Descale or not to descale

prezes

As service of the flow control valve was due I removed whole mushroom to inspect everything and found internals with fair bit of limescale. The machine will be a year old in March and has been used mainly of Tesco ashbeck with occasional swap for Waitrose Lockhills. Only in the last few weeks started adding sodium carbonate to ashbeck.

I had the mushroom descaled once when our few months ago but nothing else.

So the question is whether it will be wise descaling soon Considering this?

First photo is upon removing from machine and second after a 20 soak in citric acid

DavecUK

prezes Only in the last few weeks started adding sodium carbonate to ashbeck.

I’m really hoping you mean Sodium Bicarbonate….Sodium carbonate (below) is not what you would want to be using.

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DavecUK

Yes !! Obviously sodium bicarbonate !!

Cuprajake

Yeah sodium carbonate is a hell of a lot stronger haha

Rob1

So how much sodium bicarb have you been adding?

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Rob1

200mg per 5L of Ashbeck.

Rob1

prezes

There must be some inconsistency there as according to the label that wouldn’t cause scale in a brew boiler. So either Ashbeck is inconsistent (very possible) or you’re not weighing the 0.2g accurately enough (also very possible). If everything is accurate your alkalinity is just short of 45mg/l so you’d see scale at 125c…so if your machine is a HX that may go some way to explaining the scale on the mushroom. Given you’ve only been using that for a few weeks I’m thinking the scale came from lockhills….if you didn’t properly drain the boilers when the machine arrived the chalk-water from Italy could have done that early on too.

Cuprajake

As if h e l l is swearing haha

DavecUK

Cuprajake if h e l l is swearing

I used a ready made bad word list from the web, presumably made by the Pope.

MediumRoastSteam

looks like the mushroom has some imperfection in the chrome finishing. Doesn’t seems to me this was due to descaling, as it appears it was there already in the first photo pre-descaling.

I think a preventative gentle descaling would do your machine some good. I would also consider investing in better water to avoid a subsequent one.

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MediumRoastSteam thank you.

what would you suggest as light descale ? Lower concentration of citric acid ? Say 25g per litre instead of 50g?

the mushroom had some limescale when I first removed it about 6 months ago and after a descale the imperfections got worse.

MediumRoastSteam

prezes I first removed it about 6 months ago and after a descale the imperfections got worse.

Yes. It’s a well known issue when descaling, as chrome can flake off when in contact with the descaling solution for a long time.

In terms of light descale…. I have no idea what the ideal parameters are. Maybe keep the concentration, just don’t leave it sitting in there for too long.

Good luck.

prezes

Rob1 thank you.

I wanted to avoid descaling if not necessary but the deposits are quite clear so will most likely do a shorter descale procedure and check again in few months after using just ashbeck with sodium.

LMSC

If possible, please see if you stick to Lockhills and/or volvic. There is another thread re-using Zerowater. You may want to look at it.