Andy Hall wrote:
On 2006-10-05 13:28:51 +0100, The Natural Philosopher said:

The Natural Philosopher wrote:

Ours got buggered 18 months ago, and needed a new gasket which I
got...but in the meantime something seems to have gone wrong
elsewhere.. and I am a bit stumped.

What it consists of is a reservoir of water that goes to a pump,
which pumps at what must be pretty high pressure into a boiler
thingie. The boiler output goes to a steam valve that goes either to
the coffee head itself which has a pressure switch - seems to need
about 2 bar or more to let steam out - or the steamer pipe for
frothing the milk.

The basic trouble is that nothing is coming out at all. I did get
some steam briefly.

I have checked all the easy to get at stuff - the valves and pipes
from the boiler to the valve etc..

The pump runs - well makes its buzzy noise - but seems to draw no
water from the reservoir, but that pipe is OK as I disconnected it
and sucked water up.

My guess is that something is scaled up in the pump or boiler area,
but without more than a trickle of flow..how to descale it?

What I also don't understand is why the pump seems to be configured
to run ONLY when making coffee - not when steaming or topping up with
hot water etc..is it that the high pressure an flow can only be
provided by a pump. whilst hot water and steam can be gravity fed?

Normally I wouldn't bother, but its the wife's BIRTHDAY...;-)


Oh., I sussed it.

The pump IS a high pressure one and needs priming. You do that by
filling it up with water to the FULL mark, not where SWMBO had filled
it to ;-)

Thanks to all who failed to reply in time..anyway SHE is happy. Phew.

Enjoy the rest of your day :-)


Yup. The bloody steam pipe clogged and I stripped it all down AGAIN to
find it was the bit on the outside..

Still..got a nice cappucino in front of me now. Yum. Slurp