<p>My opinion is that you can use citric acid. That's all that I use and I use it with my espresso machines, drip coffer maker, and I have used with Nespresso and Keurig machines. It is food safe. I buy it at my local beer and wine supply store. I have read to to use 12 - 18 grams of citric acid to a liter of water. I believe many descale solutions are made from citric acid. I use 3 1/2 teaspoons of citric acid to 40 oz of water to make my descaling solution. You can follow the manufacturers suggested routine of descaling. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-18T20:16:13.260Z
Are you sure there's no aluminium in the machine? If there is, I think citric acid corrodes aluminium and you don't want that.
JJJ
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-17T19:28:51.657Z
2020-01-17T19:28:51.657Z
STL Road Warrior
<p>Nespresso instructs its customers only to use lactic descaling solution or the guarantee may be void.
However lactic acid can be hard to get by and Nespressos own solution is heart-stoppingly expensive.</p>

<p>What could the reasons be not to use citric acid and is this a valid argument for the Nespresso machines?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-08T17:58:01.480Z
There have been a few exchanges about the use of acids for descaling/cleaning, including [this one](http://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/242/how-does-one-descale-an-espresso-machine-and-how-often-to-do-it), [another](http://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/1877/keurig-coffee-maker-gets-clogged-and-slow/), [still another]. Hopefully you'll get some responses specific to citric acid (or other cleaners) and Nespresso. See also [tag:cleaning] tag for more items.
hoc_age
CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-12-28T06:44:28.890Z
I realized I have sought for a similar problem in parallel after a while. You may want to check this: https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/3756/what-can-i-use-to-clean-my-machine-as-a-substitute-for-original-cleaners
MTSan
CC BY-SA 4.0
2021-08-10T23:20:33.883Z
I don't think it'd be much of an issue since [Nespresso says their descaler is citric acid](https://www.nespresso.com/my/en/blog/a-step-by-step-guide-to-descaling-your-coffee-machine-with-nespresso-descaling-kit)
Stephen
<cleaning><nespresso><acid>
Descaling Nespresso with citric acid
homaxto
# Descaling Nespresso with citric acid

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-11-07)

Nespresso instructs its customers only to use lactic descaling solution or the guarantee may be void.
However lactic acid can be hard to get by and Nespressos own solution is heart-stoppingly expensive.

What could the reasons be not to use citric acid and is this a valid argument for the Nespresso machines?

**Tags:** cleaning, nespresso, acid

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: There have been a few exchanges about the use of acids for descaling/cleaning, including [this one](http://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/242/how-does-one-descale-an-espresso-machine-and-how-often-to-do-it), [another](http://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/1877/keurig-coffee-maker-gets-clogged-and-slow/), [still another]. Hopefully you'll get some responses specific to citric acid (or other cleaners) and Nespresso. See also [tag:cleaning] tag for more items.  
> **username_2**: I realized I have sought for a similar problem in parallel after a while. You may want to check this: https://coffee.stackexchange.com/questions/3756/what-can-i-use-to-clean-my-machine-as-a-substitute-for-original-cleaners  
> **username_3**: I don't think it'd be much of an issue since [Nespresso says their descaler is citric acid](https://www.nespresso.com/my/en/blog/a-step-by-step-guide-to-descaling-your-coffee-machine-with-nespresso-descaling-kit)  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_4 on 2020-01-17. Score: 2

My opinion is that you can use citric acid. That's all that I use and I use it with my espresso machines, drip coffer maker, and I have used with Nespresso and Keurig machines. It is food safe. I buy it at my local beer and wine supply store. I have read to to use 12 - 18 grams of citric acid to a liter of water. I believe many descale solutions are made from citric acid. I use 3 1/2 teaspoons of citric acid to 40 oz of water to make my descaling solution. You can follow the manufacturers suggested routine of descaling.

> **Comments:**
> **username_5**: Are you sure there's no aluminium in the machine? If there is, I think citric acid corrodes aluminium and you don't want that.  

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