Nespresso stuck in descaling mode? Here's the secret code you need to fix it

David Gewirtz/ZDNET

Descaling is one of those necessary evils of owning an automatic coffee maker. They don't tell you about this when you buy it. They lure you in with the promise of sipping that sweet, sweet java brew that you so desperately need. What they don't advertise is that you're going to have to do some kind of wacky chemistry experiment every couple of months to make sure that your drug delivery method of choice is capable of pumping the perk.

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Most pod-based coffee machines give you a warning so you can get more liquid energy out before you have to start running them through with hot water, chemicals, and other scary things. While a Keurig will allow you to go weeks with the descaling notice showing (although I once killed a machine by ignoring it for too long), the Nespresso will only allow a finite amount of coffee to pass through before it refuses to function.

I tell myself I am quite capable of descaling my own coffee machine, but rather than doing the work, I whine about it, put it off, and wait until it's too late. Thankfully I live with a responsible party who takes pity on me or at least gets tired of my annoying complaints. Last week, she solved the descaling problem so I could continue pounding espresso.

What is descaling? 

Descaling is the process of running water and certain chemicals through the internals of the machine to remove the crud that builds up from your local water source. It's a fairly simple but tedious process of pouring in chemicals, adding water, and letting the mixture run through the machine, followed by running a couple of rinses. 

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Nespresso has clearly taken a page from Apple regarding preferring form over function. The Nespresso Virtuo Plus has two controls and two controls only. There is a button at the top of the device that you push to brew, and there is a little lever that opens up the canister holder so you can replace the coffee canister. That's it.

David Gewirtz/ZDNET

So, if you need to change a setting or program the device in any way, you have to go through some kind of twisted Konami sequence to tell the device what you want to do.

Getting stuck in descaling mode

To make matters worse, users have found that their Nespresso machines sometimes get stuck in descaling mode. Some on a Reddit thread my wife found even gave up, thinking they had to replace their machines.

This getting stuck in descale mode happened to my wife while cleaning out our machine. Since it was well after support hours, she turned to the internet for answers.

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Descaling the Nespresso Vertuo Plus is a two-phase process: the actual descaling and the rinse that comes after. 

First, you need to pour the packet of descaling solution into an empty tank, making sure not to get any on yourself because it's caustic. Then add at least 17 ounces of water to the tank and run that mixture through the machine. (Have a large container ready to catch it once the cycle is complete.) The descaling guide tells you what buttons to push to enter descaling mode. After the descaling, you have to run a rinse cycle to get all the acid out of the machine.

Follow the instructions in the guide. If your machine freezes after the descaling part of the process, keep reading. Because while the guide gives up on you if the descaling gets stuck, we don't.

The Nespresso descaling run takes a while, so while ours was chugging along running the descaling solution, my wife left the room to do something else. By the time she got back, the descaling part of the process had completed.

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But it wouldn't go into the rinse cycle. This is where other users have gotten stuck and have found themselves unable to break out of the descaling vortex of doom.

Fortunately, my wife found a YouTube video that explained the problem and had a fix. According to an unnamed but very helpful British dude, if you leave the machine in descaling mode without running fluid through for the rinse cycle within two minutes, the machine overheats and won't then enter the rinse phase. Apparently, it can also get stuck after the rinse phase, which is the condition that our YouTube hero found himself in.

His advice is to "trick" the machine, which will allow you to reset it, rinse it out properly because you've already descaled it, and finally brew that wonderful mud.

How to unstuck the Nespresso

Our British friend recommends that you follow these steps to clear the machine and get it ready for use. It's important to note that if you descaled the machine, but never ran a rinse cycle, you'll need to do that to make the machine safe. We'll discuss that in the next section. For now, let's get the machine out of its stuck state.

Make sure there are no pods in the machine.Rather than running a full tank, put just one cup of tap water into the tank.Hold the lever down for three seconds to turn the machine off.Hold the top button and lever down simultaneously for four or five seconds, until an orange light comes on.Tap the lever once to tell the machine to go into descale mode. The orange light will flash.Tap the top button to have it run the descale (but, remember, you're doing this with tap water).Let it run all the way through until completely dry, about 3-4 minutes for one cup. Do not leave the machine. Timing is important with this step. The machine will "clunk" when done.The two-minute clock has started!Now, within two minutes, add another cup of water to the tank.Also, within two minutes, hit the top button to start the rinse, but don't let it rinse all the way through.Hit the top button a few times until the Nespresso stops rinsing (give it a breath of a pause between button hits).Cross your fingers, pray to your favorite deity, call out to the Force, and/or knock on wood (but don't take more than a few seconds doing it).Hold the lever and top button simultaneously for about four seconds until the orange light turns into a green light. That's what you're hoping for.Turn the machine off by holding the lever down for about three seconds.Tap the top button to turn it on, and hopefully, you'll see a green light.Let it cool for at least ten minutes

Your machine should now be out of descaling mode. For our British friend, the ordeal was over because his machine got stuck after a rinse cycle. But for my wife, the machine was out of descaling mode but had not yet been rinsed of descaling solution.

Fortunately, once again the Internet came to the rescue with a set of steps for running a full rinse cycle without descaling mode. That's next.

Running a rinse cycle

In this case, my wife turned to a very helpful Reddit post; shout-out to users Bogiesan and Absolute.

To run a rinse cycle, open and close the lid to ensure the machine is reset to its base mode. Then push the top button three times within two or three seconds.

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Water will start running through. Apparently, if you push the button again after ten or fifteen seconds, it will stop pumping water. But if you just let it run, it pushes a whole lot of water through the machine. Of course, make sure you have a bucket or bin to catch all that water.

So that's how my wife finished up her Nespresso adventure. After tricking it out of descaling mode, she ran a few complete rinse cycles.

Drinking the rocket fuel

Thanks to my wife's diligence and a bunch of strangers we now think of as friends on the internet, I have been able to savor two cups of Nespresso coffee while telling you this tale. This article was brought to you by tasty capsules of Intenso and Melozio.

As for the problem-solving process, my wife says this was a lesson in how crowdsourcing tech support at midnight via Reddit and YouTube is way better than trying to reach a support representative and dealing with the nightmarish chat or being stuck on the phone forever with a company. 

What about you? Have you ever gotten stuck in descaling mode? Are you a Keurig or Nespresso person (or like us, both)? What are your favorite coffee flavors? Let us know in the comments below.

P.S. Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A. If you know, you know.

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