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Why does nobody warn about descaling on hard water?
A buddy in Phoenix swore his machine was fine for 2 years, then the steam wand just spit chunks of scale during my cappuccino. He shrugged and said, "It still pulls shots," but the pressure gauge was bouncing like a barista on meth. Has anyone else caught a scale blockage before it killed their pump?
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wesley8011mo ago
Tucson here, and yeah, hard water is brutal on these machines. My old Gaggia started making this weird hissing sound for a month before the pump just gave out completely. When I pulled the group head apart, the scale had basically turned the inside of the boiler into a mini limestone cave. I even found a chunk that broke off and got stuck in the solenoid valve, which is a fun part to clean out. My buddy in Phoenix is probably running on borrowed time too, that pressure bounce is a dead giveaway. Descaler is cheap, a new pump is not.
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