Accessories & Maintenance
Tampers, WDT tools, baskets, scales, cleaning chemistry and the small kit that quietly decides shot quality.
How to descale an espresso machine: vinegar, citric acid or what your manual says — and why Cafiza isn't a descaler
The machine's manual chooses the acid, and the makers contradict each other: BUNN prescribes a quart of vinegar, Nespresso says vinegar may damage its machines, and Philips bans an acid that makes up 10–30% of Breville's own descaler. Cafiza is not a descaler at all — and after descaling, rinse twice.
Do you need a coffee scale, or will the kitchen scale do?
Every page selling you a coffee scale quotes the same number: 0.1 g. That number is readability — how finely the display rounds — and it is not a statement about error. Acaia publishes both figures for its own $250 scale, and they are not the same. Which means the case for weighing coffee has to be made somewhere else, and it can be: the error a scale removes is not a tenth of a gram, it is closer to three grams.