Deep cleaning a Delonghi La Specialista, how often is realistic?

[Thomas Martinez]

What's the general consensus on how often to deep clean a La Specialista? From what I understand, regular cleaning of these machine is essentially required in order to extract good espresso from them. Even machines that have been neglected for several year can be restored to good function with a deep clean.
There are step by step guides and video tutorials for those who would like to follow along with the deep clean with the machine. There are a few different area of the machine that need to be cleaned and completing the deep clean cycle in one go is the best way to ensure that the espresso machine will maintain it's excellent performance. Most people only perform the descaling procedure and wonder why the shots eventually begin to degrade in quality. A deep clean will fix that issues.

 

[Topsy-Turvy C]

I typicaly deep clean mine every 3 months, but since I drink roughly 4-5 shots a day every 3 months, it might differ for peoples who only drink one shot a day out of the machine.

 

[Amused Albatross]

What people dont talk about is the grinder on the machine. While you can deep clean the rest of the machine all day long, if the grinder is full of grounds and fines your shots will never taste as good as they could. I typically remove the grinder burrs every couple months to clean them out. For hydraulic system deep cleans I do this every 2 months at the most since the water in my area is relatively soft. I also descale every 2 months since the water in my area is relatively hard. If you only do the descaling prompt on the machine you are missing out on 70% of the care that you should take of your La Specialista.

 

[Exquisite Be]

What people dont talk about is the grinder on the machine. While you can deep clean the rest of the machine all day long, if the grinder is full of grounds and fines your shots will never taste as good as they could. I typically remove the grinder burrs every couple months to cle…

wait when you pull the burrs does the machine require a recalibration of the grinder?