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I need to descale my coffee machine. How do I do that?
Read the manual. It might have a descale mode that pushes some descaling chemical through the pipes without heating it.
Source: I did it like a month ago. The water that came out was quite pulpy.
I cannot describe the expression I made at the word "pulpy" but "horrified" is probably as close as I'll ever get.
It's best not to think about the non-water stuff that exists in the water pipes. I once had to open up our 200-litre water heater (which supplies the entire house) to replace the heater coil, and now have to live with the knowledge of what, and how much of it, was inside. "Ignorance is bliss" couldn't be more accurate.
I usually just run vinegar through it every once in a while and then run a few pots of just water to get rid of any residual vinegar. Beware, it'll make the house smell like vinegar for the rest of the day.
Might want to try citric or lactic acid instead at a proper dilution.
White vinegar works, or you can pick up "sour salt" in the Kosher section, which is citric acid and since you don't need much the rest is handy as a substitute for lemon juice. Dilute with plenty of water, run the machine, it removes calcium deposits.
Good call. I was going to suggest citric acid. It's what we use for our electric kettle.
what if i want some tasty calcium in my diet
Oh, that kind has microplastics mixed up in it, and it slows down the coffee maker. You want tasty calcium you're going to absorb properly, try this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B004KWGHCO
(Just the easiest link for a description, not pushing Amazon)
You gotta use a tougher kind of scale like a dragon scale to scrape it off!
I used this stuff called Durgol to descale my CNC spindle and it worked wonderfully.