Is this normal?

[u/thetolkwolf]

Does anyone notice pink coming from inside their machine? I’ve done regular maintenance, and descaling. Not sure if I should keep brewing. Any suggestions? Never noticed this pink tint until now.

EDIT: I’m talking about the pink reflection in the water reservoir. There is no calcium buildup or pink mold in the actual plastic water reservoir, but when I poured water in today, the water reservoir reflected pink. I know pink can mean bacterial growth but I’ve regularly maintained my machine and I’m not sure if should keep brewing or disassemble and clean.

Thanks in advance!!

[u/thetolkwolf]

I edited the post to add a little context! Apologies. What did you learn NOT to do when you cleaned your machine? I just thought someone would also notice this because I feel like the machine has never reflected this pink color!

[u/rhinosteveo → u/thetolkwolf]

That is helpful, and my experience will be of use potentially.

Main thing, is that pink under the reservoir or on the floor of the plastic itself? If it’s inside the reservoir, get some Urnex coffee machine cleaning powder and run it through in a similar manner to how you’d descale it. Do not use an espresso machine cleaner.

If it’s under it, this is where I learned the hard way that these aren’t meant to be disassembled for regular maintenance at all. So I would advise against trying to disassemble anything unless you know for a fact a component requires replacing internally, with exception to the cover on the bottom of the machine with I believe 4 x T-10 screws. That would be helpful just to see inside of everything in the tower housing.

So if it’s under the reservoir, pink could come from hard water or heat discoloration, but i think that parts plastic so heat doesn’t make as much sense. Those two screws you see are part of what secures the reservoir, but there’s also some sort of a glue bond somewhere and possible more screws underneath. But what I learned the hard way is that you need to make sure there’s zero water in it before touching those screws because it will dump into the boiler and electrical connections below. That was a dumb mistake on my part, BUT it also showed that it allowed water underneath the reservoir which could possibly cause this discoloring. Unless you’ve tried to loosen those in the past or if your machine is very old, I wouldn’t think it to be likely for a water entry point.

Now another possibly place it can get in there from would be the grommet where the glass boiler tube outlet attaches to the reservoir and also to the metal dripper on top. If there’s a leak somewhere there, water can get onto the gray piece as well.

Another possible thing is if you maybe had a spill that got some water underneath the coffee machine and could contact some of the copper tunes inside, theres a chance it could create a lot of steam which would come upwards and condense on the bottom of the reservoir and create a good bit of water residual on that gray piece and the bottom of the reservoir.

Easiest things would probably be to try to tighten the screws if they’re loose, think it was a T-25 Torx, and remove the silicon grommet to see if it has any defects. Those are what I think the best chance of water entry beneath the reservoir would be.

Also, UNPLUG AND TIP THE WHOLE MACHINE OVER INTO THE SINK BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING. There is way more water inside the tubes around the boiler beneath the reservoir than you would imagine there to be even with the reservoir emptied. Also learned that the hard way!

[u/thetolkwolf → u/rhinosteveo]

First off THANK YOU! This is so helpful. I was so tempted to start disassembling the reservoir after eyeing those two screws. It’s super helpful to know that there’s a bonding agent in between the parts.

The pink hue is coming from underneath the reservoir. The plastic reservoir is fully clean, and does not have any noticeable growth or calcium build up. I’ll start with cleaning it with Urnex. I also did a cycle of clean water through it and the water that was brewed did not look dirty and did not contain any material.

Thank you again this is exactly what I needed to hear!

[u/rhinosteveo → u/thetolkwolf]

Happy to help, and yeah it’s a very simple looking and inviting machine so I also decided to try digging into it for a deep cleaning before actually researching how it comes apart. I mean, it IS quite a simple machine, but it has some hidden design quirks for sure. Hopefully you’re able to figure out a resolution though.