# Barista Express - Pressure gauge not reaching minimum



## CristianS (Nov 23, 2021)

Hello everyone, this my first post here.

I have bought a cheap second-hand Barista Express for a friend (about 120£, local currency converted to £). Everything works well, it was in a very good condition and had all the accesories, even the user manual.

I made a video to help him get started, being his first espresso machine. You can see here, that the pressure gauge is not at the minimum before starting the shot. It does behave as expected, but with an offset. I tried to take apart the tube that's going top the gauge, but everything looks fine.

Does anyone have any solution for this issue? Should the pressure gauge be replaced?


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## M_H_S (Jun 6, 2018)

CristianS said:


> Hello everyone, this my first post here.
> 
> I have bought a cheap second-hand Barista Express for a friend (about 120£, local currency converted to £). Everything works well, it was in a very good condition and had all the accesories, even the user manual.
> 
> ...


 I'd say given the flow and the how much the dial travels, it's likely just faulty guage that is miscaliberated. The main indicator of the issue will be the flow rate and taste of the shot itself. You could test this if you got hold of a new guage - although on the BE they are not easy to access and replace!


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## CristianS (Nov 23, 2021)

Thank you for your reply. I guess we can try to get a hold of a new gauge. I will see if my friend will be willing to spend a bit for that.

The shots does turn out ok. But you can see in the video, that the puck degrades in the second half of the extraction. Seems like some wild channeling there, but thats not related to the gauge issue.

I will report back if we can change the gauge. I already saw that it's not easy to get to it.


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## M_H_S (Jun 6, 2018)

CristianS said:


> Thank you for your reply. I guess we can try to get a hold of a new gauge. I will see if my friend will be willing to spend a bit for that.
> 
> The shots does turn out ok. But you can see in the video, that the puck degrades in the second half of the extraction. Seems like some wild channeling there, but thats not related to the gauge issue.
> 
> I will report back if we can change the gauge. I already saw that it's not easy to get to it.


 If you're using the BE in-built grinder, it is horrendously bad and unpredictable especially depending on the bean - so channelling likely due to that. Try it with a mid or top end grinder!


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## 24774 (Mar 8, 2020)

CristianS said:


> I will report back if we can change the gauge. I already saw that it's not easy to get to it.


 It's a good tool when learning but after that it's an irrelevance. I never look at mine.

I suppose if the pressure ever dropped it would be a visual aid alongside the fact the pour isn't right, but if you can't fix it or it's very expensive I wouldn't worry too much about it.


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## Koli (Nov 21, 2020)

CristianS said:


> Does anyone have any solution for this issue? Should the pressure gauge be replaced?


 Where are you based? I just purchased the front panel for my BE. I might have a gauge for sale as I only needed a button...


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## CristianS (Nov 23, 2021)

I am based in Romania. That sounds good, we could do it.


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