Expobar office question

[adharvey]

Howdy, I used the hot water spout on the office machine to put some hot water into a cup, (so someone could make an instant coffee funnily enough)

I was told that the water tasted funny so, I put some water from the hot spout into a cup and put the cup into the fridge - when i tasted the water, it did taste funny.

Will just running a lot of fresh water through the boiler solve the problem? If so,how often should I completely refresh the water in the boiler?

Thanks in advance for all your help. As a side note, the service from coffee parts is excellent, I cant recommend them enough.

[JavaB]

Re: Expobar office question

Hi adharvey,

The most likely reason for "off taste" in the boiler water is that milk has been sucked back in whilst texturing (using bad technique).... whilst this isnt the only reason - it is the most common.

If milk being sucked in is the cause - depending how bad it is - a strip down of the boiler and clean MAY help..... but if it is fairly bad it is almost impossible to remove the off taste (even with caustic baths etc).....

In really bad cases of milk contamination, the boiler in expensive commercial machines (and usually the machine itself) have been consigned to the scrap heap as being beyond repair......

So make sure that people dont allow milk to be drawn up into the boiler!!!

I generally empty and refill my La Cimbali 2 group every couple of months as most of the water in the boiler leaves as steam.... therfore the solids (minerals etc) and dissolved salts get left behind forming a "chemical soup" for those who use the hot water spout...... Hot water is also drawn from the spout of my machine several times a day for tea etc.

With a bit of luck a flush might fix your problem..... fingers crossed!

[Fresh_Coffee]

Re: Expobar office question

The water from the hot water spout of an espresso machine always tastes "funny" even when it HASNT been contaminated by a milk suck back (or a suck back of other substances).

This is because the water in the boiler is there long term....it takes on a character imparted by the copper of the boiler material.....very much the same as the flavour of water from the hot water tap at your sink. I call it the "hot water system" flavour.

In addition, and because it is there long term, the water is also not fresh, and it is de-oygenated.

We always recommend to clients that they dont used the water from an espresso machine to make tea with for the above reasons....but of course that is what you invariably get when you order tea from a cafe. If you drink black tea like me, meaning there is no milk to mask the flavour of the water, the flavour is quite obvious........

We also recommend to regularly withdraw a small portion of water from your boiler to kind of freshen it up. This causes an automatic refill of fresh water. In a small machine like yours, I would say no more than say 300 ml of hot water at any one time, say once a week, or if you wish, every day when you use the machine.....it doesnt matter as long as you do it regularly.

Hope this helps.

Regards,
Attilio
aka FC, first / original CS Site Sponsor.

[adharvey]

Re: Expobar office question

Thanks!

mmmm espresso