Don't unnecessarily damage your equipment
Cleaning your equipment is important, and to make sure you are providing the best service possible to your customers whilst also ensuring the best possible lifespan for equipment, it is vital to clean your equipment correctly and regularly.
But there is one cleaning mistake that is easy to make and could end up costing you a lot of money, as well as time without your equipment.
The wrong way to clean your steam arms
It may seem like a good idea to leave a steam arm sat in a cup of water, to clean out any milk waste from within the steam arm itself, and we have known many customers do this in the past thinking they are doing the right thing. Doing this to your steam arms however, can be disastrous. This method of cleaning a steam arm can push any waste, such as lingering milk dregs, up further into the steam arm and into the parts of the machine that it is attached to, all the way up into the boiler. Contamination of this type can have a variety of side effects, such as a continuous foul odour of milk coming from the machine, the steam arm in question curdling milk it is used on and ruining milk alternatives just to name a few.
The result of this method
To return a machine to normal working order after it has been contaminated in this way, means that it will need completely stripping down to remove the boiler and all of the inner pipes, so that they can be deep cleaned to remove the contamination. This is a process that can take multiple days due to needing to leave the parts in question to soak in cleaning acid to remove all traces of contamination, and this can cost up to £500 to carry out. This is completely avoidable time and money to waste, so make sure you do not make this single costly mistake.
Making sure you regularly wipe the outside of a steam arm as you use the machine to remove milk remains, and blasting steam through it before and after using it to clear out any traces lingering with the steam arm nozzles is enough to ensure that your equipment stays in good condition.
