Having a commercial espresso machine is about providing a great variety of drink offerings for your customers. Yet, you also want to ensure that your commercial espresso machine is cleaned properly to provide the best-tasting beverages and an amazing customer experience.
With the continued focus on finding natural and eco-friendly cleaning options, you might wonder what is available for cleaning and maintaining your commercial espresso machine. The question is finding the right cleaning products to keep it running at its best.
Naturally, the first natural cleaning product to come up is vinegar, which can be used in a variety of applications. Let’s learn how vinegar works and whether you can use it in your commercial espresso machine.
Vinegar: Nature’s Cleaner
Vinegar is made of several compounds, including acetic acid. It also has a pH of 2.4, making it a pretty strong acid, contributing to its ability to clean various stains, stickers, and other gunk. While many kinds of vinegar have this pH level, not every form is good for cleaning. Although it can be used as a disinfectant, vinegar is not approved for this purpose by the CDC.
White vinegar is frequently used as a cleaner; it might be too strong for some types of cleaning. You can opt to distill it with water or go with a milder vinegar, such as apple cider vinegar.
Because vinegar is so acidic, it can definitely counter the buildup and brines left by hard water. That means if your business has hard water filtering through your espresso machine, you might want to consider vinegar as a natural cleaning product to combat any buildup.
Vinegar can damage delicate fabrics or surfaces like marble, so you must be careful before cleaning with it on every surface.
Cleaning Your Commercial Espresso Machine
Likely, you have a daily cleaning routine that helps contribute to your machine’s basic maintenance. Since vinegar can be a powerful way to clean off any buildup in your commercial espresso machine, you might wonder how to do so without damaging your machine.
First, check for an indicator that will let you know when to descale and clean your machine. You can follow the vinegar cleaning steps when the indicator comes on, thus helping you to rid the machine of scale and other buildups.
If your machine doesn’t have an indicator, the vinegar cleaning should happen at least once a month, but if your machine is used frequently, you might consider doing it more often.
Before you begin cleaning, ensure all the coffee grinds are out of the filters and empty all the water out of the tank. Then mix one part white vinegar and one part water before filling your tank with the mixture.
After the machine is on and heated up, run a brew cycle. Keep a mug underneath the machine and continue to empty it as the mug fills until the tank is empty. Avoid emptying the tank in one cycle to keep it from getting air in the lines.
You should also clean all your filters thoroughly with warm and soapy water. Rinse them completely and then let them air dry. Once you finish this process, run two or three tanks of clean water through the machine to avoid having a vinegar taste in any drinks made after this cleaning.
This method can be a quick and simple way to descale your machine, but if you are leasing your commercial espresso machine, you should follow their recommendations for cleaning and descaling it.
If you are unsure what type of commercial espresso machine you need for your business, our team can help. Contact NCB Sales to learn more about the commercial espresso machines available for lease or purchase.
Headquartered in Vista, California, N.C.B. Sales is your beverage equipment repair specialists servicing San Diego, Orange County, Temecula, and Hemet. Since 1986, we have been repairing various beverage equipment, including coffee, espresso, soda fountain, Granita, juice, water filtration, and more, working on well-known brands in the industry.