How do I fix my office coffee machine?

Have you got a bean-to-cup coffee machine in your office? Perhaps you’re the person who’s responsible for keeping it topped up with fresh coffee beans and managing the cleaning and maintenance routine to ensure the coffee keeps flowing. But what happens when your bean-to-cup coffee machine isn’t working properly or even worse – not working at all?

Coffee is the driving force of office life and can contribute to an engaging and collaborative workplace culture. Coffee has been proven to boost productivity, encourage creativity and help people be more alert. Most of us enjoy a morning cup to kickstart the day or a few coffees to give us an energy boost in the afternoon.

As a nation of coffee lovers, it’s reported us Brits drink around 98 million cups of coffee every day with the average office worker drinking between 1 and 3 cups daily. So if you’re an office or facilities manager looking after the coffee machine, there are some easy troubleshooting steps you can take if you’ve encountered a problem.

Troubleshooting

First, you want to identify the issue. Have your team been coming to you saying that the coffee tastes different or a bit off? This may be because your coffee machine isn’t pouring correctly and there may be a blockage. Thankfully, in most cases, this is a simple issue that can be resolved by cleaning your machine.

Keep it clean

Cleaning modern bean-to-cup machines is a breeze and all you have to do is press a few buttons to run water and a cleaning solution through the machine. It’s really important that a clean is done daily, either at the end of the day or immediately at the beginning so the machine is up and running ready for your team’s first cup. If the issue with your coffee hasn’t been resolved after two or three cleaning cycles, it’s time to call your office coffee service provider to help you.

Milk and tannins

In some cases, your office coffee might taste funny because of the milk. Whether you have a machine that uses fresh or granulated dairy or plant-based milk, your machine still needs to be cleaned daily to prevent the milk from spoiling as some milk may get stuck inside the machine’s inner workings.

Spoilt dairy milk and plant-based milks can pose health risks which can make your team sick, so it’s paramount that cleanliness is prioritised along with ensuring that any milk you use is in date.

On another note, tannins can also pose an issue and affect the taste of your coffee. Tannins are the brown stains you often see left behind in your coffee cup. Over time, tannins can build up in your machine so again, if you’re not cleaning daily, these can build up and make your coffee taste bitter.

What if my machine won’t turn on or just won’t pour any coffee?

If your machine isn’t working at all, and you’ve tried turning it off and on again to reset the machine, then we recommend you call your office coffee machine service provider.

Under no circumstances should anyone without the necessary experience and qualifications attempt to fix the machine. Bean-to-cup machines are of course electronic appliances so must be treated with care in order to avoid injuries. Attempting to fix a complex bean-to-cup machine without any engineering or electrical knowledge can cause more harm than good and end up breaking it.

However, most coffee machines will come with a service plan to keep you covered for these exact eventualities. In our case, at FreshGround, we offer two levels of cover. An Essentials Plan to cover the basics and a Total Care plan which offers more proactive care and maintenance to aim to prevent any issues arising in the first place.

Both plans come with a dedicated account manager who can help you over the phone and organise an engineer visit to get your machine up and running again as quickly as possible.

Contact our team

If you need any help troubleshooting or you just need some advice, simply get in touch with our friendly team. All of our team members are SCA-trained and have a solid understanding of our range of bean to cup coffee machines. We also have helpful machine maintenance section and video guides. 

If you’d like any more information on upgrading your current office coffee experience, you can check out our range of coffee machines and we also offer water dispensers to support the health and happiness of your team.