How often should you descale? Intervals by water hardness
"How often should I descale?" has no single answer, because the variable that matters is not the machine — it is the water. The same boiler that goes years without trouble on filtered water can scale shut in months on hard tap water. In one recent thread on an Australian coffee forum, a Bezzera owner tallied roughly A$2,200 in repair bills before the forum's diagnosis landed: not machine age, but water. In the same thread, an owner of an eight-year-old Vibiemme reported near-zero repairs — and about A$550 spent on filters over those years.
Your descaling interval
Descaling intervals by water hardness
These are the intervals behind the Espremo app, per machine type and water bucket, distilled from manufacturer service documentation across 108 machines:
| Machine type | Soft | Medium | Hard | Very hard |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| E61 HX | Every 6 months | Every 3 months | Every 6 weeks | Every 4 weeks |
| E61 Dual Boiler | Every 6 months | Every 3 months | Every 6 weeks | Every 4 weeks |
| Non-E61 Dual Boiler | Every 6 months | Every 3 months | Every 6 weeks | Every 4 weeks |
| Single Boiler | Every 3 months | Every 6 weeks | Every 4 weeks | Every 3 weeks |
| Lever | Skip* | Every 6 months | Every 4 months | Every 3 months |
*Lever machines on soft water: several manufacturers advise skipping routine descaling entirely — the app shows an info card instead of a reminder.
How to find out your water hardness
- Test strips — a few euros, thirty seconds, and you know. Dip, wait, compare colours.
- Your water utility's report — most publish hardness per postcode; look for °dH, °f or ppm CaCO₃.
- Rule of thumb — visible white crust on your kettle within weeks means hard to very hard.
Want the full method, including the °dH / °f / ppm conversion table? See how to test your water hardness.
Two important exceptions
First: a softening filter changes the schedule. If you run an in-tank softener or plumbed-in filtration and replace it on time, you effectively move one or two columns to the left in the table above — that is exactly what the app recalculates when you set your filter type. See replacing your water filter.
Second: some manufacturers explicitly discourage descaling certain machines (Lelit advises filtered or softened water for the Bianca rather than descaling). When manufacturer guidance and generic advice differ, follow the manufacturer.
Ready to do the job? Follow the step-by-step descaling guide, or see the full maintenance schedule by machine type.
Never miss this task again
Espremo is a free iPhone app that builds a maintenance schedule for your exact machine — covering 108 models — and taps you on the shoulder when something is due.
Download on the App Store