Why most coffee machine call-outs are avoidable (Coffee Tech Talks Ep. 1)

Why most coffee machine call-outs are avoidable: what technicians see on site

At least half of commercial coffee machine call-outs could be avoided with daily cleaning, the right products and proper staff training. That was the view shared in the first episode of Coffee Tech Talks, Caffenu’s webinar series for coffee technicians and operators, hosted by Jody Wyngaard with Caffenu founder Rowan Isaacman.

Baristas get the credit for a great cup. Technicians keep the machine running behind the scenes. You can’t pour good latte art if the machine isn’t working properly, and the faults technicians are called out for are usually ones the operator could have prevented.

Here is what came out of the conversation, and what you can change on site from tomorrow.

In short:

• Bean-to-cup machines generate more call-outs than traditional espresso machines because their automation is more sensitive to poor maintenance.
• The most common causes are milk left in the system, brew units clogged with coffee grounds and steam wands that aren’t cleaned properly.
• A machine prompting a cleaning cycle does not mean the cycle was run with a cleaning product.
• Water filters reduce scale but don’t replace descaling.
• Staff turnover is one of the biggest risks to a consistent cleaning routine, so the system has to be simple enough for anyone to follow.

Which coffee machines get the most call-outs?

In a mixed fleet of bean-to-cup and espresso machines, the bean-to-cup machines will usually need more service attention. Rowan was clear that this isn’t about any one brand. It is about automation.

Traditional espresso machines are robust. Maintenance gaps and user error still cause problems, but they will generally run for a long time before something seriously fails. Fully automatic bean-to-cup machines, and newer espresso machines with touchscreens, sensors and probes, have more parts that are sensitive to neglect.

As Rowan put it, automation is great, but it comes with its downsides. The more a machine does for the user, the more ways there are for missed maintenance to show up as a fault.

Why prevention costs less than repair

Unplanned repairs cost far more than routine maintenance. There is a common belief that cleaning products and maintenance are expensive, but the bigger cost is a machine that is out of service. On top of the repair bill, a café loses sales for every hour the machine is down.

What are the most common avoidable coffee machine faults?

Three problems come up again and again on service calls.

1. Milk left in the system

Old milk left in the milk system of an automatic machine causes blockages. Rowan called this probably the number one issue on most machines. Milk systems are also being asked to handle drinks they were never really designed for, such as hot chocolate and other speciality drinks, which makes regular cleaning with a proper milk system cleaner even more important.

2. Brew units clogged with coffee grounds

When brew units aren’t cleaned often enough, coffee oils and grounds build up. Spouts block, flow is restricted and drinks come out slowly or unevenly.

3. Steam wands that look clean but aren’t

Weak steam pressure is often blamed on staff not removing and cleaning the steam wand tip. That matters, but Rowan pointed to a bigger issue. Purging the steam wand after each use is common practice, yet many steam wands have an inner tube. Purging doesn’t clean the inside of that tube.

The fix is a proper end-of-day routine. Soaking steam wands and milk thermometers in a milk system cleaner every day should keep them clear. If staff regularly need to unscrew the tip and unblock it with a pin, the daily routine needs adjusting.

The quick check anyone can do

When Rowan walks into a coffee shop, he looks at two things before ordering: the steam wand and the bean hopper. A steam wand with a crusty, yellowish build-up and a hopper so coated you can’t see the beans are both signs the coffee won’t be good.

That is the part operators often forget. By the time a machine shows a fault, it may already have served dozens of drinks through a dirty system. Every one of those cups affected the customer’s experience and the café’s reputation.

Does running the cleaning cycle mean the machine is clean?

Not necessarily. Most bean-to-cup machines, and many newer espresso machines, prompt the user to run a cleaning cycle. But most of them can’t detect whether a cleaning tablet or liquid was actually added.

In a busy service, it is tempting to run the cycle with water only, just to clear the warning and get the machine back up. “I’ll do it properly later” often means it never happens, especially across shift changes. Some larger machines now have sensors that check for tablets or load them automatically, but Rowan described these as the exception rather than the rule.

A cleaning cycle without a cleaning product removes the warning. It doesn’t remove the coffee oils or milk residue.

“Show me your cleaning products”

When a site keeps logging complaints, the first thing Rowan asks to see is where the cleaning products are kept. What he finds usually falls into one of three situations:

1. Nothing. There are no cleaning products on site at all.
2. The wrong products. Staff are using products that aren’t designed for that part of the machine, or for that machine at all. Rowan has seen dishwashing liquid used as a machine cleaner.
3. A full cupboard, unused. Boxes of tablets, milk cleaner and descaler are sitting there untouched.

Using the right product for the right job matters. A brew unit cleaning tablet and a milk system cleaner are formulated for different residues, and one can’t simply stand in for the other. This is why some operators prefer cleaning products matched to their specific machine or coffee brand, so staff know exactly what to use where.

For technicians, the cleaning cupboard is a quick diagnostic. If the site can’t show you what they use, that is the place to start.

How does water hardness affect a coffee machine?

Water affects both the taste of the coffee and the life of the machine. Hard water leaves limescale in boilers, thermoblocks and valves. Over time that scale reduces heating efficiency, causes temperature fluctuations and can flake off and block small parts.

Bean-to-cup machines are more vulnerable to scale

Traditional espresso boilers have a large heat mass and wide internal pathways, so a complete blockage is less likely. Scale still costs them: the machine takes longer to reach temperature, uses more power and holds temperature less precisely.

Bean-to-cup machines usually heat water through a thermoblock with very narrow channels. Once those channels block with scale, they can’t be cleared and the part has to be replaced. Scale also insulates the heating element from the water. The machine pushes the element harder to reach the target temperature, and Rowan has seen elements fail as a result.

There is one upside for repairs. Replacing a thermoblock on many bean-to-cup machines is a relatively quick job. Stripping and repairing an espresso machine boiler is a much bigger undertaking.

Do you still need to descale if you use a water filter?

Yes. Rowan described this as one of the biggest misconceptions in the industry. Filters and descalers do different jobs:

• Not every filter reduces scale. Some filters are activated carbon or mesh only. They may improve taste but do little or nothing to stop scale forming.
• Scale-reducing filters wear out. They are often installed and never checked or changed. After a year or two, they may have stopped working.
• Some minerals have to stay. Water with no minerals at all, such as fully deionised water, can be aggressive towards metal components. Calcium and magnesium are part of good brewing water, which means some scale will always form.

The right filter helps, but it doesn’t replace regular descaling. This applies to bottled water too, as it still contains minerals.

Do you know your water hardness?

Most commercial operators don’t. Water hardness varies between regions, so two sites using the same machine can have very different scale problems. Rowan noted that home users are often more aware of their water hardness than coffee shops are, because many home machines come with a test strip. Testing water hardness at installation is one of the simplest ways to set the right filter and descaling schedule from day one.

Why staff turnover drives repeat call-outs

The person trained on the machine a month ago may no longer work there. High staff turnover in hospitality is one of the biggest obstacles to consistent machine care.

The problems that follow are predictable:

• Components go missing or get broken during cleaning.
• Milk best practice slips, such as topping up a milk jug instead of finishing it, cleaning it and refilling with fresh milk.
• Staff follow on-screen prompts without understanding them. A touchscreen machine looks easy, so people assume training isn’t needed.
• Staff are focused on getting drinks out. It isn’t their equipment, so there is little incentive to look after it.

There is also no clear owner of training. Operators often expect the machine supplier or the coffee supplier to train staff, but nobody tells them when the team changes. Until someone owns it, training gaps keep turning into call-outs.

Rowan and Jody estimated that 50% to 60% of call-outs are avoidable, and suspect many technicians would put the figure higher. On multiple sites, a reported machine fault has turned out to be milk not being changed, milk systems not cleaned often enough, prompts skipped or no cleaning products used at all.

How to make coffee machine maintenance hard to get wrong

If training can’t be guaranteed, the system has to do the work. These are the approaches Rowan and Jody have seen succeed with operators.

Give operators a machine-specific cleaning kit

Put the cleaning tablets, milk system cleaner and descaler for one machine in one kit. There is no one-size-fits-all routine. Some machines need a small tablet every day, while others run their cleaning cycle based on the volume of coffee used. A kit matched to the machine removes the guesswork about what to use and when.

Set up a standing order

A 30-day or 90-day kit tells the operator exactly what they need for that period. Pair it with a standing order so products arrive every month or every quarter, and the site is never left without what it needs. This can also sit within a service level agreement.

Add QR codes that link to video tutorials

Few people read instruction manuals, and many are written by engineers rather than with the user in mind. A QR code on the machine that links to a short video on running the cleaning or descaling cycle is easier to follow. It also can’t get lost or covered in coffee.

Keep a paper checklist next to the machine

A simple daily and weekly checklist still works. Staff tick off each task, and the manager can see who ran the machine and whether the cleaning was done. Keep it simple.

Use order history as evidence

If a site hasn’t ordered cleaning products in five months, that is a clear sign the machine isn’t being cleaned properly. For rental machines and service contracts, order records change the conversation about who pays for a call-out. The point isn’t to blame anyone. It is to have facts when something goes wrong.

Don’t rely on telematics alone

Many connected machines report data such as when a cleaning cycle was run. The real question is who is looking at that data. A machine can log a daily cleaning cycle without knowing whether a cleaning product was used. Telematics show part of the picture, and someone still needs to check it.

The one habit that makes the biggest difference

Make cleaning part of the daily routine, whether or not the machine is asking for it. Too many sites switch the machine off at the end of the day and go home.

Cafés invest heavily in coffee, ingredients, fit-out and customer experience. Machine care is often only noticed when a warning light comes on. By then, the hundred cups served before it probably weren’t as good as they should have been. A consistent daily routine is one of the simplest ways to protect performance, drink quality and the life of the machine.

Frequently asked questions

What causes most coffee machine call-outs?

Most avoidable call-outs come from milk left in the milk system, brew units clogged with coffee grounds, steam wands that aren’t cleaned properly, cleaning cycles run without a cleaning product and limescale from hard water.

Are bean-to-cup machines less reliable than espresso machines?

They are not necessarily less reliable, but they are more sensitive to poor maintenance. Their automation and narrow thermoblock channels make them more vulnerable to milk residue and scale than a traditional espresso boiler.

Is purging the steam wand after each use enough?

No. Purging clears the outside of the wand but not always the inner tube. Soak the steam wand in a milk system cleaner as part of the end-of-day routine.

Does a water filter mean I don’t need to descale?

No. Not all filters reduce scale, scale-reducing filters need regular replacement, and good brewing water still contains minerals that form scale. Regular descaling is still needed.

How often should a commercial coffee machine be cleaned?

Daily cleaning of the milk system, brew unit and steam wand is a good baseline, but the exact routine depends on the machine and how much it is used. Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions for your model.

Get the FREE cleaning checklists

We have put together daily cleaning checklists for bean-to-cup and espresso machines, designed to sit next to the machine for staff to work through.

Every machine is different. Contact us if you need a cleaning routine or kit matched to your equipment.