The Tip Jar - Urnex Basics & 101

Tuesday December 9, 2014 // By Landon Christensen

Is your brewing equipment starting to get bogged down with residue and build-up? Fortunately, Urnex has a line of cleaning products specifically formulated to be tough on gunk and grime, but easy on your equipment. There are four specific products I will be talking through, all of which we carry. Those products are: Cafiza, Rinza, Grindz and Tabz. For a video tutorial on the uses of all these products please see here. Please note, I am simply covering the recommended methods as explained by Urnex. There are many ways to utilize these products, so I’m going to give you the basics.

Let’s start with Cafiza, this is intended for your espresso machine. First, purge your grouphead and portafilter by letting water run through it for a couple of seconds. Once that is finished, remove the portafilter, separate the basket from the portafilter. Place them in a metal or glass pitcher. Fill the container with warm to hot water, be SURE not to submerge the handle of your portafilter. After the water is added, add one scoop (approx. 3g) of Cafiza using Scoopz - a scoop/brush specifically made for this purpose. Let that soak for at least 10-15 minutes. After that scrub thoroughly and rinse until clean. Return to your espresso machine and run water through the grouphead and use the brush on the end of the Scoopz to clean the screen. Be sure not to burn yourself as hot water will be flowing. Next, remove the grouphead screen and purge once more before wiping clean. Replace the screen and place a blind basket in the portafilter. If you do not own one, please contact your espresso machine supplier as these are unique to each machine. Again using the Scoopz add one scoop (approx. 3g) of Cafiza to the portafilter. Lock the portafilter in place. This step will back flush your machine as the blind basket does not let any water flow through, rather forces it back into the machine, cleaning all of the piping and boiler of the machine. Run 5 intervals of roughly 10 seconds, resting in between each interval. Dump the portafilter - the water should be murky. Run another 5 intervals of 10 seconds and dump the water. It should be much clearer this time. Make sure you let the water run until it is COMPLETELY clear.

Next is Rinza, this is for your steam wand. Fill a mug or steaming pitcher with hot water and add one Rinza tab, let the tab dissolve. Once the tab is completely dissolved, put your steam wand into the water and let it soak for at least 10-15 minutes. Turn on the steam wand at a low pressure while it is submerged in the Rinza. After soaking is complete, purge the steam wand and wipe down thoroughly before steaming milk.

Now for Grindz, which is intended for your...you guessed it, grinder. These are little coffee bean-shaped pellets that you run through your grinder. Before you do that, remove your bean hopper and grind through any remaining beans. For a standard espresso grinder, use one capful or 35-40g. For a conical burr grinder, use two capfuls or 70-80g. After you have ground those, make sure that you dispose of any remaining particles before grinding coffee. Replace the bean hopper to the top and grind away!

Lastly is Tabz, this is quite a versatile product and can be used for many applications. Personally, I use this for soaking any smallwares or brewing equipment that needs more than just a rinse. Unlike Cafiza, this product is completely safe on plastics. I would use one tab for every 64oz of water. These are not effervescent tabs, so I would add very hot water to get these to break down quicker. These will turn your water a nice blue color once they are dissolved. Depending on the state of your equipment, I would let items soak for up to 12 hours. They will come out look brand new!

If you have any questions regarding equipment maintenance please don’t hesitate to contact us, we love to talk shop! You can reach us at our toll-free number 1-866-776-5288.

 

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