You know that bitter coffee you're tasting? Or, the constant downtime on your machine? This may be your machine's way of screaming out at you that it's ready for some descaling. Here's why:
Hard water scale reduces the boiler's heating efficiency and can be extremely costly. When a boiler is dirty, this prevents it from maintaining the heating system accurately which can significantly increase your energy costs. In addition to, if it's left untreated for an extensive amount of time, that bitter tasting coffee may be the least of your problems, as this build-up can become fatal to your machine. Sound scary? Luckily, we have a range of solutions that work to ensure you never become a victim to the horrors of built-up machine scale.
Scale formation within a boiler
To understand more on the importance of descaling, let's first look at what causes the scale build up.
Scale forms through hard water. The hardness of the water is dictated by the level of calcium and magnesium bicarbonates, which are very water soluble. When this becomes heated into a system, it generates calcium carbonate which is insoluble. As a result, carbon dioxide and water are released - which makes this reaction irreversible. This is where you'll start to develop scale formation within the boiler pipeline.
What you're left with is reduced thermal energy transmitting through the pipe as the scale build-up will absorb some of that heat, so water passing through will not reach the optimum high temperature. This is also known as one of the biggest contributing factors to boiler inefficiency.
So, how do we remove the scale?
Essentially, the issue that we've got with scale build up is a hard, insoluble barrier that's preventing regular machine performance. To eliminate this, we need to:
- Break something down that's insoluble
- Make it soluble
- Remove it from the system
How do we achieve this? Typically, it's acid to the rescue. The calcium carbonate that's blocking the boiler pipe will react with organic acids, generating a more carbon dioxide and water, to form a water soluble product. What you will end up with is calcium that's still present, but it'll be present as a soluble form of calcium which can be easily removed from the system.
Cafetto Descalers
The happy ending? Luckily, we're happy to prescribe a Cafetto Descaler for that. Our range will increase machine reliability with products that break-down that build-up that be fatal to your machine's performance and longevity.
From boilers to brewers, kettles and milk delivery lines, our expert team have developed a vast range to suit your descaling needs. Regular descaling will prevent high outgoing service maintenance costs, along with the peace of mind in knowing you're not serving customers that underwhelming tasting coffee.
Intrigued? Sip your way to: https://www.cafetto.com/products/descalers for more on our Descalers.