# Bought old gaggia classic what now?



## coffeefalafel (Apr 26, 2015)

Bought a Gaggia Classic second hand, it's one of the Italian built models with stock setup.

I have a feeling the chap I bought it from wasn't as fanatical about his coffee as many of the people on this forum so I don't think he spent much time worrying about maintaining it.

I haven't actually received it yet but I'm expecting to get a machine that has never been descaled and possibly mistreated.

So what should I do first?

Should I open it up and go looking for trouble? Is there something specific that could need replacing/fixing on a machine of this age?

I would like to get the best possible from this machine and keep it for a good while so when it arrives if its not a total lemon I also plan on modding it.

Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!


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## Kman10 (Sep 3, 2014)

Go to the guide in gaggia forum


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## coffeefalafel (Apr 26, 2015)

Yeh I have been reading through it.

Most of it is about making an actual coffee, im not there yet unfortunately.

I plan to dismantle the group head? and examine the gasket first. I'm expecting it to need cleaning/changing if it hasn't been touched since new.

Not sure what other parts I should investigate after that.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

When you get hold of it a full service will be in order.

Replace the gasket regardless, you will likely damage it when removing it anyway. They are not expensive and need replacing every year or two.

Take the shower screen off the group head and soak it in some pulycaff, give the rest of the group a good scrub. Get some Dezcal descaler or puly baby or something along those lines and give it a good descale. If it has never been done before then give do it several times over. Your best guide for how much scale will be in it is to look up the water hardness in the area it came from, if its a hard water area there could be a lot of scale in there. Unless you feel capable taking the boiler apart to be able to look inside however you will have to make do with routine descaling. After descaling taste the water from the machine, you should be able to tell when its 'clean'.

What grinder have you got/ are you getting?


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## coffeefalafel (Apr 26, 2015)

Thanks for the reply.

The machine arrived by courier today and it wasn't pretty. Dirt and dust all over with lots of coffee grease and other unknown substances. I plugged it in, the lights came on, it heated up and even pumped water. So it works, sort of.

I had a look inside, I worried there might be rust but for the most part it was clean. The metal panel holding the boiler/group-head bolts has little "dots" of rust starting to develop not sure what I can do to stop further corrosion in there, I'd have to remove all the internals to do anything.

Then I managed to slice my finger open when trying to clean the top piece of the casing, those stainless steel edges are quite sharp.

After applying electrical tape to my finger I dismantled the group head, it all came apart fairly easily. I used the screw method to get a hold of the gasket and pull it out.

The shower screen is very blocked up and it looks like someone has scrubbed it with a scouring pad, it's also not flat, is that right? Considering just adding this to the list of parts I need to replace.

Next the shower screen holder, lots of coffee grease and more of a concern there were small loose particles cream in colour. It almost looked like crushed up egg shell. Is this scale? Or is my machine disintegrating from the inside? I think I will put some photos up if people care to comment.

Group gasket out, it was dirty again and there was an obvious indent where the porta filter fits, not surprisingly have to get a new one.

That's as far as I got.

It came from an area with "slightly hard" water. suppose that's not great but not the worst. I'm not against completely tearing it down and cleaning the boiler. How would I descale it by hand without damaging the boiler?

The consensus on here seems to be the MC2 grinder at £140ish. I could possibly spend a little more, can you get anything for under £200 better than an MC2? Is it even worth it for someone who's never used a real grinder before?


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## marcuswar (Aug 19, 2013)

coffeefalafel said:


> Next the shower screen holder, lots of coffee grease and more of a concern there were small loose particles cream in colour. It almost looked like crushed up egg shell. Is this scale?


Yes, that sounds like scale. You'll probably find more behind the dispersion plate which is the block behind the shower screen and is held on with two allen bolts.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Sounds like a bit of a project, if I had a machine in that state I would be tempted to dismantle the entire thing to be sure I had descaled it properly. if the boiler is badly scaled then a regular descaling routine will barely touch the sides....


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## coffeefalafel (Apr 26, 2015)

Dismantled it completely this morning. Biggest problem by far was getting the steam wand nut out of the copper connector it was extremely tight and I was very wary about applying too much pressure to the piping. In the end i decided to hacksaw the steam wand and pull the whole thing out still assembled, so I could get a real grip on the joint. Second problem was removing the steam valve it was pretty stuck in there, twisted back and fourth a lot and eventually it released, I looked into the boiler and could see a lovely ring of scale.

Took apart the group and boiler to see inside the beast, there wasn't any pitting but there was heavy scale on everything inside, not sure how I'm going to clean it yet. I tried with some toothbrushes but that hasn't got me very far. I photographed everything while I was dismantling it to help me put it back together, uploaded the images if anyone would like to see.



http://imgur.com/a


I'm happy I decided to open it up, I was able to give it a really good clean all around and it looks much better now. Once I get parts and cleaning solution the really interesting bit will be putting it all back together correctly.


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## kadeshuk (Nov 22, 2014)

Great photograph series. I , to my surprise, really enjoyed stripping down my filthy classic when I bought it, though living in the the lap of lovely soft Scottish water I did not have the calc problem, and then again when I had it powder coated. I didn't check my own photo series and had to sweat when one of my wiring photos did not clearly show which colour of wire went to the top of the power socket. It gives you a good appreciation of what does what and enables you to identify any future problems you might have. Best £80 I ever spent - both fun and coffee at the end of it. well done.


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## wilse (Nov 14, 2013)

The jury is out on whether vinegar is ok to use on an Aluminium boiler, it is however, fine for stainless steel.

Thanks for the images, it's a good reference for us, gaggia owners.

As for what next, once you've cleaned it... get the OVP adjustment done... there is a gauge floating around on the forum, get your name down on the list.

Then get a grinder... I used a hario skerton for a year, it's a decent grinder, and can be bought for £25. If you are feeling a bit more flush, get a decent burr grinder... second hand I cost £75 - 000's

Use freshly roasted beans, supermarket beans are horrible when you compare!

I was where you are 6 months ago!


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## kadeshuk (Nov 22, 2014)

coffeefalafel said:


> Thanks for the reply.
> 
> The machine arrived by courier today and it wasn't pretty. Dirt and dust all over with lots of coffee grease and other unknown substances. I plugged it in, the lights came on, it heated up and even pumped water. So it works, sort of.
> 
> ...


Definitely worth whatever you can invest in a grinder. You should get a decent 2nd hand one for your budget - I got a Mazzer mini for less. This forum is an ace place to get one which has almost certainly been well looked after. Get your own gauge from ebay- they are only £15 when all's said and done , and by the time you add on postage to the lend cycle that's only about a tenner.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Well done stripping it all down, scale actually could have been worse.

In this wiki page it says

"Acetic acid is mildly corrosive to metals including iron, magnesium, and zinc, forming hydrogen gas and salts called acetates:

Because aluminium forms a passivating acid-resistant film of aluminium oxide, aluminium tanks are used to transport acetic acid."

So I would guess vinegar is fairly safe. I could be reading it wrong, and the boiler could be some sort of alloy that this doesn't apply to, that said you are hardly going to melt through the whole boiler.


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## froggystyle (Oct 30, 2013)

coffeefalafel said:


> Bought a Gaggia Classic second hand, it's one of the Italian built models with stock setup.
> 
> I have a feeling the chap I bought it from wasn't as fanatical about his coffee as many of the people on this forum so I don't think he spent much time worrying about maintaining it.
> 
> ...


I would suggest you start saving and reading up on your upgrade, it will come.... You cant resist!


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## coffeefalafel (Apr 26, 2015)

Spent most of my afternoon trying to descale all the metal bits.

How do i know when to stop?

Sounds silly but after removing the really heavy yellow scale which was peeling off the inner walls of the boiler i am having trouble deciding what is aluminium and what is scale. Im left with lots of patchy white areas which my citric acid seems to be struggling with. Theres lots of scary photos online and even more warnings about over doing it with descaler so im probably being overly cautious.


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## coffeefalafel (Apr 26, 2015)

Proper update now with pictures, sitting here waiting for the postman to arrive with my replacement washers and group gasket.

Yesterday I began descaling and cleaning the internals by hand. Equipment included several toothbrushes, a needle, some wooden dowels and the most useful tool a plaque scraper(like a dentist might use).

Started without any real descaler, so I chopped up some lemons, my expectations were low but the lemon juice with some scrubbing removed a lot of scale from the group body.

The lemons went very quickly, I had to go out and look for something better. Found a pack of citric acid granules in Wilko, it said suitable for descaling kettles and washing machines.

After separating all the plastic and rubber from the metal components I plugged enough of the holes using blue tack so the acid mix could sit and do its work in the pipes and boiler. This worked so long as I didn't knock things over and spill acid everywhere. Pro tip don't do this on a wobbly table that shakes when people walk through the room.

I was timid with the acid in the boiler I let it sit for 15-20 minutes at a time and then washed it out and scrubbed away. A couple cycles of this and the boiler looked much better as did the steam valve. You can hear the acid sizzling away at first when there's heavy scale, it becomes less and less obvious the more scale you remove.

I dismantled the solenoid, it was full of black coffee gunge, a scrub with the tooth brush, fairy liquid and some poking with a needle got it looking much better. I used more blue tack to soak the interior in citric acid to try and get scale out of the very small pipes.

It is difficult to open the solenoid; best method is to screw it down to some wood and then try with an adjustable spanner. The metal is soft so be careful and use a good fitting tool or you will round the nut. Found that tip online somewhere.



http://imgur.com/O7lwh


That's about as far as I've got, today is going to be about the porta filter and finishing the boiler which still has white chalky patches. Still need advice on how much more of the white I should try and remove don't want to overdo it.


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## wilse (Nov 14, 2013)

I think I'd leave the chalky deposits!

Think about what it was like before you cleaned it, any improvement, is an improvement.

Thanks again for this batch of pics, you've spurned me on to strip down my classic now.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Citric acid isn't very good for aluminium. The white powder is the Citric causing the alu to oxidise and break down, but it will be nothing serious unless you leave it there for a long time.



http://bit.ly/1ELK3CS said:


> "The results show that aluminium (purity range 99.25-99.993%), Al-Mn (1.17% Mn) and Al-Mg-Mn (1.78% Mg, 0.45% Mn) alloys resist a dilute solution of citric acid at room temperature whether agitated or not. The rate of corrosion was approximately doubled per 10° C. rise in temperature; the life of equipment would be very short at boiling temperature. "


The white deposits are nothing to really worry about, you can remove them with metal polish like Autosol but obviously not in areas that should be food safe.

Basically, dont worry about the oxidation.


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## coffeefalafel (Apr 26, 2015)

Cheers for that. I decided to leave it be for the most part. Putting everything back together now. Hope I my wiring diagram and notes are sufficient.


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## coffeefalafel (Apr 26, 2015)

One more post with pictures. I've updated the albums with all the photos I took, it's not a bad record of dismantling, cleaning and then reassembly.



http://imgur.com/DfsOb


Getting the spout off the porta filter was the last great struggle. It was so incredibly stuck, I soaked it in boiling water with some fairy liquid hoping it would loosen up a bit. No joy. Last resort was to stick a big screw driver through the spout and twist. This worked with a lot of force and it did leave a minor indentation on the inside if the spout.

The badge had to come off once I released it could be removed without breaking anything. Bend back three metal prongs and its loose, crazy amount of grime hiding behind that thing, it cleaned up very well.

  

One final soak for all the brass in citric acid, minus anything plastic or rubber. This was much simpler than faffing around with blu tack but kind of wasteful, I had to buy more of the stuff to finish the job.

  

Reassembly began with the boiler and group, opv and solenoid then the steam valve. Everything back in the body, it all went smoothly until I realised I had forgot the plastic piece that goes on the steam valve. This has to be attached before you bolt the boiler to the bodywork.

  

Getting all the bits to fit back into the holes was a little awkward, especially the steam valve, I had to release it from the boiler slightly and twist it to centre the arm in the hole so the steam knob would fit correctly.

  

Replacing the wiring was quite fiddly. Fortunately my photos and diagrams were just good enough to remind me where things went. It took a long time and I managed to cut another finger, but each wire eventually returned to its rightful home.

  

Plugged it in, lights appeared and it heated up as well. Huzzah!

  

Now I just have to learn how to use it.


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## Pompeyexile (Dec 2, 2013)

Can I say what a great job! All the step by step pictures really are useful to any Classic owners who like me would like to but feel a bit reticent at tackling such a job.

Now the real fun (and frustration) begins, but it'll be worth it.


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## GCGlasgow (Jul 27, 2014)

Well done on tackling this and also great pics, would love to have a go at something like this, maybe if a cheap enough classic becomes available I might give it a go...with help from your pics.


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## jlarkin (Apr 26, 2015)

@Glenn and @Mrboots2u (sorry I don't know so many other moderators yet) the pictures and information in this guide feel like they're a very useful resource. Is their anyway to move them and make the title of that a bit more obvious in terms of it being a photo library of pulling apart a Classic? So people could find it in the future, sorry if already exists?


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