As our top rated coffee machine choice, we thought we’d add a little more information to the site about general use of the ESAM4200. On this page we’re going to provide more detail about the descaling procedure.
What Is Descaling?
Descaling is something that is recommended for virtually every bean to cup coffee machine on the market. Whether you’ve got a Delonghi, a Sage, a Melitta or any other brand, there will be a section in the user manual with cleaning instructions detailing the exact procedure for your machine. While this page references the Delonghi Magnifica ESAM4200, the general concept is the same across all machines. As a quick overview, over time the water feeds in your machine can suffer with a build up of the impurities in the water that passes through the machine, eventually causing the machine to have to work harder to do its job – making coffee!
If you don’t descale your machine at all, you eventually run the risk of it failing prematurely, which could lead to an expensive repair bill, or even mean you need to buy a replacement machine. Fortunately, the process is easy once you know what you’re doing, and you can always refer back to this page when needed (bookmark it now if you need to!).
Buying Magnifica Descaler Solution
Firstly, you’re going to need descaler for the process to be completed. This is quite a cheap buy, and we recommend you grab it from Amazon:
| Two single use packets: | |
| One bottle (for five uses): | |
| Twin pack bottle (ten uses total): |
Generally I’d suggest going for the bottles, as you’re going to use them in time, and it usually works out cheaper. If you’re looking for a different brand, check out our coffee machine descaler guide. With daily use, you will normally find you need to run a descale cycle every month to six weeks.
Watch The Delonghi Magnifica ESAM4200 Descaling Cycle In Progress
Delonghi themselves have made a video demonstrating how to descale your Magnifica ESAM4200 bean to cup coffee machine. As you’ll see it’s really quite straightforward to carry out, just keep in mind that if you’ve bought the bottled descaler, you need to use 100ml each time.
As a couple of points to add, we’d recommend that when you refill the tank after the descaler solution passes through the machine, you swill out the tank before moving onto the rinse phase. That will help ensure that the remaining descaler is more thoroughly removed. Also, note that it’s normal for a little water to splash back from the steam nozzle as liquid passes through. If you’ve not been watching closely as the process completes, you may think something’s been leaking!
Hopefully that has been helpful to owners of the ESAM4200 to better understand the descaling process and what you need to know.
