Great guide!

Mine had not been descaled or cleaned in 6 months... Bad boy. After cleaning it with 50% vinegar and cleaning both the coffee filter and the boiler filter (with a needle - tedious) the water barely dripped out. The pump pushed a healthy stream of water out the milk frother so I knew that was good. I removed the boiler filter again and it was still clean. I then tried pushing a 25% vinegar solution through the boiler discharge tube without a filter in place. (Better this way too as the filters don't need to be flushed afterwards. ) Initially just drips but suddenly as pressure built a plug of material gushed out. After this, nearly a whole reservoir of my descaling solution flowed well but was cloudy. I then flushed it and the milk frother with another two full reservoirs of clean water and it slowly came through clear (flushing the vinegar taste from the system). Our little espresso machine is working like a champ again. And a lot quieter.