# Lack of pressure in old Gaggia Classic?



## Notbefore11 (Mar 11, 2016)

Hi,

I hope somebody can help me.

I have just inherited an old gaggia classic that has been sitting in a friend's cupboard for possibly 10 years.

I have thoroughly cleaned the pipework, filters, shower screen, its holder and the gasket. I have also backflushed and this worked in the

manner described here and elsewhere.

I do not yet have a grinder and to get me started I asked a local coffee retailer to espresso grind 125g of coffee. The person I dealt

with seemed to understand what was required and suggested that for a starting point the grinder (sorry I did not get the name)

was set on 2.5/10 - one being very fine for 'turkish' coffee.

The grind looked, to my admittedly inexperienced eye, approximately what a grind in a coffee shop uses. I realise that eventually

I have to calibrate grind and machine but this was for starters.

When I tried to make a double espresso shot (16g coffee tamped with reasonable force) only a few drops of coffee came through. The

same happened when I repeated the experiment.

By way of another experiment I then tried to use our existing cafetiere grind - this kind of worked: the 'shot' came through in 10-15

secs (I know this is too fast) and did not taste disgusting although not great either.

I am hoping that this description will allow an experienced classic user to say: Oh yes, its the...

Many thanks in advance.

John


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## Missy (Mar 9, 2016)

It's the...

Need to "dial in" which I think you've realised. Tamp the pre ground stuff less hard. Weigh it in and weigh it out. Let us know.


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## Missy (Mar 9, 2016)

Presuming of course a reasonable amount of water is coming through the group. What did the "shot" in ten seconds weigh?


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## owain (Dec 26, 2015)

It just Sounds like the first grind was too fine, and the second grind too coarse, aim for a grind level between the two


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## MrShades (Jul 29, 2009)

If you can't adjust the grind - then you can make a slight difference to the speed of pour by tamping softer... or to make a bigger change, drop the dose from 16g to (say) 14g and see what happens. If it's still just drips then tamp less or dose less. If it pours too fast then tamp more or dose slightly more.


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## Notbefore11 (Mar 11, 2016)

Many thanks for your replies.

I have been using 15-16g of ground coffee in my experiments. When I use the cafetiere ground I get about 60-70ml of coffee in about 10 seconds - it is not anything to write home about. But, this is a bit irrelevant here - just a bit of a play

Unfortunately using gentle tamping of the supposed espresso ground makes no difference - only a few drops come through.

I realise that I may need a slightly coarser espresso grind but given that it was far from the finest the machine could produce I was wondering if there was something else wrong with the gaggia - could it, for example, be lacking pressure - would that explain the symptom?

Thanks again

John


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