# Descaling a Gaggia...



## robthehungrymonkey (Dec 6, 2010)

Hi peeps,

Got lots of useful info from posting on here when choosing my machine, just thought I'd ask a couple of (probably obvious questions) that I should know the answers to.

Firstly, which is the descaler of choise on here? I see the liquid Gaggia 350ml bottle is approx. £8-9, or there's the powdered "Puly head cleaner" 900g for £15.99.

If using 30g per clean, the Puly powder should last a while (30 cleans). How much liquid is used when using the Gaggia stuff?

Also, if the coffee is coming out a little slower is that a sign that the machine needs to be descaled? I'm surprised it's this quick, if so. I use is probably 3-4 times a day.

Anything else I should be doing to keep the machine in good working order? The manual is a little vague.

Thanks


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

The gaggia liquid is single use. I use Puly Caffe, got 10 sachets on eBay for £6 which isn't too bad.


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## chimpsinties (Jun 13, 2011)

Isn't the puly head cleaner for backflushing with a blanking plate? Not doing a full de-scale. I use a spoonful of this once a week and back flush with it.










For decaling you need some of this and it comes in sachets where you use one sachet for a descale. You fill the entire water reservoir up with a sachet diluted in water and run the whole lot through. I do this once every couple of months.


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## MartinB (May 8, 2011)

Yes, my mistake. The Puly Baby is what I use. Dissolve it in a little boiling water and dilute with cold water and run it throught the machine. I tend to pull a bit through avery ten minutes or so until the reservoir is empty. Then I wash out the reservoir, refill with filtered water and run three reservoirs of water through. Pull a shot or two to season the machine and should be good to go.


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## robthehungrymonkey (Dec 6, 2010)

Thanks guys,

I have purchased the puly baby, should be delivered today.

Stupid question.... how do you back flush the coffee machine??

Also, I fear it may be a little late, as teh coffee is coming out very slowly now. Would this be caused by the limescale? It's a little odd, as I don't have any issues in the kettle or anything with our water (unlike in previous homes).


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Hopefully these PDFs may be useful

How to;

Backflush

Descale


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## robthehungrymonkey (Dec 6, 2010)

Glenn said:


> Hopefully these PDFs may be useful
> 
> How to;
> 
> ...


Much appreciated.


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## chimpsinties (Jun 13, 2011)

Yeah backflushing is really easy and only takes about 5 mins. You need to buy a blanking plate for your PF but they're only a couple of quid. It's very satisfying to see all the gunk get washed away from your grouphead via the woooosh described.


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