said:


> PulyCaf is also amazing at getting grease off of things. We currently have a kitchen without an extractor, we cook a lot and everything is caked in grease. Soak anything overnight in puly and it comes straight off.
> 
> My wife also left a Le Creuset pan on the hob and forgot about it. I thought we would have to bin it but Puly rescued it.


 You have given me an idea...I took a hit for the team in checking out an amazingly cheap 2 tub puly offer on ebay for £4.99, had not thought about using it to clean grease around the cooker area and the cabinet/extractor above. I'm going to give it a try on those areas soon.


----------



## Alpesh (Dec 12, 2020)

DavecUK said:


> You have given me an idea...I took a hit for the team in checking out an amazingly cheap 2 tub puly offer on ebay for £4.99, had not thought about using it to clean grease around the cooker area and the cabinet/extractor above. I'm going to give it a try on those areas soon.


 Cleaned the kitchen extractor and filters last week. Wish I'd known about the Puly trick. Grease is a right pain to get off the metal filters and around the hood. If this works should save a bit of time in a couple of months time!


----------



## Coff Hey (Mar 19, 2021)

Alpesh said:


> Cleaned the kitchen extractor and filters last week. Wish I'd known about the Puly trick. Grease is a right pain to get off the metal filters and around the hood. If this works should save a bit of time in a couple of months time!





DavecUK said:


> You have given me an idea...I took a hit for the team in checking out an amazingly cheap 2 tub puly offer on ebay for £4.99, had not thought about using it to clean grease around the cooker area and the cabinet/extractor above. I'm going to give it a try on those areas soon.


 Just don't use on aluminium parts guys!!!!!!!!!! It will strip the natural oxidised protective coating leaving it matt grey and like a water colour painting.

but yes apart from that I use more Puly for none coffee machine cleaning than anything else! Anything lipid based it just dissolved in a breeze. So that's oils too and for any car detailing enthusiasts the lightest dilution will strip natural wax away in seconds !


----------



## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

DavecUK said:


> Shhh...that's what I do (but I remove the shower screen first...even do the inside of the group with it once the shower screen is out)!


 Don't tell anybody but I often just use the hot tap. If there happens to be any dish washing water in the bowl I swill it about in that too and more hot tap. If I stained a basket then yes I would use puly but they shouldn't ever get like that.

Shower screen, hot tap and a wipe over behind it with a baby flannel before I back flush. The puly can then remove any coffee residues and no bits get blown back into the machine.

I bought a dozen of the baby flannels off amazon thinking they wouldn't last long. Oh how I was wrong but I do rinse it out. I think one of the reviews showed one which was 12 months old. Folded in half they don't take up much space on the drip tray and are fine for mopping up.  I'm currently on yellow, the other one I used was blue.


----------

