Synesso Technical Service: Descaling the Steam Tank

WARNING: The video depicts a service job intended for a trained service technician. Do not attempt this on a hot machine. Failure to turn off machine may result in severe injury! Unplug your machine before removing any body panels. Failure to cut power to the machine may result in high voltage shock or other severe injury! Any users performing this service should exercise extreme caution. If you have any questions regarding this service, please contact your distributor, a service professional, or Synesso, Inc.

First, turn off the element breaker and pull both steam handles forward to dump all steam pressure entirely from the steam wands and allow the tank to cool. Shut off the water supply and machine power switch, then remove both side panels. Find the sight glass assembly on the right-hand side and remove the drain cap, then turn the valve stem 90° to open the drain ball valve. Allow the steam tank to drain completely then turn the valve stem back to the off position when the tank is empty.

Next, we will look at the external pump; swap the positions of the pink and grey marked braided hoses then remove the inlet braided hose from your filter system. Take your descaling solution and mix it with warm water in a clean bucket according to the directions on the package. Place the inlet hose into the descaling solution and turn the machine power switch back on, then activate the first brew group at pump pressure to fill the steam tank using the descaling solution. Make sure to turn off the brew group when the steam tank fills just past the halfway point on the sight glass gauge.

TIP: Use needle nose pliers to disconnect the wire from the upper fill level probe to allow the tank to fill past the normal water level.

Lower the steam tank set point to 200° Fahrenheit on the handheld controller and turn on the element breaker; now we will wait 30-120 minutes according to the descale solution instructions.

When time is up, turn off the element breaker and drain the steam tank completely (using the sight glass drain cap and valve stem), and swap the pink and grey braided hoses back to their original positions. Turn the valve stem back to the off position and reattach the inlet hose to your filter system, then turn on the water supply. Turn on the machine power switch and the steam tank should fill automatically. You should allow the steam tank to fill past the normal fill position then drain the tank again completely; rinse the tank this way at least twice. 

Once the tank is clean, replace the wire to the upper fill level probe, readjust the steam tank set point (factory default is set to 250° F), and turn on the element breaker to reheat the tank. All done!