Breville Bambino Plus (BES500): steam purge, cleaning, and descaling
Keeping the compact Bambino Plus healthy: automatic steam purge, the cleaning cycle, and descaling per Breville's instruction book.
The Bambino Plus packs ThermoJet heating and an automatic steam wand into a compact body — and its maintenance is correspondingly light.
Steam wand
The wand purges automatically after steaming, which does most of your daily hygiene for you. Still wipe the tip after milk drinks: milk residue bakes on and blocks the tip over time. If steam weakens, the tip is the first thing to inspect and clean.
Cleaning cycle
The machine includes a cleaning cycle for the brew path — run it with Breville cleaning tablets when prompted, following the steps in the instruction book. The 54 mm portafilter and baskets just need a rinse after each session and a periodic soak.
Descaling
ThermoJet heats a small amount of water on demand, so scale builds quietly. When the descale reminder appears, follow the descaling procedure in the instruction book and finish with a full fresh-water flush. Using soft water from day one stretches the interval dramatically.
No grinder inside
Unlike the Barista Express, the Bambino Plus has no internal grinder to keep clean — your burrs live in a separate grinder, which has its own cleaning routine (see the Encore guide).
The ANZ-market instruction book is linked from the Bambino Plus page; US-market manuals are on Breville's US support pages.