Gaggia Classic Pump Issue?

DLowe92

Hi all,

Newbie to the forum here in search of help. Bought my first machine last year, a Gaggia Classic 2012 that was in a retty bad way. I’m not at all mechanically minded so you could question the wisdom of such a project, but the combination of this, ‘another forum previously’ and Youtube have served me well. To date, replaced the shower screen, shower head, seals, modded the pressure to 9 bar and swapped the wand for a Silvia.

After some heavy descaling we got to a point where I was getting good results. Fast forward to now and this week I noticed a huge loss of pressure. Got the gauge on and it is building to 9 bar but over a long period of time. We’re talking 1 min 30 for a double shot.

From other threads I’m guessing a blockage or air lock. Got the shower screen and head off, nothing untoward there. About to start a descale but now I’m getting no water out at all (group head or steam wand) and pretty hideous noise to boot. Natural instinct dictates this is not a good noise. It would seem nothings getting through at all. IS the pump done for?

Before I go with the descaler, any advice / ideas? I don’t want to keep running the machine trying to descale if I’m actually doing more damage. Any pointers for a novice out of his depth gratefully received. I’m a week with no espresso and getting crankier by the day…

Thanks,

Dan

DavecUK

Most likely a blockage somewhere, which can happen after a heavy descale.

Gav86

It sounds like no water is getting to the pump

DLowe92

Thanks both for the advice. I guess option one, how would I ascertain no water is getting to the pump? The tubes are clear at the bottom where they sit in the water tank.

DavecUK

DLowe92 take tube out, watch for a mensicus moving up the tube, reinsert it and watch for the bubble to continue to move up the tube.

DLowe92

DavecUK

Thanks Dave.

two possibly stupid questions

what’s a meniscus? 🙈
Take the tube out and run the pump?

Dan

Gav86

DLowe92 in essence pull out the tubes in the reservoir whilst the pump is running then dunk back in, it should create an air bubble which you should be able to watch being drawn up the tube and into the pump.

Might be easier to replace the reservoir with a glass to make it less cumbersome

DavecUK

DLowe92 the shape the edge of water open to air makes when in a tube or container.

DLowe92

Ok, thanks for the tip.

We have some action at the pump and the really loud noise has stopped (you can actually see at which point in the video). I can draw water through the steam arm but only drips through the grouphead. Guessing this points to a blockage somewhere. Any thoughts where?

Steam Arm -

Group Head -

As I can get water through the steam arm, I’m thinking another dose of descaler through the steam arm and see if it shifts anything?

Gav86

DLowe92 initial guess would be the solenoid valve could be partially blocked.

Might be easier to open up the machine to descale and clean the 3 way solenoid valve