# Gaggia Espresso - air lock



## Glenn

I picked up a Gaggia Espresso at a boot sale today and got it home, not expecting an awful lot from it (as I purchased it for the princely sum of £1)






























Initially I got steam (and plenty of it) but seem to have exhausted that. No water has flowed from the grouphead and I think there is an air lock.

There is a lot of turbulence in the intake pipe and I can see the air bubbles moving but cannot seem to get the water into the machine.

I am using the normal air lock clearing method of opening the steam knob then switching on the pump to try and get water through the steam wand, but this is not working.

The pump sounds as if it is working and the machine is certainly at temp, but I am worried I might kill the pump if I persist.

Any ideas?


----------



## DonRJ

Vibe pump may be Knackered and not actually pumping to test you would have to open her up and disconnect the pump out put then run it and see if it is outputting water. Or a kinked siicon pipe again opening up would reveal this or has a valve seized.

Is it a hard water area ?, the poor wee thing might be solid with scale, try to get some descaler at least part way through it then leave to soak for while might help.

Don


----------



## Glenn

Forgot to update earlier, but thanks for the updated reply Don.

I let the machine cool down again then retried the normal method to fill the boiler/clear an airlock.

The water came through quickly and the heat from the earlier session was what caused the pressure issues before.

No scale luckily as the machine had only beed used twice before (according to the previous owner) and the portafilter / basket and accessories are in excellent condition (no visible signs of use)

I have now soaked these in descaler and pulled the group head assembly off, checked the gasket (again - as new) and tomorrow I will run a few shots back to back.


----------



## DonRJ

Panic over then and rather a good car booty bargain,now all you have to do is practise ambidextorous and simultaneous Gaggia shot pulling.

Don


----------



## Glenn

I could line up all 3 Gaggia's I have for a '3-group' experience. Individual boilers for each group. No PID though...









Off to another car boot on the way to today's RSPB visit


----------



## LeeWardle

I'm confused .... Did you get it working then?

Unfortuatly when all obvious means of repair have faled you steart at the water source and take apart averything until you find the bit that it's not flowing to. Takes a while but you'll always fix it!


----------



## ChiarasDad

What a treat, to get a usable machine so cheaply. Congratulations, Glenn.


----------



## Glenn

Working like a dream.

No issues at all so far. Good temps, consistent pressure. Surprising...


----------



## LeeWardle

Well done!


----------

