# Repair Gaggia Baby, or go "Nespresso"....



## ifenelon (Apr 8, 2011)

I already own a Coffee Deluxe and was looking for a Gaggia for my static caravan and bought one on ebay recently (a Baby Dose model, the one with 6 buttons across the front). After about 4 weeks use (made about 30 great coffees), I left the machine on for longer than normall ast Friday after making another great coffee. When I went back to the machine after about 2.5 hours, the lights had stopped flashing.

Thanks to "Gaggiamanualservice", I think I have now diagnosed the problem as a faulty "CPU board" and again thanks to "Gaggiamanualservice"'s help, I think I have the confidence to fix it myself (parts plus postage = £45.00).

The question I have is whether the issue could repeat itself?

eg. Has the seller of the machine had the same issue and decided to offload after just fixing it "one last time", or is it more likely that I have just been unlucky...?

Is the machine now more prone to blowing more circuit boards once one has "gone"?

Is this a common problem?

How long should a new board last?

Should I go for the repair, or would this be throwing good money after bad?

Or take the easy option and go for Nespresso with a 3-year guarantee?!

Questions, Questions.....

Cheers,

Ian


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## gaggiamanualservice.com (Dec 22, 2009)

through my experience 2 main reasons for faulty cpu are leaving machine on with no water in boiler and more often a small leak in the steam inlet pipe blowing steam on the board and causing it to blow.

regards

mark


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## ifenelon (Apr 8, 2011)

gaggiamanualservice.com said:


> through my experience 2 main reasons for faulty cpu are leaving machine on with no water in boiler and more often a small leak in the steam inlet pipe blowing steam on the board and causing it to blow.
> 
> regards
> 
> mark


Thanks for this.

Before I replace the board, it would be useful to find any underlying problem.

Would I need to operate the machine for a while without the top on to see if there was hole in the steam inlet pipe? This sounds a little dangerous (!)

The tank was pretty full, although it was left on for a while when the lights stopped flashing.

Come to think of it, the tank may have been filled beyond the "max" mark last week by accident. This may also be an underlying cause?


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## PaulN (Mar 10, 2011)

No a very good fix (i am a mechanical engineer not electrical) but why not partially protect the pcb with a plastic bag? Just thought even better an anti static bag


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