# Deep clean of a cheap machine



## FL630 (Jan 7, 2014)

Hi,

I've got my main machine, a Gaggia Classic, which I use on a day to day basis, but a while ago I purchased a really cheap (I think only £50 or so in a sale) Russell Hobbs espresso machine for work, which looks like it comes out of the same factory as the usual DeLonghi's and so on. I cut the portafilter up and put in an unpressurised basket in and ended up making some half decent coffee all things considering. I changed jobs about 6 months ago and ended up putting the cheap machine away. My Gaggia is waiting a spare seal so I went to dig out the cheapy this morning to find that I had left water in it, eugh!

So 6 months of room temperature hard tap water has been sitting in the machine and an inch or two depth in the reservoir. The reservoir has a slimy substance on it which I've cleaned, but it makes me dread what's on the inside of the machine. In addition, the water coming through it smells really foul.

So the question, how do I clean it?! The reservoir is currently sitting full of bleach, which I will rinse properly in a few hours. On my Gaggia I use a blank basket and backflush it with Cafiza 2. The cheap machine cannot backflush. Opening it up it seems not to have a boiler either, so it'll literally be the tubes and valves.

Can I just fill the reservoir full of Cafiza and run it through the machine a few times? I gather it's too harsh for a boiler, but this machine seems a bit more... "basic".

Here's a pic of the insides if interested to know what I'm about to ruin:









Any advice would be greatly appreciated, it's been nearly 2 days since my last good coffee, so I'm in desperate need, but I'd rather not catch dysentery.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

The somewhat good news is that water contained within pipes and a boiler is less exposed to oxygen that that in the reservoir, so the gunky stuff you saw wont have happened quite so much on the interior of the machine.

However, scale will have built up if the water is hard and over time the water will still go off inside the machine.

That circular metal block top centre may well be a boiler, these machines typically have very small boilers. Or it might be a 'thermoblock' which is just pipes that pass by a hot element to heat the water.

Anything that is too harsh to use on a boiler will be the same for a termoblock. I would however think it is ok to use Cafitza once in order to flush the system, it's certainly not going to destroy the metal. It is possible it will disintegrate an old seal and cause a leak however.

On a machine this cheap, I would probably take a 'whats the worst that could happen' approach, Cafitza is wondrous stuff for degunking equipment, but I have never used it to flush a machine. There may be a better solution but if your not too worried about it going on the scrap heap then it cant hurt to try.


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## FL630 (Jan 7, 2014)

Thanks for the reply Dylan, I think the "what's the worst that can happen" will be my method here.

I'll run Cafzia through then flush it out with plenty of water. The reservoir has come up okay with a soak in some diluted bleach.

I assume if the water smells good, it is good?


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Kinda, there is no guarantee the insides are clean but the smell (and taste) is a good indication of what its picking up on its way through the machine.


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## FL630 (Jan 7, 2014)

Well, that didn't go to plan, looks like it's on its way to the scrap heap. Ran the Cafiza through it and within only a few seconds water stopped coming out. Pump still works but has the "high pressure" noise rather than free running noise. Something is very blocked inside and will not shift. I'll take it apart tomorrow but I feel this was one clean too many!


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

More than likely the Cafitza dislodged some gunk or scale which has lodged in one of the components, this can happen when running a descale as well, even if your machine is many times the price of this.

It depends what you consider worth doing to such a cheap machine, if you have the time and fancy a project taking the machine apart and learning the basic workings is (IMO) a really enjoyable thing to do, plus if you screw up you haven't lost out on much. Stripping down to the components will also allow you to give it a really good clean and bring it back to full operating capacity. This probably isn't worth it monetarily, only if you fancy the challenge.

Take a lot of pictures so you now how it goes back together and dont touch anything on the inside of the machine when its plugged in!


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