# Barista Pro - Water not flowing properly after descale



## vicente015 (May 1, 2020)

I have a Sage Barista Pro that is 4 months old.

The machine said it needed a Flush and Descale on Tuesday, which I ran last night. I have run a Flush before, which has always been fine, but this was the first Descale. I used an Oust sachet for the Descale and a Cafiza tablet for the Flush and followed the Sage instructions.

This morning, the machine is spluttering and it is taking much longer than usual to run 1 or 2 shots. The water just isn't coming out properly. Even without coffee, it is taking 14 seconds for a single shot and 17 seconds for a double - I can't remember how long it used to take but I think it was around 8 seconds for a single and 11 for a double - I have not changed the factory settings on shot time.

I have tried running another Descale but it has made no difference - I thought maybe the first Descale had dislodged some limescale which had caused a blockage but I have no idea.

Does anyone have any idea how I can fix this?


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## TomHughes (Dec 16, 2019)

vicente015 said:


> I have a Sage Barista Pro that is 4 months old.
> 
> The machine said it needed a Flush and Descale on Tuesday, which I ran last night. I have run a Flush before, which has always been fine, but this was the first Descale. I used an Oust sachet for the Descale and a Cafiza tablet for the Flush and followed the Sage instructions.
> 
> ...


 What water were you putting into it before your descale?


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## vicente015 (May 1, 2020)

I've been using regular tap water - and it's a hard water area.


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## TomHughes (Dec 16, 2019)

vicente015 said:


> I've been using regular tap water - and it's a hard water area.


 What's the hardness level? 
Were you filtering or anything before putting it in the machine?


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## vicente015 (May 1, 2020)

It's hard water - I haven't been filtering it.


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## TomHughes (Dec 16, 2019)

vicente015 said:


> It's hard water - I haven't been filtering it.


 Hardness is a scale, from moderately hard to so hard the kettle is scaled up in weeks.

If you had been putting very hard water through your machine for 4 months without descaling it then you could potentially have blocked/damaged it already from the scale.
Sages are very prone to scale damage as the thermojet system has very small diameter pipes, and they are a pain to descale as water doesn't sit long in them.

As Sage stipulate you must use relatively soft water AND descale regularly.


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

You can have high water hardness but if your alkalinity is extremely low it won't scale.

Having said that your alkalinity is unlikely to be extremely low.

Descale again. You've probably disloged scale and it's stuck somewhere. You might have to dismantle the machine and soak parts in descaler.


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## vicente015 (May 1, 2020)

Thanks, I've checked and my water is actually "moderately soft" - 93mg/l. The PH is 7.62.

I didn't have any problems with the machine until I ran the Descale last night.

I will try another descale.


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## Rob1 (Apr 9, 2015)

You can't calculate alkalinity from PH but you can probably assume it's high. Scale will almost certainly be the problem. I suppose there might be potential for a leak too.


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