Sterilising water holder?

jcb1973

Hey folks! I’m guessing it’s prudent to sterilise the plastic water holder in my machine from time to time. Am I right? How often in that case, and what are people using?

LMSC

jcb1973 We use Milton tablets once 6 weeks.

DavecUK

jcb1973 I sterilise every few weeks…I have a machine thing that makes Milton solution from salt and water….I spray it in the tank to get an even coverage on the inner plastic…leave for 5m, spray again and leave for another 5 min….then rinse off.

My belief is that the moulds etc.. can penetrate the surface of the plastic if left too long…then become difficult to eradicate.

MediumRoastSteam

Contrasting to Dave’s approach, I wash the tank every two months with washing up liquid. I don’t scrub the tank.

Never had a problem, ever with mould or anything, on any machine I owned over the past 11 years. It looks and smells as good as new.

DavecUK

MediumRoastSteam Giphy - family guy vomit GIF

dndrich

Interesting. I agree with the occasional washing up liquid approach. Remember that the water is heated to well past the boiling point in both the brew and steam boiler. No local bacteria or fungi will survive that.

Hotmetal

Whilst I think it’s safe because of the temperature in the boiler, I kind of don’t like the idea that the water might not be all that nice, whether or not it ends up ‘safe’. In my own ‘real life’ (being someone who struggles to have a fixed routine) I am somewhere between Dave and Alberto. I wash it out with hot soapy water and a washing up brush every few fills or couple of weeks, and once every so often have a session with Milton where I do my machine water tank, the water tank for the Osmio, and my steel water bottles.

Thomas101

One thing is to sterilize- another thing is to clean stuff, I would say that a monthly cleaning of the tank is sufficient.

DavecUK

Giphy - Clean Up Cats GIF by Bubble Witch

prezes

I clean the tank weekly with hot soapy water. It doesn’t take long so I rather be sure!

Ernie1

Timely topic for me…

I’ve been washing mine with soapy water once a week but yesterday noticed a film of ‘slime’ for want of a better word, covering the inside of the tank and hose. It also had a weird smell. Not unpleasant mould like, just odd.

So now I’m thinking I should do it more often.

I use Volvic and tend to top up as much as I might need in a day.

I’m guessing the lack of chlorine in bottled water and the ambient temperature behind the boilers creates a pretty comforting environment for the aforementioned slime to build up.

I’m fascinated at how @MediumRoastSteam can go two months with no issues, what’s the secret?!

MediumRoastSteam

Ernie1 I’m fascinated at how @MediumRoastSteam can go two months with no issues, what’s the secret?!

I have no idea! I actually went to my machine and smelled the tank. No smell.

With regards to the a slime feel on the hoses. I know what you are saying, and it’s the same for me. I don’t know exactly what that is, but it does not smell, and it’s not green or black: I can’t see it, only feel it. also, there’s no “build up” as such. Whether it’s two weeks or two months, it’s always the same feel. I’m no biologist, so this is as far as my knowledge goes.

dndrich

Interesting. I’m using my local tap water which is chlorinated. That would make a significant difference. I have the Lelit filter in there.

dutchy101

I noticed the slime feeling on the hoses in my new Minima pretty much straight away. Do people clean the hoses too?

DavecUK

dutchy101 Do people

I have to admit….I do…

JahLaza

My workplace got industrial sized nespresso machines to service us, it’s a 24/7 operation. When I say industrial I mean they have 2 coffee dispensers (not sure what the correct term is here, they’re not groups like!). They have a reservoir which is automatically topped up through an inline filter from the mains. One of the units wasn’t used as much as the others (very little in fact, people forgot it was there) and a green growth was noticed at some stage in the water tank. I happened to be on when the service guys came in, they said it was an algae that grows in such tanks. One solution was to add a uv light bulb on the tank to kill the algae. I moved job around that time, I’m pretty sure that solution wasn’t implemented!! I reckon the machine was removed. I clean my water tank every week/10 days with Milton tablet, cleaning the osmio reservoir and babies bottles and hair brushes then in that kind of order. I wipe down the tubes in the tank with anti bacterial wipe while the reservoir is soaking in Milton solution. I noticed a slimy residue on the tubes the first time I checked (a few weeks from new) and have not observed it since due to cleaning them as above

JahLaza

Ernie1

Good to know I’m not the only one with a slimy tank!

I also clean the hose in the Bianca tank… maybe a bit OTT but it’s mainly because I detach it to run water through to make sure all the soap suds are out before I put it back in the machine.