Cleancaf Cleaner and Descaler for Home Coffee and Espresso Equipment (3 x 0.33 oz)
by Harold Import Company, Inc.
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Our Price: $2.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $2.89 (click here) Category: Kitchen See more product details |
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Kitchen and Housewares Reviews of Cleancaf Cleaner and Descaler for Home Coffee and Espresso Equipment (3 x 0.33 oz)
Customer Review: Good product, but not economical to use
Summary: 3 Stars
Product is fine. The coffee shop says it will clean up anything having to do with coffee....but... I thought I was getting a bigger size box than I saw down at the coffee shop that would make it more economical to use. This box is the same small size though. (about 2 1/2 by 6 inches) Has 3 envelopes for 3 uses. Says to use once per week. The price for 1 box with shipping is about 11 dollars. That is around 100 dollars per year! Good if they made a bigger size. Maybe they do but I can't find it. If needed I will buy this at the coffee shop and skip the high shipping cost. I may be missing something here (buy in bulk?) but thought I'd pass on the warning.
Update: Funny....I was at the super market the other day and saw the same box for about 3.50 as in the coffee shop. It is that shipping cost that is the real surprise. Where there is a will there is a way!
Customer Review: Great Product! Great Price!
Summary: 5 Stars
Since my coffee machine was starting to produce bitter coffee and I saw this product recommended on the Real Simple (1-year) website, I looked it up on Amazon and decided to give it a try after reading the other reader reviews. I am delighted! The price was good, the product couldn't have been easier to use, and my coffee tasted great the next day. I highly recommend this cleaner.Customer Review: Huh? I don't quite understand these comments!
Summary: 5 Stars
Just my TWO CENTS:
Expensive to use? Bitter taste after usage? Not Recommended by OEM's? Use lemon juice? Maybe it's just me, but I really don't get it!
Unless you're using your machine commercially to make hundreds of shots per week, you're wasting your money, not to mention killing your machine by decalcifying constantly. I have nearly 6,000 shots (!) on my one year-old Saeco Incanto Sirius machine and I just finished my FIRST 3-package Cleancaf box. In all this time, the machine has only prompted me to decalcify ONCE. It bases this on a water pH test you perform at the time of new machine commissioning and the coresponding water hardness setting of the machine resulting from the set-up test. I ignore the prompt and just decalc every THREE months or so (i.e, like the package instructions recommend, LOL!) I've never noticed a decrease in water flow (during coffee or steam/hot water wand usage), nor has there been any decrease in coffee temperature. FWIW, I fill the machine reservoir (I have spare reservoir that I use for decalcifying only) all the way up with warm water and one packet of Cleancaf...it has a two-litre capacity. Then I rinse with TWO reservoirs full of clean warm water. It DOES take a while....the machine is next to the sink, so I aim the wand at the drain, let the thing go and walk away to do other things. I NEVER have an issue with taste after cleaning and I am anal about coffee taste, freshness and machine cleanliness. FWIW, the machine uses the Aqua Prima in-reservoir micropore and charcoal filter, and I use supermarket-brand spring water (loaded with mineral and micro-organisms, LOL) in the one-gallon jug (lots of them, with the amt. of espresso I brew, LOL!).
For those of you thinking of using a non-authorized acidic solution (lemon juice, vinegar, etc.) for decalcifying, think again. SAECO USA as well as Whole Latte Love (authorized SAECO sales/service) will tell you to use SAECO Dezcal (it's also made by Urnex)or Urnex Cleancaf ONLY for decalcification. They're non-toxic, bio-degradeable, chelation-process cleaners (Dezcal is weak sulfonic acid, Cleancaf is classified "non-hazardous" per their respective MSDS hazardous sheets). If you use lemon juice or white vinegar you will very likely cause water circuit damage and VOID your warrantee. Don't believe me, call the manufacturer and ask yourself...it's in the owner's manual as well. BTW, most Starbucks Barrista espresso machines are OEM'ed by SAECO in Bologna, Italia.
My machine has been in to the local factory authorized repair center (broken grinder...fixed FOC under the OEM warrantee), and they remarked on how spotless the machine was, inside, outside, in the brew circuit and in the hot water circuit...especially considering the amount of shots I make!
SAECO, WLL and the local warrantee station (The Repair Shack) also recommend Urnex Cafiza (I use the Tablets, you can also buy it in powder form) to keep the COFFEE circuit as spotless as the HOT WATER circuit. You can see it work as it "peels" the layers of stuck-on coffee residue that even constant rinsing on my part (remember, I am anal, LOL!) does not remove and flushes it out. That, my friends, DEFINITELY results in me being able to fully appreciate my Lavazza Super Crema-based espresso, caffe lungo (caffe crema) and capuccino with NO bitterness caused by a dirty machine! If you're going to spend the money on an expensive machine, and use expensive coffee, you might as well get great tasting caffe, right?
My vote: HIGHLY Recommended. Just use it sparingly and enjoy your coffee!
Customer Review: I love this itme!
Summary: 5 Stars
I got this for my Saeco espresso machine. After using it, I like how it works! Compare to the Saeco product, it does it's job and cheap!!!! I am going to get more for my coffee machine!Customer Review: LOVE IT!
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this product on a whim, it was on clearance at a local Williams Sonoma (the same price as Amazon) and I have told everyone I know about this product, I love it. I had cleaned my coffee machine several times the old fashioned way, vinegar, hot water, etc. but nothing seemed to really work. One time with this product and the coffee machine was pretty much brand new again and all the stains in my thermal coffee pot were gone, even when I use bleach to clean the pot there is still some left over stains, I love this stuff. I know that the box says to use once a week but I think that's a bit much, once a month or every other month is probably fine.