Read Me First
1. If you use soft enough water (TDS below 120 ppm), you only need to descale your machine once a year or every 2 years. If you use distilled or RO-filtered water, you don't need to descale your machine. The best way to determine this is to measure the TDS of your water.
2. If there is a scale buildup issue, you can use distilled water or sufficiently soft water (TDS below 120 ppm) for descaling. Otherwise, the acid will be buffered by the hard water and become less effective.
3. Use CITRIC ACID ONLY. Other descaling products may damage the seals inside the machine. If the machine becomes clogged after using other descaling products, the resulting damage will NOT be covered under warranty.
4. Disable the steam heater on the Steam page before using the Descale function. Then, wait until the steam temperature cools down to 60ºC or lower. This can take up to an hour. If you disable the steam heater immediately after waking the machine, before it starts preheating, you can save time.
5. Don't use hot water (80–100ºC). Room-temperature to warm water (20–40ºC) is sufficient.
6. You can repeat the Descale cycle up to 3 times, until the solution in the water tank is used up. Make sure to empty the drip tray at the end of each cycle.
7. If your machine is v1.0 or v1.1 (an early machine), please don't use a citric acid solution stronger than 5%. A higher concentration of acid can damage the older pressure sensor. If you've replaced the pressure sensor with a newer one, it's okay to use a 20% solution.
Insight skin [Steam] page**
The other skin [Settings - Machine - Calibrate - Page 1]
Decaid Streamline skin (Set the Steam time to 0s)
This article serves as an example, how a cleaning/descaling process of the machine works. It's based on the article here.
Before getting started, please note that this process requires a significant amount of filtered water. I used approximately 8 L of water in total. According to Urnex, this amount of water is normal for a descaling process, although I did not use an Urnex product.
Here is the process:
Descale
1. Prepare a 5% citric acid solution.
We recommend a 5% concentration because higher concentrations can be too strong.
If your machine is an early v1.0 or v1.1 model, please do not use a citric acid solution stronger than 5%.
We recommend using 1,540 mL of water with 80 g of citric acid.
Add the citric acid to the water and mix thoroughly.
2. Remove the steam tip.
3. Start the descaling process.
water slowly comes out from the group head
As the steam heater turns off, water will be released as shown below.
4. Check the Descaling result
The photos below show the water from the water circulation, steam line, and group head, from left to right.
The descaling process itself should take approximately 6 minutes.
Rinsing
Rinsing is extremely important. Descaling solution will remain inside the machine's water lines after the descaling process.
Before starting the rinsing process, you can use the Transport feature to remove as much of the remaining solution as possible.
Then:
1. Turn the steam heater back on.
2. Empty and clean the water reservoir.
3. Fill the reservoir completely with fresh filtered water.
1. Rinse the Group Head Line
1. Flush water through the group head until the app displays the refill message.
2. Refill the water reservoir with fresh filtered water.
3. Repeat the process.
4. Taste the water coming from the group head.
If the water tastes acidic, continue flushing with fresh water.
Tip: Citric acid has a distinctive aroma similar to the smell of a vitamin C capsule. You may still notice this smell even if the water does not taste sour. If you notice the smell, continue flushing with fresh water.
2. Rinse the Steam Line
1. Set the steam time to 100 seconds.
2. Run the steam cycle 5 times.
3. Do not reinstall the steam tip yet.
4. Taste the water after the five cycles.
If you notice an acidic taste, continue running additional steam cycles until the taste is gone.
Once you confirm that there is no more acidic taste, reinstall the steam tip.
Your machine is now ready to use.
Important
The entire process requires a significant amount of water. Plan to have approximately 7–8 L of filtered water available.
Do not skip the rinsing process. Even after flushing approximately 4 L of water through the group head and running the steam for a total of 500 seconds, some acidic taste may remain. Continue rinsing until there is no noticeable acidic taste or smell.
If your heater is severely clogged, you may not see any improvement after the process. In that case, repeat the Descale cycles (without rinsing) until you see an improvement. Once the issue caused by scale buildup has been resolved, run the Rinse cycle.
