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Let’s start with a familiar scene.
It’s the middle of the morning rush. Orders are flying in. The barista is moving at Olympic speed. And then … the espresso machine starts acting weird. Shots are pulling too fast. Steam pressure feels off. Someone says, “Did we clean this yesterday?”
Someone else says, “Yeah, I think so”.
That’s usually where the trouble begins.
Because in most cafés, equipment does get cleaned. It does get fixed.
What often doesn’t happen is clear, consistent tracking of what was done, when, and why.
So let’s slow this down and talk about how cafés actually track coffee equipment maintenance – what works, what usually falls apart, and how some shops manage to stay sane even when machines throw a fit.
Tracking maintenance doesn’t mean writing “cleaned machine” on a sticky note.
It means being able to answer, without guessing:
If a new barista starts tomorrow, could they understand the machine’s history in five minutes? If the answer is NO, then maintenance might be happening – but it isn’t really being tracked.
Most cafés don’t ignore maintenance on purpose. It just slips through the cracks because café life is … busy.
Here’s why tracking tends to fall apart:
Over time, cafés end up fixing the same problems again and again – not because they don’t care, but because they don’t have the full story.
Most cafés focus almost entirely on the espresso machine. Fair enough – it’s the star of the show. But it’s not the only thing quietly plotting against you.
These need regular cleaning and deeper maintenance. Things like backflushing (cleaning the internal brewing path) and descaling (removing mineral buildup from water) happen on different schedules depending on the machine and water quality. Manufacturers publish recommended service intervals for this stuff, but only if someone actually follows – and tracks – them.
Grinders are sneaky. Burrs wear down slowly. Oils build up. Calibration drifts. Suddenly the coffee tastes “off,” and everyone blames the beans.
Spray heads clog. Temperature stability slips. Cleaning cycles get skipped when it’s busy.
Water quality affects everything. Filters and softeners need to be changed regularly, or scale builds up and shortens equipment life.
These affect food safety and drink quality. They need cleaning, temperature checks, and basic inspections.
Blenders, dishwashers, HVAC units, even POS printers. They may not make coffee, but when they fail, service suffers.
Tracking only one machine is like brushing only one tooth.
In the real world, cafés usually use one – or a mix – of these methods.
This might be a notebook, a printed sheet, or a spreadsheet.
It’s easy to start and works for very small cafés. The downside? It relies heavily on discipline. Miss a few entries, and the whole thing becomes unreliable.
Daily, weekly, and monthly checklists are great for routine tasks. They’re visual, easy to follow, and good for training.
But checklists alone don’t tell you history. They tell you what should happen, not what actually did.
Service invoices, WhatsApp messages, emails – this is where repair history often lives.
The problem is that it lives everywhere.
Unless those records are attached to the specific machine they belong to, they’re hard to find when you need them most.
A CMMS, or Computerized Maintenance Management System, is software designed to track equipment, schedules, repairs, and history in one place.
For cafés with multiple shifts – or especially multiple locations – this is often the tipping point where tracking stops feeling fragile.
This part matters more than people think.
A useful maintenance record doesn’t need to be long. It just needs to be clear.
At minimum, it should include:
When records include this level of detail, maintenance stops being guesswork.
Most cafés work on a rhythm. Tracking works best when it follows that rhythm.
The key thing to remember: your schedule depends on volume and water quality. A high-volume café with hard water needs more frequent attention than a quiet shop with good filtration.
This is where things usually break down.
Good cafés do a few simple things:
It doesn’t take long. It just takes intention.
Once you have more than one café, tracking gets harder fast.
The cafés that manage this well usually:
This way, patterns become visible. If the same espresso machine model keeps failing in the same way across locations, you catch it early.
Tracking is only half the job. The other half is learning from it.
Smart cafés:
This is how maintenance goes from reactive to calm.
Downtime often isn’t caused by a big failure. It’s caused by a missing $10 gasket.
Cafés that track maintenance well usually also track:
This prevents last-minute panic during peak hours.
You’ll often hear about equipment being NSF-certified. That means it meets certain food safety and sanitation standards.
But certification alone doesn’t mean maintenance is being done properly.
Tracking cleaning routines, inspections, and repairs supports:
It’s not about bureaucracy. It’s about confidence.
Here’s a straightforward starting point:
Nothing fancy. Just consistent.
Maintenance tracking can be tricky – especially when cafés have multiple machines, rotating staff, or more than one location.
That’s why many cafés turn to CMMS platforms, which are tools designed to keep maintenance records, schedules, and history in one place.
Tools like FieldEx help cafés:
Want to see FieldEx in action? Book a free demo today, or drop us a message. We’re here to help.
Café equipment maintenance doesn’t fail because people don’t care. It fails when information gets lost between shifts, fixes aren’t documented, and patterns go unnoticed. When maintenance is tracked clearly and consistently, machines last longer, downtime becomes predictable, and teams stop guessing. And in a café – where timing, taste, and trust matter – that kind of clarity quietly makes all the difference.
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