How calcium in water destroys an espresso machine
My repair engineer decided to cut a customer's heater in half to show them that they really needed to address their water issue. They bought a DE1 from us five years ago, and 13 months later it was completely blocked up and sent back to us for a warranty repair.
Technically, our warranty coverage does not apply when poor-quality water is used. This can be prevented by regular descaling, but it's better to use low calcium water anyway. Basically, our warranty covers almost everything except damage caused by you.
However, as we felt that the customer had not realised his mistake, we repaired two heaters, both manifolds and valves free of charge, and also paid for shipping and customs back to them in Germany. We did, however, tell them that they really needed to change to better water.
Four years later, the same machine has been returned to us for repair, completely clogged up. We covered the cost of the first repair as a gesture of goodwill, but we are charging for the second repair, covering the cost of parts and shipping (but not labour).
Please make sure you use water with a low calcium content with any espresso machine. The Decent DE1 has a two-metre-long stainless steel tube in it, so it takes a really long time for bad water and no cleaning to ruin it, but you can still ruin it.
#repair #calcium #water #heater
Updated 2025/11/11