Hey guys Im a proud owner of Delonghi Magnifica S automatic espresso machine for 6 months now. Our water is super hard with loads of scale and I have been cleaning (descaling) machine with Delonghi EcoDecalc, but friend recommends this one (much cheaper):
Is this safe to use? It says it contains citric, lactic and malic acid. It also says to use 50 ml on 500 ml of water while Delonghi EcoDecalc should be 100 ml on 1700 ml (I think) of water. Its almost 2x difference and I was thinking if acids are simmilar I should use 100 ml of acid for full tank anyway.
We abuse our machine by making loads of coffe and tea. With scale settings on max we get descaling alarm every 3-4 weeks. It used to be on medium settings, but machine almost clogged completely once...so thats why max settings. Delonghi liquid is not cheap, but dont want to take any risk for 30€ a year. On the other hand, I dont want to pay 10€ for a 2-3€ product just because it says Delonghi on the bottle.
What do you use for your machine? How often do you descale?
All you need is the acidity. Descaling happens by the acid neutralizing the alkaline scale, which is calcium based, and turning it into its salt form which is water soluble. Any acid will work. You just need enough molar quantity of it to react with however much scale is in your machine.
Citric acid works. Acetic acid (vinegar) works. Carbonic acid would probably work... Hydrochloric, sulfiric, or nitric acid would work too, but would be a monumentally bad idea.
Just use some vinegar or citric acid in water. There's no need to pay more for fancy descaling products. I have a ~$6000 Miele coffee machine. It came with a few of its fancy cleaning and descaling tablets. When I ran out of those, I just started using bulk citric acid in the thing, bought in multi-pound quantity from the internet. Two pounds of the stuff is like 10 bucks, and will probably last you the rest of your life. For reference, my machine reports that it has dispensed about 8000 cups of coffee in its little report doohickey and the generic citric acid dissolved in water works just as well as the fancy Miele branded tablets that are $22 a pack.