# You get what you pay for



## Sparkles (Oct 5, 2012)

Hi

I'm a newbie here and like most people who seek out such forums I have a problem. Any suggestions will be most welcome other than "send it back" as I have already started to think that way.

I bought a Gaggia Cubika via Ebay. Now being a Yorkshireman I don't like to spend too many of my hard earned pennies and especially as I'm a pensioner. I bought the machine for £28. Now according to the information provided it is fully functional but ....... I probably would still be lurking and not posting if it was.

It arrived today via courier and after giving it a bit of a wipe over I filled the tank with cold water and turned it on. All the right things seemed to happen so I pressed 'brew' switch and it made a noise but no water came out of the brew head. Ah I thought it's got an air lock. So I opened the steam wand and some water came out but not what I'd call vast amounts of steam. I then removed and cleaned the shower head which was full of crap and tried again. Still nothing. Repeated it a few times and still nothing from the brew head.

I did note during all this that when the steam wand was used air and hot water being forced into the water tank . I may be missing something here but I would have thought the cold water in the tank would stay cold.

So is there a quick solution to this problem or is it going back? My guess is that there is a serious blockage somewhere that is going to be very very difficult to shift but I could be wrong


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## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

Sounds like a solenoid issue, I'm not sure what kind of solenoid the Cubika uses but i'll bet it is failing, if you remove it, check the coil to make sure its all connected and hasn't been smoked, strip down the valve and clean it up..

Just had a quick look, turns out the Cubika has no solenoid valve but instead a simple outlet valve, so again my advise would be to remove and clean it up and see if that works, I would also do a full descale maybe even twice and clean up the steam valve while you're at it.


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## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

Saying all that, I know nothing about the Cubika and if it is a chinese built thermoblock machine they are not designed to be worked on and it might not even be possible to do this work, see how you get on anyway.


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## Sparkles (Oct 5, 2012)

Many thanks Outlaw333.

Tried to take the two screws out of the back and one of them is just spinning round and despite all my efforts won't shift. It's looking more and more like a non starter. Might be worth spending a bit more and getting a Classic.

Cheers


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## MattBlack (Oct 13, 2012)

I bought a 2nd hand Cubika via eBay and it did exactly the same!! I'm not sure how confident you are tech wise but I found it a really easy machine to strip down, the beuty of the Cubika is there really isn't much to it!!

I found that the outlet valve tube from the boiler to the shower screen was all gunked up, my bets would be yours is simillar, especially as you mention the shower screen was full of crap.

What I did was to whip the top off the machine (couple of screws) then remove all the plumbing and wiring from the boiler (make a note of what goes where obviously, number up the connectors with a sharpie and draw a little diagram so you know what goes where!), get the allen keys out and loosen the 4 bigger allen bolts that hold the boiler to the group head (found it easier to loosen them whilst the group is still bolted to the machine!) then get a smaller allen key and undo the 4 smaller bolts holding the grouphead to the machine, remove the 4 bigger bolts you've just loosened and split the boiler from the group head and you'll seee the output valve/tube, remove the spring valve (the nut bit in the GH that the screen screws too) and you should be able to see through the tube, mine was blocked here so I poked the blockage out!! As the Haynes would tell you, refitting is the reverse of removal!!

Whilst it's in bits I gave mine a good clean and descale, it's quite disgusting what must be lurking in some machines!! I also replaced the gaskets/seals whilst it was apart, they didn't look too bad but for £11 it was worth doing them for peice of mind!!

Don't give up on it, it may be a pretty simple repair and that'll make the first shot taste that bit more satisfying!!


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## gaggiamanualservice.com (Dec 22, 2009)

if your still struggling let me know, i will help you,

mark


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