There are four common coffee cleaning products and they are not interchangeable. Each one targets a specific kind of buildup, and using the wrong one either does nothing or damages your equipment.
The distinction is simple once you see it. Some products dissolve organic residue from coffee and milk. Others dissolve mineral deposits from water. Those are opposite chemical problems and they need opposite chemistry.
In This Article
Detergents vs Descalers
Coffee cleaning products fall into two families.
Detergents are alkaline. They break down organic residue: coffee oils, milk proteins, and the rancid film that builds up on any surface hot coffee or steamed milk touches. Cafiza and Rinza are detergents.
Descalers are acidic. They dissolve inorganic mineral deposits, mostly calcium and magnesium carbonate, that precipitate out of water when it is heated. Dezcal is a descaler.
An alkaline detergent will not touch limescale, and an acidic descaler will not remove coffee oils. If you are using one product for everything, half your machine is not getting cleaned.
Cafiza: Coffee Residue Only
Cafiza is the standard alkaline detergent for espresso equipment. It removes coffee oils and residue from group heads, portafilters, baskets, and the internal brew path.
Use it for backflushing a machine with a three way solenoid valve, and for soaking portafilters and baskets. It comes as powder for backflushing and soaking, and as tablets that are pre-dosed and easier for home use. The tablets are convenient. The powder is more economical and lets you mix a soak solution.
Cafiza never goes anywhere near milk components. It is not formulated for milk protein and it is not what your steam wand needs.
Our guides to backflushing and cleaning portafilters and baskets cover the procedures.
Rinza: Milk and Steam Wands Only
Rinza is formulated specifically for milk protein and milk fat. It is what you use on steam wands, milk frothers, and the milk circuits in superautomatic machines.
Milk residue is a different problem from coffee residue. It bakes onto hot surfaces quickly, and inside a steam wand it becomes a genuine hygiene issue rather than just a flavor issue. Wipe and purge the wand after every use, and run a Rinza soak on the schedule your machine calls for.
Rinza goes on milk contact surfaces. Cafiza goes on coffee contact surfaces. Do not swap them. See our guide to cleaning your steam wand for the routine.
Dezcal: Scale and Mineral Buildup
Dezcal is an acidic descaler for the water side of your machine: boilers, heating elements, and water lines. Scale insulates heating elements, restricts flow, and eventually causes temperature and pressure problems that look like machine faults.
It comes as powder in a three pack and as liquid in a 32 ounce bottle. Either works. The liquid is easier to measure for partial doses.
Descaling frequency depends entirely on your water hardness, not on a calendar. Soft water may mean once a year. Hard water may mean every couple of months.
One important caution. On prosumer heat exchanger and dual boiler machines, descaling solution can become trapped in the complex internal water circuits and is difficult to fully flush out. On those machines we recommend professional descaling rather than doing it yourself. This applies to Rocket Espresso and LELIT machines in particular. Rancilio home machines are fine to descale at home.
Never use vinegar in an espresso machine. It is too aggressive for the seals and metals and the smell is very difficult to purge. Vinegar is acceptable in an electric kettle, where the water path is simple and fully rinsable. Our descaling guide has the full procedure.
Cleancaf: Drip Brewers and Superautomatics
Cleancaf is a combination product that handles both coffee residue and light mineral buildup in a single pass. That makes it well suited to drip coffee makers and some superautomatic machines, where the water path and the coffee path are the same tubing and you cannot easily treat them separately.
The tradeoff is that a combination product is less aggressive at each individual job than a dedicated one. For a drip brewer that is the right tradeoff. For an espresso machine with heavy scale, use Dezcal.
Check your machine manual before choosing. Many superautomatics specify a particular descaler or have a guided cleaning cycle expecting a specific product. See our guides to drip maker care and superautomatic cleaning.
Grinder Cleaners
Grinders need their own product. Coffee oils build up on burrs and in the chute, go rancid, and taint everything you grind afterward.
Grinder cleaning tablets are made from a food safe grain based material that you run through the grinder like coffee. The pellets scrub the burrs and absorb oils, then you purge with a small amount of coffee. Grindz and Biocaf tablets both do this.
Do not put liquid cleaner in a grinder. Burrs and the grind chamber must stay dry. If you disassemble to clean burrs directly, brush them dry and reassemble dry. Our grinder cleaning guide covers both approaches.
Why You Cannot Swap Them
Running a descaler through your group head instead of a detergent will not remove coffee oils, and repeated acid exposure is hard on group gaskets and seals.
Running an alkaline detergent through your boiler will not remove scale and leaves you believing you descaled when you did not.
Using Cafiza on a milk system does not properly break down milk protein. Using Rinza in a group head does not remove coffee oils.
Dish soap deserves its own warning. It leaves surfactant residue that is very difficult to rinse out of a portafilter or basket, and it will affect the taste of your coffee and the stability of your crema for a surprisingly long time.
What to Keep on Hand
If you have a semi-automatic espresso machine with a steam wand, keep Cafiza, Rinza, and Dezcal. Those three cover coffee residue, milk residue, and scale.
If you have a superautomatic, keep Rinza for the milk system plus whatever descaler your manufacturer specifies. Many also take Cafiza style tablets for the brew unit.
If you brew drip or pour over only, Cleancaf plus a grinder cleaner covers you.
Everyone with a grinder needs a grinder cleaner. It is the most commonly skipped item and one of the most noticeable in the cup.
Our maintenance schedule lays out how often each of these gets used.
Stock Your Cleaning Kit
The right product for each job, from group head detergent to descaler to grinder cleaner.
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