Cleaning products

Cleaning products for your espresso machine

When brewing coffee, the shower screen comes into direct contact with the coffee from your filter basket. After each extraction, coffee residue stays behind on the shower screen, and the high temperature makes it dry out and stick quickly.

This not only affects the taste of your coffee but can also damage the rubber gasket, so your portafilter seals less well. That’s why it’s important to maintain and clean your group head regularly.

Read more about how to clean your group head.

Using a group head brush

To clean and maintain your group head, a group head brush is essential. It lets you easily remove coffee residue so it doesn’t affect the taste of your espresso.

After every espresso, coffee residue stays on both the shower screen and the rubber gasket of the group head, and the heat dries it immediately. So remove it right away, using a group head brush and our barista cloths.

Cleaning the group head with a blind filter

The first step in proper maintenance is brushing your group head clean daily or weekly.

As a second step, backflush weekly with water and every three months with group head cleaner.

For this, you use a closed blind filter to loosen stubborn residue inside the group head. When backflushing with cleaner, add half a sachet of group head cleaner to the blind filter. Also read our guide to cleaning your espresso machine.

Is cleaning the group head important for every machine?

Yes, absolutely. Every espresso machine with a portafilter has a group head, so coffee residue builds up on every machine. It doesn’t matter whether you use a machine with an E61 group head or one from Sage, Solis, Breville or De’Longhi.

Read more about cleaning your Sage espresso machine.

Please note that not every machine can be cleaned with a blind filter; De’Longhi machines, for example, can’t. Always read the cleaning instructions that came with your machine.