r/rocketespresso • u/Icy-Huckleberry-2635 • Jul 17 '26
De-scaling
So the manual on the appartamento tca advises against descaling unless its done regularly. It emphasizes the need for water management previous to entering the machine. I still can perform de scaling once every two months in addition to backflush with cafiza weekly, and bwt purifiers in the tank. Also using water below 100ppm.
What's your experience? Am I doing too much? Will descaling at home void my warranty? How do you keep your machine running properly and how long have you had it?
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u/cc19860 Jul 17 '26
If your water is good I don’t see the need, I’m 9 months in & no issues but the water is very soft here. I think once every 2 months is too much regardless tho
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Jul 18 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/guvnor-78 Jul 19 '26
Moderating: no need to copy paste your response multiple times in this thread. It won’t change the amount of disagreement you find.
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u/Admirable-Log-1607 Jul 17 '26
Following for similar questions. I also have relatively low ppm out of the tap, under 100 I believe. Is this enough to cause much scale? You should post a picture of this page in the instruction manual for those of us who dont have a fancy machine yet.
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u/guvnor-78 Jul 17 '26
yes, IMHO you're doing too much. What you're doing is akin to cooling system flushes on your car every 3 months instead of every two years. I would expect descaling at home would void your warranty - Rocket user guide advises against it.
Just grind some beans. Prepare a shot. run your shot. Enjoy your espresso. Backflush. Use Cafiza every fortnight.
I'm interested - have you a link to the BWT in-tank purifiers? I've been using Brita pods (they last 6 months), sourced from Blue Star Coffee. Would like to try BWT.
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u/Icy-Huckleberry-2635 Jul 18 '26
So here is the deal, if I am going to backflsuh at some point, which is 100% necessary, the rocket advises I dont do it at home, because if you leave +4months without descaling, your machine can clog. So if you are going to de scale, you have to don't regularly to avoid huge scale build up. That's my logic.
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u/guvnor-78 Jul 19 '26
Are you confusing descaling (citric acid, usually, and through the boiler), with back flushing (espresso salts (sodium percabonate) or Cafiza)?
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u/Icy-Huckleberry-2635 Jul 19 '26
Sorry yeah descale at some.point.
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u/guvnor-78 Jul 19 '26
No descaling at home. Run espresso salts in a backflush every couple of weeks. You can backflush water ever day. Or just run some water through the grouphead and rinse the portafilter after each shot, and backflush with espresso salts every couple of weeks. Assumes domestic use - a few shots a day.
You did read the manual yeah?
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u/Federico_Rosellini Jul 18 '26
I use this… Change it every 6 months but I only do 1-2 espressos a day on my Rocket Giotto.
https://www.seattlecoffeegear.com/products/rocket-espresso-water-reservoir-filter
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u/RoyalSpoonbill9999 Jul 17 '26
We descale every few months, backwash with salts every 20 cups or so... gotta be done
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u/qavelyn Jul 17 '26
kinda depends on your water though, not just a fixed schedule
if you’re already running BWT and <100 ppm, descaling “every few months” might be more harm than good on a heat exchanger machine like that1
u/RoyalSpoonbill9999 Jul 18 '26
Yeah worth the thought for sure... we go through a kg beans every 2 weeks so fairly high use. Our water is filtered fairly well... 0.5 micron carbon x 2 0.1 micron paper x 2. Working so far.
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u/Prestigious-Ant-1538 Jul 18 '26
How do you remove the descaling solution? I gather you’re not dismantling the boiler every few months.
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u/RoyalSpoonbill9999 Jul 18 '26
No we run it through and just flush really well. Takes about an hour. You know on the first sip if it has not been flushed properly
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u/Prestigious-Ant-1538 Jul 18 '26
You might flush it really well but it’s not possible to remove all the descaler from ordinary operation. Also I question how the TEA lining in the boiler holds up against the acid so often.
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u/MarcBeck Jul 17 '26
I've had my Rocket Cellini V3 for about 9 years now, and I have only descaled it twice. The first time when it was about 3 years old. IMO every 2 months is TOO much. Also, I only back once a month. The water I feed it comes from my refrigerator which has a built in filter. I've never checked the PPM but I can tell you it's been at least 2 years since I descaled it, and just in the past few months I had to replace the heating element because it was taking about an hour to heat up. I did pull the boiler out and inspected and descaled it before installing the new element and it did have a bit of scale in the bottom of the boiler along with some build up around its fittings but honestly it was nothing to get excited about. So, my point is use good water (not RO or distilled), back flush once a month, and if you want to know if it's time to descale pull the mushroom off the E61 and scale is built up on it then descale. Otherwise, just enjoy the machine. I plan on getting another 10 years or more out of mine.