CLEANING A COMMERCIAL COFFEE MACHINE
It’s a dirty job, but somebody’s got to do it. Cleaning a commercial coffee machine is an essential element of owning or leasing your machine and taking shortcuts won’t do you any favours. Cut the cleaning, and you’ll cut the quality of the drink and the potential lifespan of the machine. WINNS staff are trained to clean our client’s coffee machines as per the manufacturer's instructions. They clean the coffee machines within the concurrent duties with no downtime from the cleaning schedule and no standing around waiting for the cleaning programme to finish. This ensures that our clients and their staff always have their coffee machines replenished and clean and available to your staff during office hours. There is no downtime waiting for the vending company's agent to clean and refill their coffee machine.
WHY CLEANING COFFEE MACHINES MATTERS
Every coffee poured leaves residue. That builds up over the day, leaving an oily deposit in the filters and head. In the long term, a build-up of coffee residue risks damaging your machine. In the short term, you’ll notice or more importantly, your staff will notice a change in the taste of their coffee. The bitter note that begins to emerge won’t go away, it’ll get worse and nobody wants to pay good money for bad coffee. Fail to clean your machines, and you’ll succeed only in driving staff outside to get coffee.
Cleaning becomes even more important with bean-to-cup coffee machines because they contain fresh milk. If the milk container and lines aren’t flushed through frequently, your coffee won’t just taste odd, it could make people unwell. Sour will be an understatement you could end up with serious bacterial build-up.
CLEANING YOUR BEAN TO CUP MACHINE
Bean-to-cup machines are fully automated, so the cleaning processes are rather different. There are daily, weekly and monthly cleaning routines you should stick to closely.
THE DAILY ROUTINE AT THE END OF THE WORKING DAY OR FIRST THING IN THE MORNING
Milk matters most, so run your machine’s built-in milk-flush programme. You’ll need a special milk-cleaning agent. Once it’s finished, run the programme with fresh water to be sure the container and lines are completely rinsed through.
WEEKLY ROUTINE OUT OF HOURS
Using a special cleaning tablet, run your machine’s internal system clean. This can take up to half an hour, so do allow time.
MONTHLY ROUTINE OUT OF HOURS
Limescale can spell disaster for machines, so while you should ideally use filtered, softened water anyway, a manufacturer-approved descaler is needed. Your machine will have a system descaling programme which will take 30 minutes or more.
MAINTAINING YOUR COFFEE MACHINES
All machinery needs maintenance no matter how good the build quality. To be sure your machine performs perfectly with every pour, we recommend a full yearly service, which will test all working parts and electrics and also includes a deep clean.
Regular servicing just like regular cleaning prolongs the life of your machine, which means much better value for money and no disruption to customer satisfaction. It’s also worth noting that you have a legal obligation to have any coffee machine featuring a pressure system inspected and certificated by a specialist every 12-14 months.
SUMMARY
Cleaning a commercial coffee machine is not time intensive but can take from 30min to an hour to complete your machine’s built-in flush/cleaning programme. This is a task best suited to office cleaning staff, as they generally work outside of normal office hours when the coffee machines are not being used. They can clean the coffee machines within the concurrent duties of cleaning the office with no downtime from the cleaning schedule and no standing around waiting for the cleaning programme to finish. The added advantage is that you will always have your coffee machines replenished and clean and available to your staff during office hours. There is no downtime waiting for the vending company's agent to clean and refill your coffee machine.
For more information on the services that WINNS can provide for its clients, please contact Ryan Stillwell on 01702 713100 or by email at ryan.stillwell@winnsservices.co.uk