Coffee gets a huge amount of us through the day.
Caffeine is often a craving, and you can’t beat the taste of freshly poured coffee, rather than the instant brands. However, fresh-tasting coffee can take a long time to grind up and brew.
This is why the Nespresso lines are so brilliant! They give us delicious coffee in less than a minute. However, with these machines comes the issue of limescale.
With so many varieties of coffee machines now available, it can be tough to work out how each one should be cleaned and descaled effectively.
This is why we have created this easy, how-to guide to descale your Nespresso Vertuo machine without the stress!
What Is The Nespresso Vertuo?
The Nespresso Vertuo is a coffee machine that was released in 2014.
Intended to produce larger amounts of coffee per serving than the original Nespresso coffee machines, the Vertuo uses new types of technology to pour its coffee.
This includes ‘centrifusion’, which involves spinning the coffee grounds and water together at an incredible rate to mix the two effectively.
It also uses a barcode system that scans the capsules to know how much water is needed for the different types of coffee.
What Will You Need To Descale The Machine?
Nespresso does offer its own descaling kit.
With this, you will receive a descaling agent that contains a variety of components, including lactic acid, to help break down the limescale in your machine.
This comes in a pack of two, so it should last you quite a while.
However, if you don’t wish to purchase this, you can also find a commercial brand of descaler which will be available on Amazon and other big brand stores.
A great choice is the Impresa Descaler (two-pack), which has four uses in total and can be readily used on Nespresso machines.
While you may wish to use natural ingredients, such as lemon or vinegar, they will often create more work for you than there needs to be.
This is because vinegar has an incredibly potent smell (which is difficult to get rid of), and lemon is weaker than most descaling solutions so you will need to use a huge amount of it to create the same cleaning effect.
How To Descale The Nespresso Vertuo
If you are using Nespresso’s own descaling fluid, you should use the following method.
In total, the process should take around 20 minutes.
Set-Up
- The first thing to do is make sure your machine is turned on! Your capsule section will need to be emptied, and the machine should have a steady light by the on button, indicating that it is ready to be used.
- Make sure that the machine lever is in the ‘unlocked’ position, which means that it will be facing towards you rather than to the side.
- Now you need to empty your cup support, and all of the prep work is done.
- Place your water tank on a flat surface. Carefully empty one sachet of the Nespresso descaling fluid into the tank, making sure to avoid it touching any skin.
- Add plain water to the water tank. Nespresso recommends that you use 0.8 liters of water, but try not to use any more than this otherwise you will over-dilute the descaler.
- To place your machine into descaling mode, hold down the power button for 7 seconds – it should start to blink. Once this is set up, you will have a time limit of 45 seconds to ‘tell’ the machine that you did mean to start the descaling process!
- To confirm the descaling option, you need to turn the lever on the machine to its lock setting – this will mean switching it to the left. Once you have locked it, you can then unlock it again by returning it to the front of the machine.
- Hold the power button for 7 seconds again – make sure the lever is definitely unlocked.
Descaling Time
- Put a large container underneath the coffee dispenser – it will have to be able to hold as much liquid as is in the water tank. With all of the components in place, you can lock the lever on your machine, and press the button. The descaling has started!
- This process will take a little while, and it will automatically stop once it has run out of descaler. Don’t interfere with this until it has completely finished.
- Once it has stopped, you can safely empty the container that has been collecting all of the descaling water.
- Empty out any remaining liquid in the water tank, and clean it thoroughly. You will also need to clean the cup support to make sure it hasn’t collected any descaling solution.
Rinse Out The Machine
- Next, you will need to rinse out any remnants from the descaling process. To do this, you refresh the water tank with completely new water and return it to its holder in the machine.
- Put the container under the coffee dispenser, and push the button on the machine again. It will resume rinsing a lot of water through, and it will stop the process itself once it has finished its job. However, if you think it has rinsed enough at a certain point, you can stop it early by pressing the button.
- Empty out the water from the container under the dispenser. To get the machine out of the descaling settings, hold the button down for 7 seconds – the light will turn from blinking to steady.
- Leave the machine alone for a short amount of time. This will allow it to dry itself out completely.
How Often Should You Descale It?
Generally, the machine will let you know when it needs to be descaled. It will tell you this by blinking its light three times, before returning to its steady state.
While you can carry on using it after this warning light appears, you may only get two or three more uses before the descaling has to be completed.
Without using the descaling warning, you should aim to descale the machine every 6 months or every 600 coffees – whichever comes first.
Since it is unlikely that you will be counting how many coffees you are making, it is probably simpler to go by the 6-month rule!
To Sum Up
The Nespresso Vertuo machine can be easily descaled using Nespresso’s own descaling kit, or you can find a similar liquid in large chain stores.
The process takes around 20 minutes, and all you will need is descaling liquid and water.
Once you have removed the limescale from your machine, you will need to repeat the process every 6 months to ensure that it stays in working order!
