# Another Baby Gaggia no flow problem



## Jacu (Jan 21, 2011)

I bought what I considered rather expensive Gaggia system for grinding & making coffee as I thought them to be really well made & would last a very long time!!

I have a Baby Gaggia Black & a Gaggia MDF coffee grinder.

It makes good coffee, I can't argue with that & until recently (for the last 3 years) it's performed well despite the portafilter handle breaking in two because of the cheap nasty thin plastic they use in its construction.

I've kept it clean & descaled from time time to time as directed in the manual although I've never used the Puly Caff Cleaning powder or backflushed as I was totally ignorant of this until a couple of days ago.

Anyway about a month ago I started to get a very slow flow of coffee so I removed the shower plate cleaned it thoroughly (this was the 1st time this had been done) & got a needle & cleaned out all the little holes in the blasted thing.

I then did a descale, cleaned everything that I could & put it back together.

This sorted the problem out for a week or so producing a fine flow once more.

Then all of a sudden nothing, no flow at all, not a drop.

Doing a quick internet search I found the Happy Donkey site & read

"If your not getting any water to your group head then the problem usually relates to the pump.

These pumps are extremely easy to fit, just take the cover off your machine, locate the existing faulty pump and replace it with the new one.

Of course the problem could be due to a pipe blockage caused by scale build up, but if there's nothing coming through at all then you can bet your life this is what you need."

So I parted with my 30 quid or so inc p&p & the part was delivered very swiftly.

Now I must take issue with the phrase "These pumps are extremely easy to fit", I consider myself reasonably handy with a screwdriver, allen key & the like but easy would not be the adjective I would choose for the experience of changing said pump.

"Take the cover off the machine" it sounds like childs play doesn't it? Little did I know that the techniques required were more brute force & ignorance than anything else.

Anyway to cut a long story shorter I managed to get in, remove the old pump from it's housing & change it, despite the new one having a brass shaft on it unlike the white plastic one on the original & not liking the thread on the fitting very much, some more of the brute force got it together & to my slight surprise it the light came on it when I plugged it back in.

But alas the situation is exactly the same ie. no flow at all from the head although a small amount of water & steam appears to be emanating from the cappuccino frother when activated. I suppose I should have guessed it wouldn't be that "easy" especially as the pump didn't appear to making any different noises to when it was producing water to these ears.

So thanks but this donkey is not so happy & 30 poorer.

Before I waste any more of my hard earned in buying more crap from the Felicitous Ass in the vain pursuit of solving what could be "pipe blockage caused by scale build up" maybe some kind soul on here can enlighten me a little?

Is that the sort of problem easy to fix for someone as clearly cack handed as myself?

We have very hard water here in SE London but we have mostly filled the machine with mineral water.

I understand that there aren't many (any) repairers in the London area who would do a repair on a domestic Gaggia that would be worth it.


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## gaggiamanualservice.com (Dec 22, 2009)

hi, from what i read it sounds like a solenoid issue, the baby range are notorious for it. a small bit of scale can block the solenoid and render the machine useless. easy to tell if this is the problem. when pumping will water come from from the steam arm and not the brewhead?. if so you will to service it. I.E. split boiler and clear any residue. split clean or replace solenoid. what model baby do you have?. if you require a service you can send it to me,

kind regards

Mark


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## gaggiamanualservice.com (Dec 22, 2009)

on another note PLEASE DONT USE MINERAL WATER!!!!!!!!! you may as well use hard tap water. it coats the boiler and pipes. If hard water area use filter water.

Mark


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

It's a little unfair to criticise a supplier based upon information contained on their website as technically they are correct, however it is often another problem causing the lack of flow issue.

Mark is on the money - the solenoid usually gives up before the pump


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## Jacu (Jan 21, 2011)

gaggiamanualservice.com said:


> hi, from what i read it sounds like a solenoid issue, the baby range are notorious for it. a small bit of scale can block the solenoid and render the machine useless. easy to tell if this is the problem. when pumping will water come from from the steam arm and not the brewhead?. if so you will to service it. I.E. split boiler and clear any residue. split clean or replace solenoid. what model baby do you have?. if you require a service you can send it to me,
> 
> kind regards
> 
> Mark


Thanks for telling me, I didn't realise.

This is surely info that would be good to put into the Gaggia manuals?


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## Jacu (Jan 21, 2011)

Glenn said:


> It's a little unfair to criticise a supplier based upon information contained on their website as technically they are correct, however it is often another problem causing the lack of flow issue.
> 
> Mark is on the money - the solenoid usually gives up before the pump


A matter of opinion but when they clearly state "if there's nothing coming through at all then you can bet your life this is what you need." referring to the pump what am I to think?

If it is "often another problem causing the lack of flow issue" they could have said that & I wouldn't necessarily have wasted my money.

Thankfully I didn't gamble my life!


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## Jacu (Jan 21, 2011)

gaggiamanualservice.com said:


> hi, from what i read it sounds like a solenoid issue, the baby range are notorious for it. a small bit of scale can block the solenoid and render the machine useless. easy to tell if this is the problem. when pumping will water come from from the steam arm and not the brewhead?. if so you will to service it. I.E. split boiler and clear any residue. split clean or replace solenoid. what model baby do you have?. if you require a service you can send it to me,
> 
> kind regards
> 
> Mark


Thanks for the reply.

My model is a Baby Gaggia black










There is no water coming from the head but when activated steam will produce from the steam arm.

What sort of price am I looking at for your service & are they expensive to post? (I'm not sure if I still have the original packaging.


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## barrykensett (Dec 15, 2009)

I had this problem with a Baby Dose, I took the solenoid valve off and there was a small flake of scale in there, used a thin wire to clean it through and it worked fine after that. The solenoid valve is a bit of a beggar to get off first time, the allen screws are a bit obscured and tight in the casting. I think that once removed they will be a bit less tight if I have to do it again.


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## Jacu (Jan 21, 2011)

barrykensett said:


> I had this problem with a Baby Dose, I took the solenoid valve off and there was a small flake of scale in there, used a thin wire to clean it through and it worked fine after that. The solenoid valve is a bit of a beggar to get off first time, the allen screws are a bit obscured and tight in the casting. I think that once removed they will be a bit less tight if I have to do it again.


Thanks for the reply but after yesterdays efforts I may send the thing off to gaggiamanualservice.com for a complete service.


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## Jacu (Jan 21, 2011)

barrykensett said:


> I had this problem with a Baby Dose, I took the solenoid valve off and there was a small flake of scale in there, used a thin wire to clean it through and it worked fine after that. The solenoid valve is a bit of a beggar to get off first time, the allen screws are a bit obscured and tight in the casting. I think that once removed they will be a bit less tight if I have to do it again.


Well I found a couple of screws that I'd left out from changing the pump so I thought as I've got the cover off (considerably easier once you've done it the 1st time BTW) I might as well have a go at the Solenoid. You're right those allen keys are a sod but I got it off & although I saw no visible evidence of flakes of scale I gave it a good clean out with a thin guitar string wrapped in some tissue & then left it in the descaler for half an hour.

On reassembly still no flow until I tried the the steam arm again & then retried the pump & hey presto it spluttered back into life!

I decided another descale of the system wouldn't go a miss especially as I now know that using mineral water for years was a bad move.

Just tried a cup of coffee & it appears to be working fine.

Thanks to those who took the trouble to reply to this thread


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

Have you tried Volvic?

Have not had any negative experiences with that. Descaling still required but at less frequent intervals.

One one machine I used only that for well over 6 years. Never once had a problem and it made 3-4 cups per day on average


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## gaggiamanualservice.com (Dec 22, 2009)

glad you got it going, well done. any help in future just ask, thats what we are here for

mark


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