Five Things You Should Never, Ever Do With Your Coffee Machine

I can state with almost full certainty that when you decided to buy or rent your coffee machine – you had every possible company representative banging down your door or blowing up your phone with countless hours of running through T’s & C’s, giving you a run down of what coffee your machine can make – a whole lot of yadda yadda.

But did anyone give you tips of what you shouldn’t do with your machine? I guessed not. Some of the tips below will either a) help you brew an incredible cup of coffee, b) help keep your machine in working order for longer or c) at least teach you something you never really knew about until now!

Never Re-Use Ground Coffee From Your Bean to Cup Coffee Machine

Tempted to save some money by re-using the ground-up coffee beans? Don’t! If not for any other reason than to prevent you from having a terrible cup of coffee, using “wet” coffee grounds in your override doser (where you put pre-ground coffee into your machine) may cause damage to the internal components. Rather take those coffee grounds and add them to the soil surrounding your favourite plants; they provide essential nitrogen and aide in growing plants healthier and faster.

Do not Let Your Water Tank Run Empty

Most modern and larger coffee machine (like the Jura and Saeco range will alert you to when the water tank requires refilling. However, when using a capsule coffee machine or even a coffee vending machine, allowing your system to try brew a cup when the water in the tank is sufficient could lead to an air block. Air gets sucked into the boiler and may cease brewing coffee on your machine, until that component is removed and has the air lock released. A great rule of thumb is to check the tank before each cup of coffee (yes, it is tedious, but it will save you heartache).

Never, Ever, EVER Use Any Type Of Milk Product In Your Override Doser

Bean to Cup coffee machines come with a nifty little device; that small circular area close to your bean hopper is there for one purpose and one purpose alone – to add pre-ground coffee for a single serving, which will be dispensed with the immediate next cup you brew. Adding a hot chocolate powder, or milk powder to this chute WILL block up your machine and may even cause irreversible damage! Any powder that contains even trace elements of milk powder residue clogs up that chute and I promise – it won’t dispense milk froth (if that’s what your objective was) – or anything else!

Do Not Forget To Rinse Your Milk System

Soured milk that “Joe from the Second Floor” left in the fridge is enough to make your stomach churn – especially when you’ve just poured two huge blobs into your hot cuppa that you were planning on taking into your 08:00 Monday morning sales meeting. What’s worse? When each cup of cappuccino from the office coffee machine tastes rancid because nobody has bothered to clean the system -or simply does not know how. It’s quite easy. Remove the removable parts, soak them in piping hot soapy water – and rinse thoroughly. Flush the milk system with water (there should be a rinse cycle on your coffee machine) and carry on enjoying. It’s a daily cleaning system that really makes the world of difference!

Never Use Uncertified Coffee Beans

Look for some sort of certification or quality promise on your coffee beans, or use beans from a reputable source. Using beans that have unknown origins (not from where they are grown et., but rather which company or manufacturer they come from) puts you in a compromised position. Some lower-quality coffee bean blends contains stones and twigs which were not careful removed during the roasting process. When you are using a R 30 000.00 + coffee machine, the last thing you want is for a bag of coffee beans containing stones to get into your grinder and essentially destroy it. Opting for quality over quantity is always going to win – and sacrificing the (arguably) most important component of your machine to save a few bucks is really and truly not worth it.

Got any other suggestions of things to never ever do with your machine?
Let us know and we could add it on to this list.