The Secret to Great Espresso at Home? A Clean Machine

Why Cleaning Your Home Espresso Machine Matters (and How to Do It!)

If you want café-quality coffee at home, cleaning your espresso machine isn’t optional—it’s essential. Oils from coffee build up quickly inside your machine, especially in the group head and screens. Over time, these oils turn rancid, affecting flavour and causing your coffee to taste bitter or “off.”

Plus, coffee residue can clog your screens, leading to uneven extraction, weak crema, or even damage to your machine.

At our coffee bar, we clean our screens every single day because of the volume of coffee we make—at home, you can get away with doing a deeper clean weekly, but it’s just as important for flavour and machine health.

Here’s how to clean your screens weekly at home:

Turn off and cool your machine for safety.

Remove the portafilter and locate the screen inside the group head.

Use a screwdriver (usually a flathead) to carefully remove the screw holding the screen.

Soak the screen and screw in a mix of warm water + espresso cleaning powder for about 15 minutes.

Scrub gently with a soft brush, rinse well, and reattach.

While the screen is out, wipe the group head with a clean cloth to remove any coffee oils or grinds.

✨ Pro Tip: Do a quick wipe-down of your group head and a water backflush daily—then do a deeper clean like this weekly. Your taste buds (and your machine) will thank you!

Because the truth is… clean machine = better coffee. Every. Single. Time.