# Gaggia connectors



## Saffrican (May 5, 2019)

I am looking for 4 of these as mine have broken and burned as they have become brittle through age. They are the ones that attach to the 4 pins on top of the boiler.

I have looked all over and cannot find them on the most popular Gaggia spares sites. Can anyone help?


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## Agentb (Feb 11, 2017)

These things are going to be hard to find and fix, @MrShades or @FairRecyclermight have an idea.

I think i'd go to Screwfix with the entire wiring harness in my hand. you are going to need connectors probably some 2mm bullets and covers.

Or easier ebay a replacement - something like

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Gaggia-Coffee-deluxe-wiring-loom-switch-in-excellent-used-condition-OEM-/202814171264

would be close

Or put a post in the Wanted section.

hth👍


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## mr-bean (Nov 26, 2018)

Use one terminal of a strip like the one shown. One end over the pin and screw tight, the other end with cable inside.


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## ratty (Sep 22, 2019)

Agentb said:


> These things are going to be hard to find and fix, @MrShades or @FairRecyclermight have an idea.
> 
> I think i'd go to Screwfix with the entire wiring harness in my hand. you are going to need connectors probably some 2mm bullets and covers.
> 
> ...


 I would buy the ebay loom and cut off the boiler 'plugs' to required length and then attach spade connectors to the cut off parts.

I've just done similar myself to make up a Classic loom and had to buy the correct connections from a different Gaggia loom and even buy the crimping pliers! I needed lots of crimping practice on the spare wires too, as never done crimping before, but it turned out good after much sweat and tears!


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## allikat (Jan 27, 2020)

Crimping is both practice and tools. Buying a good tool is half the battle to be honest. A cheap crimper is as much a false economy as a cheap grinder. Trouble is, good crimping tools are expensive, and if you're not doing much crimping, it's hard to justify.


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## ratty (Sep 22, 2019)

allikat said:


> Crimping is both practice and tools. Buying a good tool is half the battle to be honest. A cheap crimper is as much a false economy as a cheap grinder. Trouble is, good crimping tools are expensive, and if you're not doing much crimping, it's hard to justify.


 Also don't buy the cheapest naked spade connectors off ebay as i found!

I ended up with the plastic covered yellow spade connectors and rather than crimping two wires together required in three of the connectors I used piggyback connectors (I now know the terminology!) and needed three piggybacks to finish the loom. One piggyback on the main switches that luckily had the gap above it, one on the earth on the plug socket and one on the solenoid.

The rest of the wiring I had to make, all had single spade connectors only to fit.


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

With the more expensive 'crimpers', ensure you have the fitting and cable on the correct sides of the jaws.

One side crimps fully the other side does not crimp so tight where the cable exits.


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## MrShades (Jul 29, 2009)

Crimping - I do quite a lot of that! I'll double everything said before, a good crimp tool is essential - cheap ones are less than useless.

I've got a good hand crimp tool for insulated connectors - which was about £70 - but has stainless jaws and crimps very well indeed.

More recently I've upgraded to one of these, which is a bit more expensive (especially with the compressor required) but a lot easier on the hands!

https://iwiss.com/product/am-10-pneumatic-crimping-tool-crimping-16mm2-max/


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## Robbie (Jul 18, 2019)

I don't have a classic, but could have a go at 3D printing them for you if you can provide dimensions of the part?

Though if the goal is simply to join two wires, I would agree with the above that crimping or otherwise terminating the wires would be a far easier solution!


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## FairRecycler (Sep 26, 2019)

Hi,

@Agentb Thank you for mentioning me here.

Sorry for the late response, I don't get notifications anymore 

@Saffrican If you not sorted it yet, I'm happy to provide you with the parts needed, but if you need the connector too I only have used ones, so it will involve some soldering/re-crimping. I'm also happy to repair it it for you, if you would rather go that route.

Regards

Peter


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## Saffrican (May 5, 2019)

Hi to everyone, I tried the various suppliers like Gaggia UK and Bean2cup and got no help. I then followed your advice and got some connectors and crimped them on and it has worked..well, sort of. I also replaced a broken switch front switch. The water heats up now but its only lukewarm. I did replace the boiler thermostat but not sure if it is the right one. I gather there are different ones with different settings, but I have no idea if this is why it is not heating up properly.

Also, the right hand switch light does not come on when switched on, as far as I can see I wired it correctly.

Peter, thank you as I emailed you a week ago about my switch. I have the old one and can send it it to you for spares if you want.


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## AndyDClements (Aug 29, 2016)

Please for safety replace those terminals with fully insulated versions (and protect the end of those*), as you now have live terminals which are exposed and any metal object that now touches could cause the case of the machine to become live (230v).

* Even with fully insulated, there is the risk that the the unused side of those terminals comes into contact with another metal part. You could cut them back so that only one side of the terminal remains


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## FairRecycler (Sep 26, 2019)

The wiring looks fine to me.

By luke warm do you mean room temp or slightly warmer?

Try it in steam mode too, that would bypass the brew thermostat.

What I normally do is to turn it on for a few seconds, than unplug the machine and carefully touch both heating elements to confirm both works fine.

On the other hand I would not recommend to use the machine as it is. For me it hurts to look at those non insulated connectors especially at the stick out where its over the boiler body only few mm apart from it. It is dangerous.

Have you gone for a new switch?

Or is it still the one where you had the brew light gone recently?

Have you checked continuity of thermal fuse?


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

Which stat did you replace ? the one on the top or the one on the side ? The one on top is the steam stat, it looks quite old, are the spade terminals firmly fixed to the stat body ? How many wires go to the steam stat ?


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

For safeties sake you would be safer using red butt connectors ( used for joining cables end to end) The red ones would be approximate the correct size to act as pus on connectors for the boiler pin terminals. The butt connectors are fully covered with insulation.


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## Saffrican (May 5, 2019)

Thank you for the info to all of you.

I have cut down the connectors as per the photograph attached. Hope this is better but I will probably send the harness to you, Peter to do better job then I can do as a wannabe electrician😬🙄

I bought a new themostat as I thought the old one had gone. The new one has the markings KSD301 and E5NU21 which are meaningless to me. The old one had the markings 10/250 and SO212 as well as 36TXE31 1433 and LI45-15C. These are the bottom thermostats.

The top steam head one is almost the same, 10/250 and SO211 as well as 36TXE31 1432 and LI07-8C.

All are meaningless to me so I will ask for some guidance here.

I bought a new front switch.


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## FairRecycler (Sep 26, 2019)

The thermostats are the wrong way round.

The 145-15 is the steam stat should be at the top

The 107-8 is the brew and should be at the bottom


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## Saffrican (May 5, 2019)

Irritation at stratospheric level now. The 107-8 broke a connector🤬🤬 so I will have to order a new one.

Ah, the joys of Italian machinery....

I will report on progress when I get a new one. Any suggestions who to contact?


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## FairRecycler (Sep 26, 2019)

If you send me the wiring, I'm happy to include a used but tested one in the return package.


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## Saffrican (May 5, 2019)

Thank you. I have bought a new one already, before I read your message.

To make things worse, as if they couldn't get any worse, I decided to refit the new one I had bought back into the boiler for the time being. While carefully hand screwing it in, about Two thirds of the way in it breaks off at the threads so now I cannot even get another thermostat in and the boiler is useless now so I will have to buy a new one.😡

Obviously a poorly manufactured thermostat. When I got it it looked very different to the standard ones in the machine, sort of cheap looking.

FFS

My wife has disappeared upstairs as I am not a happy camper.


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## FairRecycler (Sep 26, 2019)

Pls stop buying more new staff, most of these repairable or available used (tried and good quality)

I now how it feels. I've just posted the first two BoostBox-ed Classics this week. I've sold them more than 3 weeks ago, and they were ready to ship at that time (at least that's what I thought). Anything I touched, went close to or I looked at, or even thought of just broke.

I recommend to just walk away. I couldn't and I nearly fall into pieces.


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## phario (May 7, 2017)

Saffrican said:


> Thank you. I have bought a new one already, before I read your message.
> 
> To make things worse, as if they couldn't get any worse, I decided to refit the new one I had bought back into the boiler for the time being. While carefully hand screwing it in, about Two thirds of the way in it breaks off at the threads so now I cannot even get another thermostat in and the boiler is useless now so I will have to buy a new one.😡
> 
> ...


 This is the second time I've heard of a thermostat breaking off.

I bought a Gaggia Classic with the same issue that the seller tried extracting (to no avail).

It's not as bad as you would think and you definitely don't have to throw out the boiler. You can try screw extractors etc. but I have an alternate suggestion: install a PID. The PID only requires one thermostat hole since you can control both regular brew and steam temperatures with the PID.

If you go this route, you would typically screw in an M3 thermo sensor, and so you would do this in the steam thermostat. Even though the brew thermostat hole is located a bit lower, my guess is that it doesn't matter much since the boiler reaches temperature as a block (the Rancilio Silvia has all thermostats at the top).


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## ratty (Sep 22, 2019)

ratty said:


> I've just done similar myself to make up a Classic loom and had to buy the correct connections from a different Gaggia loom and even buy the crimping pliers! I needed lots of crimping practice on the spare wires too, as never done crimping before, but it turned out good after much sweat and tears!


 So as a follow on, I tested the new wiring loom I made up in a known working Classic although the wiring is intended for the 2015 Classic that I'm converting to a pre 2015.

I had the machine on for a few hours, running water through the steam pipe set and frother, and also water through the group head.

I made sure all wiring was covered in plastic insulation so no bare wires were exposed.

Another reason for me testing the new wire loom on another machine was to see how the newly crimped connectors stood up to being attached and then pulled off again later.

After reading through these posts I have to say do not attempt any wiring unless you are a competent engineer/DIY'er, especially as the likes of @FairRecycler will work on your electrics for an extremely reasonable price, that you couldn't match elsewhere.


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## Alfieboy (Dec 26, 2018)

ratty said:


> So as a follow on, I tested the new wiring loom I made up in a known working Classic although the wiring is intended for the 2015 Classic that I'm converting to a pre 2015.
> 
> I had the machine on for a few hours, running water through the steam pipe set and frother, and also water through the group head.
> 
> ...


 Perfect @ratty


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## phario (May 7, 2017)

ratty said:


> After reading through these posts I have to say do not attempt any wiring unless you are a competent engineer/DIY'er, especially as the likes of @FairRecycler will work on your electrics for an extremely reasonable price, that you couldn't match elsewhere.


 Conversely, electrics is something that I think people should try their hand at in controlled environments. It's not hard to make a little 220V lighting circuit and in doing so, you'll learn about how to solder/crimp. There are many guides on YouTube on how to work with electrics, and it is not the 'black art' that is often proposed.

That said, I agree that maybe experimenting on a fairly expensive coffee maker is maybe not the best route.


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## Agentb (Feb 11, 2017)

Saffrican said:


> Two thirds of the way in it breaks off at the threads


 You might find you are lucky and the fracture leaves a ridge which mates up with the thermostat head and you can lock it in and unscrew it (you might have to take the last thread of exposed end) . Sometimes a pointy pick or tiny screwdriver you can hook on the thread.

Looking at the connectors I'd prolly fold the two eyelets on the spade together (practice on a spare first to see it bends in a sensible way) and then slip the blue insulators down a bit so they are completely covered.



Saffrican said:


> the right hand switch light does not come on when switched on,


 I'd say that is related to the thermostat problem, it should come on when at temp.

Good luck. 👍


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## FairRecycler (Sep 26, 2019)

Agentb said:


> ou might find you are lucky and the fracture leaves a ridge which mates up with the thermostat head and you can lock it in and unscrew it (you might have to take the last thread of exposed end) . Sometimes a pointy pick or tiny screwdriver you can hook on the thread.


 Good ideas. I haven't faced such a challenge before, but I managed to get out broken M5 brass stud by tapping a Philips screw driver in the stud, creating a Philips "head" stud. Good job it's not stainless 🤣



Agentb said:


> and then slip the blue insulators down a bit


 I don't want to be the critical one but than the top half isn't insulated.

Of the choices mentioned so far I prefer the red insulated butt connector.


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## Saffrican (May 5, 2019)

As Clint Eastwood aka Dirty Harry said in one of his movies " a mans gotta know his limitations" I know I have reached mine electrics wise and I accept the constructive suggestions to get the wiring done properly so I have sent the loom to FairRecycler to get the job done to the correct and safe standards.

I have also bought a new boiler unit and correct thermostat but that is easy to install.


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## Alfieboy (Dec 26, 2018)

Saffrican said:


> As Clint Eastwood aka Dirty Harry said in one of his movies " a mans gotta know his limitations" I know I have reached mine electrics wise and I accept the constructive suggestions to get the wiring done properly so I have sent the loom to FairRecycler to get the job done to the correct and safe standards.
> 
> I have also bought a new boiler unit and correct thermostat but that is easy to install.


 Good Luck @Saffrican and work safely - if in doubt please ask and always unplug the power


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## Saffrican (May 5, 2019)

All sorted and happy again. Thank you to everyone for advice, encouragement and suggestions and a big thank you to FairRecycler for sorting out my wiring loom.


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## Agentb (Feb 11, 2017)

Saffrican said:


> big thank you to FairRecycler for sorting out my wiring loom


 Good news. Hoping to see a new photo of the handiwork, and you should get a few years of trouble free service now.

Edit: how did you get the thread out?

👍


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## FairRecycler (Sep 26, 2019)

Agentb said:


> how did you get the thread out?


 New boiler, as far as I know. If the boiler is in good condition apart from the stud, I'll have a go at it later.

I missed to shoot photos of the wiring loom  I've opened and re-crimped the insulation part of the connector and soldered the cables on, if that makes sense (sorry I keep translating Hungarian sentences to English still). 🤣


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