I have lots of citric because I ordered it on your recommendation, and I
also use it to adjust pH of water for homebrewing.

I'll have to look up your old email on the subject vis-à-vis procedure.

bmc
"Faith will move mountains, but you'd better bring a shovel....."



> From: Barry Luterman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Reply-To: <[email protected]>
> Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:55:24 -1000
> To: <[email protected]>
> Subject: Re: Cleaning frenzy
> 
> 
> Use food grade sour salt . Much cheaper and safer. You will be amazed
> at the gunk that comes out. Tomorrow you will get a shot out of the
> machine that is great. It is insidious how  gunk slowly degrades the
> shot character. We often do not realize it until we clean the machine.
> If you are leaving the machine on for that number of hours replace the
> PF gasket at least once a year. It will save you enormous grief.
> 
> On Fri, Sep 19, 2008 at 2:47 PM, Ben McCafferty <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>> 
>> With all the talk about cleaning lately, I decided today to do some
>> maintenance and see how bad things were.  I first cleaned my Mazzer Mini
>> grinder, then proceeded to backflush the BII and to finally change my gasket
>> and clean my screen.  Also flushed the steam boiler.
>> 
>> The grinder was a pleasant surprise.  I run Minute Rice through about once a
>> month, and today I took the top burr out.  Everything in the machine smelled
>> fine, and no notes of rancidity.  I brushed out the leftovers, and
>> reassembled it.  I don't think I am very worried about this link in the
>> chain, but I could see where a little vacuum could be handy every now and
>> then.
>> 
>> Now then, I shoot for backflushing with Cafiza about once a month, but I bet
>> my most recent flush was two months ago.  I also have never changed the
>> screen or PF gasket, and machine is about 18 months old and stays on about
>> 12 hours a day.
>> 
>> I first pulled the screen and gasket, so I could see what it looked like
>> before hand.  Looking at the inside of the screen and the bottom of the
>> exposed group, the best word that comes to mind is "ick".  I replaced the
>> screen and gasket, and did two full backflush routines with Cafiza, with
>> soaks under pressure a few times for a few minutes each.  The inside of the
>> screen was almost clean, but still a lot of brown residue in there.  I threw
>> it in a pitcher of Cafiza and let it soak for an hour.  Meantime I used
>> Cafiza to scrub all the gunk down on the group, and flushed all that clean.
>> Finally I replaced the gasket with a new one and also a new screen.  The
>> gasket is thinner, but too thin--even my Rancilio bottomless goes past 6
>> o'clock with this one.  The old one has a "9" on it, and I think I must have
>> bought 8 instead of 8.5mm thick.  No worries, I don't really care where the
>> handle ends up as long as it seals.  The old seal was so brittle that when I
>> squeezed it sideways, is broke in half in my hands.
>> 
>> The last thing I did was to sacrifice the old screen for the sake of
>> science.  I had let it soak in Cafiza for an hour and had scrubbed it
>> several times and rinsed well.  I broke the spot welds apart so I could
>> separate the screen and chrome ring from the underlying metal, and it was
>> n-a-s-t-y.  I'm thinking I may start replacing that every 3-6 months, but
>> we'll see.  Whoever posted that they backflush with Cafiza every day is
>> starting to sound less insane to me.  :)
>> 
>> I have posted pictures of all this on Photobucket, here's the link:
>> 
>> http://tinyurl.com/5xkgua
>> 
>> If you click on any picture, there will be a description under it for what
>> stage of the process you're seeing.
>> 
>> Needless to say, I am looking forward to my shot tomorrow.  I imagine it
>> will be a pretty nice tasting shot...especially since I wasn't complaining
>> about my shots yesterday!
>> 
>> I'm converted.  Ok, ok Barry, I'll descale the damn thing.
>> 
>> bmc
>> 
>> "Faith will move mountains, but you'd better bring a shovel....."
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> 
>> 
> 
> > 



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