caffeine_demon Senior Member Joined: 10 Oct 2012 Posts: 3 Location: uk Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Wed Oct 10, 2012, 2:36am Subject: Gaggia coffee - slow water flow
Hi guys,
I have just set up my gaggia coffee after moving, and the water flow is extremely slow.
it'S the flow through the brewhead that is running so slowly - the wand's water flow is fine, and it still runs slowly with no portafilter in place, so it isnt the coffee! - It's taking about 2 minutes to pour a shot glass worth. The pump itself sounds very quiet, but as mentioned, the wand is fine.
Posted Wed Oct 10, 2012, 7:17am Subject: Re: Gaggia coffee - slow water flow
Coffee residue behind the shower screen is the most likely culprit. Take the screen off and have a look and clean. I don't think the Coffee has a three way valve (there'll be a pipe from the group area to the drip tray if it does), so back flushing is out. You might also want to descale it after cleaning - the move might have shifted some scale flakes into the group valve/boiler outlet area that's now blocking the flow.
Also check the hoses in the tank and inside for kinks - moving the machine might have shifted something inside.
Posted Wed Oct 10, 2012, 1:04pm Subject: Re: Gaggia coffee - slow water flow
Getting the dispersion block off (the bit held on with Allen screws) is a right pig if it hasn't been removed for a while. You have to take the gasket off with it, and could damage it, so be careful (or buy a spare now, they aren't expensive).
You could try putting a coffee cleaner through the machine, but it needs to be safe for use with aluminium boilers. I can't remember which one is the right one for that right now.
tracerbullet Senior Member Joined: 13 Feb 2012 Posts: 157 Location: Saint Paul Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Fri Oct 12, 2012, 10:06am Subject: Re: Gaggia coffee - slow water flow
Agreed, take the screen off first and check behind it. Should just be a screwdriver bit to do it.
Next up take the thick round block off, w/ the allen wrenches (2 cap screws, 5mm if I recall correctly). Agreed it can be a bear, you may need to partially put the shower screen screw back in and use that w/ some other kind of leveraging setup to get things apart.
Clean everything you see - the back of the screw and the top and bottom of the round blocky thing including where the water passes through it.
That will likely solve the problem, if not then you will have to go further upstream, to remove scale in or near the boiler.
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