How To Descale A Tassimo Coffee Machine

Tassimo coffee machines are great for those on the go, who like to make decent coffee at home with none of the fuss of grinding beans, brewing espresso, frothing milk, and generally making a meal out of every cup as you might with a classic espresso maker. They use pods, which are increasingly green friendly and easily recycled, and a tank of water – that’s it! Simple, effective and tasty.

However, they are also prone to limescale. This can ruin a machine, ruin your coffee, and even impact your health in the long run, if you don’t do anything about it.

This is no great worry – descaling is straight-forward and you can do it yourself, from home. However, it can look a little intimidating at first, and it needs to be done right if you’re going to do it at all.

Limescale And How To Get Rid Of It

You need to descale your machine because of the build-up of minerals such as calcium and magnesium, which accumulate along the makeup of your machine’s heating element. This forms limescale, a chalky white deposit that can impair both the machine’s functioning and the drink’s flavour and make up. Over time, ingesting too much limescale heavy water can lead to issues such as kidney stones, as the minerals collect inside your body.

Descaling is a metal cleaning process that removes this limescale, leaving your machine as good as new.

Tassimo coffee machines are actually surprisingly easy to descale, a process many people who live with harder water will have to do quite regularly.

When to Descale Your Tassimo

There is no set time in which limescale will build up to any given amount. There is no regular way of knowing how often to do it. This is because limescale build up is very heavily dependent on your location and the quality of your water.

For instance, I live in Glasgow, where we have very soft water. I’ve had the same kettle since I got married five years ago and have descaled it maybe twice. I’ve never descaled my coffee machine – I simply don’t need to as calcium deposits simply don’t build up.

My mum lives just outside Dover – chalky white cliff country, where the water is very hard and full of calcium and magnesium. She has to descale her implements very often. In fact, she now refuses to use tap water as she got sick of having to descale everything. She uses a Brita filter jug instead, which will filter out the calcium and go a long way to warding off build ups in your machine, meaning you will have to descale it far less often.

With a Tassimo coffee machine, you will know that you need to descale it when the red light turns on. Press the button and hold it for around five seconds to begin the process, rather than releasing it immediately as would do to make a drink.

How to Descale Your Tassimo Coffee Machine

It is, as above, very easy to descale your Tassimo coffee machine. In fact, it will be designed and built to do most of the work for you, so there’s no need to worry.

You will need some descaling tablets. Tassimo sell these themselves. If you go with theirs, use two each time you descale. However, there are many brands of descaler and most will do a good job. Check the packet to see how much of each you will need.

The Descaling Cycle

Fill the Tassimo’s water tank and add your descaling tablets or powder. Make sure that the de-scaler is fully dispersed – consider stirring the water until it is even and clear.

Then take the Service T DISC (the yellow disc) from the machine and place it with the barcode facing down in the brew head, where you would usually place your T DISC or TASSIMO coffee pod. Put the water tank with the descaling solution back in place, and place a container capable of holding a minimum of 500 ml in the space in which you would usually put your cup.

As above, you can start the descaling cycle by pressing and holding the button for five seconds – longer than you would usually hold it to brew a coffee. This will kick-start the descaling cycle, which will begin automatically and will last for about half an hour. The container will fill up with the descaling solution by the end of the cycle.

The orange light will come on when it is finished.

The Cleaning Cycle

Now, empty the container of the used descaling solution and place it back under the machine’s drink outlet. Remove the water tank, rinse and clean it, then refill it with cold, fresh water, up to maximum capacity.

Place it back in the machine and run a cleaning cycle.

To run a cleaning cycle, press the Start/Stop button briefly. This will wash the internal machinery in the clean water, which will filter down into the container. Repeat the cleaning cycle 3 – 4 times, emptying the container as needed, to make sure that all the descaling solution is flushed from the machine.

When finished, open the brew head and remove the Service T DISC. Place it back in the storage compartment of your TASSIMO coffee machine.

Afterwards

Next up, refill the tank, set it up for your favourite coffee, and go for it – you’ve earned it (well, it was probably very easy, but we can say you earned it anyway!) Sit back, sip, enjoy and relax. You’re done descaling for a while yet.