descaling coffee machine

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I use Oust liquid de-scaler, have done for ages. Works fine.

Agree with what Nilrem says.

I have a Delonghi machine and although so far (just under 3 months), not had the descaling warning light, am sure it will happen at some point soon. Instructions that after a period of time, or so many coffees, it will be time to descale and a warning light will flash.

I'm now in a very hard water area, so only use bottled water for water cooler, kettle and coffee machine. Even so, it's still not as soft as the water in Scotland, as I still need to descale the kettle every so often, as I can see it whiten up, so reminds me to do the water cooler too!

If you still have warning light, despite you having lovely soft water, I'd suggest trying to run through the descaling programme as per your machine instructions, using only water, and see if that sorts out the problem. If it doesn't, your choice whether to go by the manufacturers recommended descaler or choose something else.

I use citric acid, either in granular or powder form (food grade) to descale kitchen appliances. It's available in all the supermarkets here, but not sure about in the UK, but you can definitely buy it on Amazon. I will be using that in my coffee machine when descaling is required, rather than the expensive manufacture alternative.

Most common ingredients for descaling coffee machines is either citric or lactic acids.

Have heard of people using vinegar, but apparently that's a bit harsher than citric acid, and may destroy the innards of a coffee machine, especially if it has aluminium parts.