I am the proud owner of a wonderful FrancisFrancis! X1 espresso maker. As a machine of function and beauty, it is used daily. I live in a hard water area and the machine comes with this slightly disturbing warning:
Failure to undertake regular decalcification will result in lime-scale build-up that may in turn cause an appliance malfunction not covered by the guarantee.
Hmm. OK then, I don’t want to invalidate the guarantee on a 375 piece of equipment, so how do I descale it? The manual has only this to say:
Please contact the manufacturer for information on how to use a household decalcification appliance.
What? Surely you are the manufacturer? And what is a decalcification appliance? A trip back to the Steamer Trading Cookshop was in order, where a very helpful assistant explained the process:
- Get yourself some descaling powder. FrancisFrancis! do their own (which I used) but I was told you can use any descaler suitable for food – so use kettle descaler not central heating descaler. Obviously.
- Set aside an hour. This takes a while.
- Follow the instructions on your packet of descaler to make up 1.5 litres of solution.
- Fill your reservoir tank with descaling solution and turn on the machine.
- Once up to temperature, remove the filter handle if you haven’t already. Flick the espresso switch and run through about half a mug of water (equivalent to 3 espresso cups).
- Leave for 15 minutes.
- Run through another half a mug of water and repeat every 4–5 minutes until the tank is empty. Your machine should now be descaled.
- Rinse out the reservoir tank and refill with filtered water (you’re using filtered water anyway, right?).
- Again, run through half-mugs of water every 4–5 minutes until the tank is empty. Your machine should now be free of descaling solution and ready to use.
On another kitchen related note, I cooked my first Jerusalem artichokes last night. They are in season at the moment and we got a couple of pounds in our weekly vegetable box. They look somewhat like root ginger but, once peeled and sliced, are similar to potatoes with a sweeter smell. In fact they are cooked exactly like potatoes (boiled, roasted, fried etc). I followed Jamie Oliver’s recipe for Baked Jerusalem Artichokes with Bread Crumbs, Thyme & Lemon – a sort of gratin/dauphinoise affair, and the result was delicious with the Jerusalem artichokes bringer a lighter texture than the equivalent dish made with spuds.
Interestingly, I learned that Jerusalem artichokes have nothing to do with Jerusalem, the word instead comes from girasole, Italian for sunflower. Jerusalem artichokes are a member of the sunflower family it seems. Thanks to Wikipedia for that gem.
Comments
1
It just me or have you turned into Dunstan?
2
it’s “girasole”, not “girosole”...and anybody who deigns that ponce oliver by calling him “james” deserves to get a scaley coffee maker… ;)
3
Patrick – two errors duly corrected. Ponce perhaps, but good recipes none-the-less.
4
Where do you get your vegetable box from?
5
Barcombe Nursery (near Lewes, East Sussex).
Tel. 01273 400011
6
it looks stunning but given the arduous task required to descale it, surely moving to a soft water area would be less painful ;)
7
I’ve simply been roasting mine in olive oil. Delicious and squidgy in the middle. Play havoc with the – ah – sub-duvet abience though.
8
I have that very machine, in that very colour.
Do you use the pods or fresh granules? I find myself using the pods, because they’re quick and easy.
Your best bet if you don’t want to end up shelling out for them is to bulk buy whenever you go over to France/Europe, as they’re significantly cheaper per tin.
9
David – I mostly use pods for the same reason you do. I found some Cafe Direct pods recently which are cheaper than Illy. They don’t seem to be as rich or strong though, so I’ll stick with Illy for neat expresso, but Cafe Direct are fine for capuccino etc.
10
We live in a hard water area, and our solution to all things scaled is to have a couple of Brita jugs for our kitchen. One smaller jug goes in the fridge for chilled drinking water, and a bigger one sits on the worktop, which we use for cooking, coffee maker, kettle, iron, etc.
11
you could just by DURGOL liquid and follow its intructions for descaling. can be found in some coffee establishmenets or at 1st-line equipment ( where they have really good espresso machines) www.1st-line.com
12
I have the same lovely Francis Francis (same colour).
I think I blew it. Didn’t read the manual carefully.
My machine (2 1/2 years old) isn’t heating up properly.
Do you think it’s too late to try descaling it?
Currie
13
I bought a Francis coffee maker .
Now my resitance is broken,i want to know if u can sell that suoply to me or if u now who can sell that
tks
14
I own the Fancis francis espresso machine too :-) Really a great coffee machine (strong and essential)
jim
15
Hi,
Where did you buy the Francis Francis descaling powder?
Thanks
Antoine
16
I received a Francis Francis X1 as a gift, but it came with no instruction manual. This is the first X1 model, not the new version. Could someome send me a part of the instructions that explains how to make/brew a cup of espresso. Thankyou so much! email is bowersjeff@hotmail.com
17
Jeff – try the instructional video linked from the bottom of this page on the Illy site.
18
Antoine – I bought the descaling powder from Steamer Trading in Brighton, UK.
19
Hey there,
Stumbled to your site on my surf to find descaler for my Francis. Just wanted to thank you. Am glad I don’t need to get their own! :o)
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