Step-by-step instructions, plus tips on how to clean and descale your Nespresso Creatista Plus coffee machine.
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Cleaning & Descaling Your Creatista Plus
As with any coffee maker, cleaning is important to properly maintain the machine and make sure your coffee tastes as good as possible.
Because Nespresso’s Creatista Plus is a highly customizable machine and comes with a steam wand for steaming milk, it’s essential to follow a monthly steam wand clean cycle as well as a quick daily cleaning.
Then, like with other Nespresso machines, there’s a cleaning cycle after a period of non-use, and the all important descaling, which should be done 1-2 times a year.
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Daily Clean
A quick, daily cleaning of your Creatista Plus’ drip tray, capsule container, milk jug, and steam wand will keep your machine working smoothly.
Follow these instructions each day that you use your Nespresso.
- Empty the capsule container.
Place removed capsules in a black Nespresso/UPS capsule return bag. When the bag is full, send it back to Nespresso for them to correctly recycle the aluminum capsules. Nespresso pays for the shipping. - Clean cup support and wipe inside of machine.
Pull cup support forward and lift upwards to remove it from the machine. - Clean water tank and lid.
Clean both with odorless dish detergent, rinse well. Dry with a soft cloth. - Refill water tank with fresh water.
- Rinse and fill milk jug with water between MIN and MAX marks.
Place jug under steam wand. Select Milk function and press Start. - Discard hot water. Wipe steam wand with clean, damp cloth.
Cleaning Before a Period of Non-Use
If you are planning to put your Creatista Plus away (or just not use it) for several weeks or longer, it’s best to empty any liquid from the machine and wipe it all down.
How long? It’ll take about 5 minutes.
- Remove the water tank.
- Place your empty milk jug under the coffee outlet.
- Turn the Select dial to Maintenance.
Press down on the dial to select this option. - Select Empty Cycle.
- Once the pump stops, wipe it dry.
Dry off the capsule bucket, drip tray, and remove/clean milk jug. - Your Creatista Plus should be empty and safe to store or not use for a while.
How To Descale Your Creatista Plus
No matter how hard or soft your water is, you need to run a Descaling Cycle to remove water scale buildup.
All Nespresso machines require this to help maintain your coffee machine as well as keep your coffee tasting the best it can.
Creatista Plus will alert you once every 3-6 months when a Descaling Cycle is necessary based on the frequency that you make coffee and how hard your water is.
Before you start this process you must have on hand the Nespresso Descaling Kit, which is a box that includes 2 descaling pouches with descaling solution inside.
Descaling Cycle + 2 Rinse Cycles
When “Descale Now” is on your Creatista Plus display screen, it’s time.
You might be able to make up to 10 more coffees before it locks you out, but this cleaning must be done.
This entire process will take about 30 minutes.
1. Rotate the dial to select Maintenance
Push the dial down to select.
2. Rotate the dial to select Descale
Push the dial down again to select. Follow the on-screen prompts, which are the following steps here.
3. Open and close the lever to remove any capsules.
Turn dial to next step.
4. Empty and clean the capsule bucket, drip tray, and water tank.
Place used capsules in a Nespresso/UPS capsule return bag. When the bag is full, send it back to Nespresso for them to correctly recycle the aluminum capsules. Nespresso pays for the shipping.
5. Fill water tank with clean water up to the DESCALE mark on the side.
6. Add 1 pouch of descaling solution to the water tank.
This will turn the water a shade of purple or pink.
7. Return water tank, capsule bucket, and drip tray to their places.
8. Place a 1 liter glass (heat resistant) container under the coffee outlet and steam wand.
The container must be wide enough to be directly under both in order to catch all the dispelled hot water. Be careful with it as the water coming out is very HOT.
9. Press Start button to begin Descaling Cycle.
This will take about 10 minutes. It includes dispensing hot water/solution from the coffee outlet 5 times and twice from the steam wand. You will know it is finished because the screen will tell you. Next is the 2 Rinse Cycles, which are also necessary.
10. Once Descaling is complete, remove glass container, drip tray, and capsule bucket.
Make sure the Creatista screen says it is complete before doing anything. Sometimes the noises stop but it’s not actually finished quite yet.
You may need to use oven mitts (or something else to protect your hands) to remove the glass container since it will be hot to the touch. Empty any water from capsule bucket and drip tray.
11. Empty water tank and rinse out completely.
Make sure all the descaling solution is rinsed out.
12. Return drip tray and capsule bucket to their places.
13. Fill water tank with clean water to MAX level.
Return water tank to its place.
14. Return 1 liter glass container under the coffee outlet and steam wand again.
15. Press Start to being first Rinse Cycle.
This is necessary to clear out all the descaling solution from the machine and get it ready for making coffee again.
16. When first cycle is complete, empty 1 liter glass container, and add about 2 inches of water to the water tank.
Wait a moment or two after the noises stop. It isn’t complete until the screen says so.
17. Empty capsule bucket and drip tray. Return to their places.
18. Return emptied 1 liter glass container under coffee outlet and steam wand again.
19. Press Start to being second Rinse Cycle.
20. Remove 1 liter container, drip tray, and capsule bucket.
Empty drip tray of any water. Wipe down capsule bucket and drip tray and return them to their places. Clean 1 liter container, you are done using it now.
21. Rinse out the water tank. Fill water tank to MAX with clean (filtered) water. Return to its place.
22. The Creatista Plus Descaling Process is now finished. Let the machine cool down for 10 minutes.
It may will automatically turn off after about 9 minutes.
Once cooled, it’s ready to make your next coffee drink!
NOTE: If you change the type of water you use to put in your water tank, do a new Water Hardness test by following the steps under Settings on your Creatista Plus. This will adjust the Descaling Cycle warnings accordingly.
Questions You May Have
If your Creatista Plus has gone through the Descaling Cycle and 2 Rinse Cycles but won’t end the Descale Mode, your machine is stuck in Descale Mode. One solution is to make sure to pull off and empty the drip tray, open and close the capsule lever, and empty the capsule bucket every time the Creatista Plus stops a step and prompts you to the next one. It may seem redundant or unnecessary to keep removing and replacing the capsule bucket and drip tray, but some Creatista Plus owners swear this helps. If you still can’t get it to exit Descale Mode, call Nespresso Technical Support.
While it is possible to use your Creatista Plus machine without setting the Water Hardness under Settings, it’s not a good idea to skip this step. The Water Hardness setting, plus how often you make coffee, will let the machine know when to notify you that it is time to Descale AND give you a 10 coffee drinks countdown until it locks you out. Without the Water Hardness setting in place, the Creatista Plus will alert you to Descale after about 3 months and there won’t be any wiggle room to delay it once it appears.
No. In fact, ONLY use the descaling solution from Nespresso. There are other descaling and cleaning solutions and tablets on the market, but they are not for Nespresso machines and may not work during the Descaling Cycle.
At the very least, you MUST wipe down the steam wand and run the daily clean cycle to avoid problems like dried milk stuck in the wand.
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