Maintenance and cleaning of your Coffee Machine

When you have an Italian coffee maker, you can make the mistake of thinking that since used a simpler technology than other coffee you can and forget about cleaning and maintenance. Nothing further away from reality! On the other hand, if you’re an experienced user, or you’ve had at home one or more Italian coffee, you probably want to deepen your knowledge and understanding of how must be cleaned and maintained.In either case, we will offer you in this article some tips and summaries to ensure the proper use and proper maintenance of your Italian coffee.

We begin by reviewing the basic guidelines of operation , we will continue with the most important tips on safety when handling your mocha coffee, and continue with the always useful instructions for cleaning . Finally, some general recommendations to perfectly preserve your Italian coffee and lengthen its life. Let’s go there!

How an Italian coffee used

The first thing to know and understand perfectly are the basic guidelines for the use of any Italian or mocha coffee maker. We extend these instructions on our page on Italian coffee , but it never hurts to remember or summarize the basic steps:

Fill the water tank or boiler. You just have to fill with water until the safety valve, and surpass this level if the valve does not work out. Remember that the safety valve of the Italian coffee served to release steam in case of overpressure.
Check the ground coffee in the funnel or filter.
Place the coffee filter over the lower body of the coffee (which have driven the water before).
Close the pot and make sure it is sealed. The normal closing mechanism is screw the two parts, but some Italian coffee fit the two pieces by pressure. Never force or pull the handle of your Italian coffee to do this step.
Finally, put the coffee on the fire, or plug it to their base if electric, water heating.The waiting time varies by model of coffee and the amount of water you use, but usually you’ll have your coffee ready in one or two minutes.

As basic safety

When handling an Italian coffee, it is worth remembering (or know that all there …) these basic principles and safety recommendations.

As you may know, the safety valve of Italian coffee has a very specific and well defined function: Releases steam to reduce the pressure when the dreaded pressure occurs. If there is no safety valve, the Italian coffee end up exploding. This jet of steam, as is logical, comes at a very high temperature, so that the valve must always be oriented toward the wall, where it can never reach out to you or anyone passing by.
For the above reason, more than any other type of coffee, you must ensure that no children nearby when an Italian coffee used. The risk of overpressure and high temperatures that can reach the water when it rises.
If you want the safety valve function properly, always remember to leave the water level below this.
Do not use the Italian coffee differently as specified by the manufacturer. This means more specifically that no emplees to boil water , tea or other elements. Nor to put in the filter any other ingredients other than ground coffee.
Italian coffee machines reach high temperatures. So always they have a handle and a knob insulating and heat resistant. Use them to manipulate the pot, never touches the surface directly with your hands or can be burned.
Never open the appliance when it is hot , since the pressure can be released suddenly and exploit you in the face. You must cool your coffee under water before April, or wait for it to cool on its own.

What should I do if the safety valve begins to steam?

If the safety valve works means that your coffee is in overpressure (come on, you’ve spent with temperature and the superheated has). You must immediately remove from heat or turn off heat and let the coffee cool itself.

That done, you must analyze two scenarios, to know what happened:

If coffee is coming down the pipe, it is that the coffee has worked well but I have left forgotten in the fire. Simply remove it and wait. And next time, be more aware or use an Italian coffee with power base
If you do not get any coffee and steam is already out strongly, it is that something has not worked well. Once the coffee has cooled completely, checks may have pressed much coffee in the filter, or if this was too thin. Remember that water does about as much pressure as an espresso coffee maker, so the ground should be slightly thicker than in these. Another possibility is that the coffee has worked well, but perhaps the filter or tube that drains are clogged coffee. Clean them well and making coffee again to make sure.

Cleaning Tips for an Italian coffee

Many Italian coffee are stainless steel. Do not wash with bleach or abrasive products because they will eventually damage the steel.
Always rinse well it advised an Italian coffee before first use. Wash it with soap and water, clarify it as many times as necessary, and then set it in motion with water–only a few times to remove any toxic residue or impurities that may be inside. So you make sure that you also will not take coffee aroma or taste.
Clean frequently and thoroughly with water internal components: tube, filter, deposits and funnel for coffee. If blocked, the appliance will not work well because there is too much pressure inside the steam will never go up.
Coffee dry well with a cloth or cloth after washing. Do not let it air dry.
Save separate parts, that is, the upper body on one side and the other lower.Disassembled without screw. What for? To extend the life of the rubber gasket that ensures the hermetic seal of the piece.
When you use an Italian coffee maker, safety always comes first. So check every time you go to make coffee that the safety valve works correctly. How is the safety valve of mocha coffee is checked? Simply pressing the ball is inside. If it moves, the valve is clean and undamaged. If it is blocked, do not risk better. Touch cleaning.

Here we leave an interesting video that shows you in more detail the process you should follow to clean your Italian coffee before first use:

Recommendations General Use

The following tips are designed to extend the life of your coffee, and prevent damage unnecessarily. If you follow them to the letter, you’ll be sure to have coffee for many years. Let’s enjoy!

With your Italian coffee always used with little lime water or mineral water if the tap water in your city does not meet these conditions.
Never put the heat to high, but rather to medium intensity. If you use a very high heat, your coffee can burn.
If your kitchen is gas, it ensures that the flames do not protrude from the sides of the pot.
The ground coffee should have a medium-fine thickness (if in doubt, better be medium grain). You should never use very fine coffee (for example, you would use for an espresso coffee maker) nor you must press it once in the filter (as you would in an espresso coffee machine).
A coffee (any type) is for making coffee. Do not try to put in the filter substitutes, extracts of coffee, tea or any other ingredients.
It is essential that the two parts of the appliance fit perfectly and the piece is hermetically closed to prevent leakage (with the risk of burns). To make sure, check frequently the rubber gasket, and replace it every year.
If you see that your coffee does not come out because the brewer has cracks (steam loses the thread or the board), then cool it, squeeze it well if it were not closed, and reinsert it into the fire. If you continue losing steam, so that the rubber seal is damaged and must be replaced.

Please write to us or leave us a comment if you know any other tips or tricks cleaning Italian coffee. Share is to win, and here we all win!

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