How to Clean Your Coffee Machine

Close up of a Jura coffee machine in black. The message on the screen says 'clean the milk system'

If you’re a coffee lover, having a coffee machine at home is a must. You can enjoy a high quality coffee at the touch of a button. No more waiting around in coffee shop queues for expensive take away lattes! Most modern coffee machines don’t need much maintenance, however its still important to keep your coffee machine clean.

Regular cleaning can extend the lifespan of your coffee machine, it will also improve the taste of your coffee too! According to Which? 20% of their members have never cleaned or descaled their coffee machine, whilst another 20% do this just once a year. Yikes!

In this short guide, we’ll talk you through each coffee machine type and how to clean it. We’ll also show you how to descale your coffee machine. If you take yourself seriously as a coffee lover, keeping your coffee machine in tip top condition is essential. So, let’s get started!

    How do you clean an espresso coffee machine?

      Espresso coffee machines have several parts that need cleaning including:

      1. Bean container and grinder – where your coffee beans are stored & then grinded.
      2. Gasket – this is where you insert the portafilter.
      3. Portafilter – this is the handled filter that you fill with coffee grounds.
      4. Steam lever – the metal arm which is usually by the side of the gasket.
      5. Basket – a metal container that sits inside the portafilter.

      You can clean the portafilter and basket together. Simply remove them from the gasket, run them under hot water (you can even use your machine to do this) and scrub them with a pad or a nylon brush. Make sure you rinse them thoroughly with hot water and dry them with a clean tea towel. Coffee grounds can get lodged in these parts quite easily, however they are simple to clean. You can use a pin to dislodge any coffee grounds that are stuck. Giving the portafilter and basket a thorough rinse after each use is good practice and will keep your machine in good working order.

      To clean the gasket, you may want to use a nylon brush instead of a pad for hard to reach areas. Remove the portafilter and scrub around the gasket with your brush and a little hot water. If you want to go a step further, you may be able to remove a part of the gasket with a screwdriver. This is the group screen, which will look similar to the screen found in the portafilter. Remove this screen and scrub around with your brush or pad. Not as essential but if you think it’s not working at full capacity, this is worth doing.

      Cleaning the steam lever is very straightforward. You’ll see milk proteins building up on the lever, and this can happen after just one use. The best way to keep it clean is to wipe it down after each use. Using a sanitising product once a week will keep the steam lever looking as good as new.

      The bean container can be removed and rinsed out with warm soapy water. This doesn’t need doing often, but when you are doing a deep clean this will help keep your coffee tasting fresh as possible.

        How Do You Clean Built In Coffee Machines?

        Our built-in coffee machines fall under the remit of ‘bean-to-cup’ machines and require a slightly different process. This will differ slightly from brand to brand, mostly in where you can find the different parts. If you’re still not sure after this, then refer to the guide of your product, or look to see if the manufacturer of your bean-to-cup coffee machine has provided instructions online.

        With a built-in coffee machine, you may sometimes get an indicator light that lets you know when you need to clean your machine and there is often a button labelled ‘clean’ on it. Your machine will often slide out of the unit you installed it in.  Fill up your water tank and then press and hold down the clean button for a few seconds.

        You will have trays that need to be emptied. Remove your trays from the unit and rinse those out. Often, built-in coffee machines will come with cleaning tablets or you can buy them online. Put these in where you would normally put your coffee grounds and press the ‘clean’ button.

        If you fancy yourself your tinkering abilities, you can remove the face of the and clean the pipes out yourself. The most important part to clean is the milk frothing system. This should be cleaned daily.

        It’s hard to be specific with built-in coffee machines and if this doesn’t satisfy your query, see if the manufacturer of your product has provided information on how to clean your coffee machine.

          How Do You Clean a Capsule Coffee Machine?

          This is the easiest variety of coffee machine to clean. A capsule coffee machine is often freestanding and will sit on a kitchen countertop. They require disposable coffee capsule to do their magic, so there aren’t any messy coffee grounds to deal with.

          It’s very straightforward, simply turn off your machine and let it cool down before you attempt to clean it. Then take out any removable parts such as the water tank, anti-limescale filter and anything else and wash them with a brush. Preferably with soft bristles. Leave these to dry or hand-dry them with a clean towel.

          You should clean your capsule coffee machine after two or three roughly, depending on how many coffees you drink. A rule of thumb is do it after every 200 to 300 coffees but obviously, you don’t keep count. On the basis that you make three coffees with it a day, you should give it a proper clean every three months.

          Descaling your Coffee Machine

          Just as important as cleaning your coffee machine is descaling it. There are normally purpose-built descaling products that you can buy. This is usually the case for built-in coffee machines in particular.

          If it is a built-in coffee machine, you will usually receive a prompt saying it s time to descale. If that is the case, simply put a descaling tablet into the machine where you normally put the grounds, press ‘clean’ and let it do its thing.

          The rules are similar for other types of coffee machines, it normally involves using your machine as you would if you were going to make some coffee but using descaling solution instead of coffee. For example, on an espresso machine, you would put your descaling product in the portafilter. Just make sure that you rinse your machine through with fresh water before you make a coffee that you drink! Staying on top of the cleaning and descaling of your coffee machine is a great way to enhance the lifespan and improve the flavour of your coffees. If you want to have high-quality coffee at the push of a button, a coffee machine would be a more than worthy investment. We have a great selection of freestanding and built-in coffee machines in our small appliances section, alongside our blenders, kettles, stand mixers and toasters.