Too Much Coffee

What do people use to descale their filter machines?
I've got a Melitta machine and in France you can get their own brand descaler from most supermarkets, but I can't seem to find it over here.

Any recommendations?

So nobody on TMC owns a filter machine, or if they do they don't descale it?

Few people here use filter machines, I daresay. It makes sense to descale them, however. It's hard to give advice without knowing the machine. I always used "normal" machine descaler that you can buy in any supermarket. For my Krups T-80 I use the same citric acid I use for my espresso machines. This isn't recommended if the boiler or pipes are made of aluminium. In that case you're better off using one of the supermarket descalers or the original descaler sold by the manufacturer. This may be formic or methanoic acid based.

Most efficient descalers are corrosive and need to be handled with care and it goes without saying that they need to be rinsed out completely before using the machine to make coffee again.

Lambo wrote:So nobody on TMC owns a filter machine, or if they do they don't descale it?

The latter in my case. I have very soft water so do not be shocked.

The instructions with my Melitta recommended "Swirl" active descaler, or "Swirl" bio descaler. Both these products, and the one sold on their own website are based on citric acid, so I reckon I'd just use that.

http://www.melitta24.de/Produktkatalog/ ... 6508105106

(they will happily deliver to the UK if you want to be 100% "Melitta compliant"

The clasic method of cleaning glass decanters is VINEGAR, just be sure to give it a good rinse.

Thanks for the replies - unfortunately Swindon seems to be quite hard water