Preventative Maintenance (PM) or routine service is imperative to maintaining your espresso machine and grinder so it functions as expected and reduces the risk of emergency service calls. 

Commercial grade equipment is designed to surpass expectations day in and day out with minimal downtime. Routine service plays a crucial role in ensuring this is true by replacing select parts recommended by the manufacturer based of service cycles and/or time.

What is preventative maintenance (PM)?

Preventative maintenance is a routine service typically scheduled in six (6) to twelve (12) month intervals to replace wearable parts such as gaskets, o-rings, and safety valves. In addition to quarterly inspections.

Visit the Coffee Equipment Terminology & Glossary to learn more about specific PM parts.

PM includes daily cleaning procedures! Black Rabbit Service recommends Common Best Practices for maintaining your coffee equipment.

Maintenance for coffee grinders typically means replacing burrs. 

For an espresso machine, PM parts and recommended service procedures are a bit more thorough.

Servicing equipment in routine intervals is generally accepted as the norm. However several factors influence wear and tear on PM parts such as environment (water quality), coffee service volume, and equipment specifications.

Why is it important?

Frequent misnomers heard by service technicians are:

"My equipment is running fine so I don't need service."  

"I only replace [PM] parts when necessary."

Preventative maintenance, in essence, replaces a handful of parts which bear the brunt of a coffee equipments most interfaced components; burrs, grouphead, steam wand/valve, and safety valves which regulate steam pressure and brew temperature.

It is important to adhere to routine service since wearable parts fatigue at a higher rate due to their purpose of regulating machine health.

This 'fatigue' is intentional as PM parts are designed to wear out rather than main component hardware.

Additionally, if PM parts fatigue or fail prematurely. They can be the canary in the coal mine for user error or a deeper equipment issue!

What are the consequences of ignoring routine service?

Kicking the can down the road can result in an underperforming machine and at worst, equipment failure. Some issues are immediately recognizable like a worn group gasket which cause portafilters to leak.  Whereas others, such as a fatigued pressure relief valve (PM part), can put stress on steam tank functionality resulting in loss of steam pressure. Ultimately limiting steam output or losing pressure altogether until emergency service is scheduled. 

Furthermore, failure to acknowledge the necessity of routine service increases the risk of equipment failure down the road.

Worst case scenario: machine downtime and productivity loss.

Black Rabbit Service technicians not only perform routine maintenance. They assess the general state of a piece of equipment during service to identify potential faults. Think of maintenance as an inspection as well as a service