# Oldish Delonghi ESAM 4200 Grounds Not Falling into Waste Tray Anymore



## Skezza

Hello,

Before anyone has a dig, yup, I know these machines have a horrific reputation on here, but might as well try before listing it on the bay of e.

So, my machine has been getting more and more unreliable lately. For a long time, it would make very watery coffee, for the first one, then every coffee after that was fine. Turns out blockages were appearing in the shoot that seems to connect the hopper to the grinder???? I'm not really sure. I don't really know what I'm talking about haha







Good clean with a toothbrush (specifically where the blockages were) fixed that.

Anyway, I made two espressos the other day. Both came out fine, taste wise.... but the little 'cakes' (as I call them) which are usually dropped into the waste bin below aren't happening. Rather, it just sprays the grounds into the plastic slide in tray and all over the rest of the machine. Not great really. It's been doing this for a while too. I've gone out and bought a battery powered hoover because it's such a pain to deal with.

Any help would be grand. I've thought about getting it 'serviced', but it's £50 an hour and for a machine as old as mine, I would suggest it might be worth me going out and buying one of these Aldi bean to cup machines for about £70?


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## mremanxx

Are you using oily beans? My b2c at work only does something similar if I have used oily beans for a while.


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## Skezza

So, to be honest, I'm not an expert when it comes to coffee, so I probably wouldn't know the difference between oily and non oily.

I decided to make an espresso this morning and surprisingly, the little cake fell into the waste bucket (apparently, they're lovingly referred to as coffee poos







), although it was very crumbly and fell in two pieces. Usually they fall in one? I noticed another in there which has fallen in two as well, with half of it on the infuser (you can see the image below). However there's also a huge amount of just grinds which are everywhere.

Maybe this is something to do with my grinder settings? I've attached a photo below, but the number appears to be roughly 3.25? The settings are 1,3,5,7 and I figured the slashes indicate digits and decimals in between. By the way, yes that is a sticker which says "DO NOT ADJUST BEAN GRINDER". This was actually stuck on after a routine service by a Delonghi approved repair guy.

Here are two photos though, perhaps they will shed light on the issue?

Grinder settings (+ the size of beans)










The mess left behind.....


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## mremanxx

Wow something seriously off there. Don't know what as my b2c is a different make. I presume you have removed and cleaned the brew head.

Oily beans are usually dark roasted ones, those don't look oily.

The grinds look dry not soupy so would suspect a blockage in the puck chute.

The do not adjust grinder is probably a warning not to adjust until the grinder is actually grinding beans, this is not uncommon.


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## Skezza

Thanks for your reply. This is where terminology causes me to draw blank. By brewhead, I'm guessing you mean the thing with the piston and red clips to pull it in and out, which has a disk on top ? (I've been calling that the infuser). I think that's also called the group head? Yeah, I have literally no idea what I'm talking about lol. Anyway, so, yes, I cleaned it using the method suggested online (which was effectively rinsing it with water, then extending it and rinsing it some more). However, I noticed a couple of things while I did that. The piston is very stiff now and there's a distinct lack of grease on the piston itself. I've ordered some food grease and decided to have instant for a few days (







).

In the mean time, I decided to descale it using some white vinegar + water and then run some fresh water through it using the hot water function. Oh dear..... all is not well it seems.

After one press of the hot water button, I noticed that the water was dirty and smells very very bitter (in fact, I've noticed this bitter unpleasantness in the last few weeks in my coffee but figured it was the beans and just a bad batch). Not white vinegar bitter, old over-brewed coffee bitter. At first I thought it was just some residual crap in the lines.....

6 full mugs later and its still dirty and still just as bitter. I'm not running any coffee into the grinder, so this is purely left over gunk. Any suggestions? I don't feel as though using the hot water function is an effective way of cleaning this out. It's using loads of water, probably loads of energy and isn't seemingly cleaning it.

A search for delonghi esam4200 dirty water threw up this thread from here http://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?3301-Delonghi-ESAM-4200-spilling-coffe-inside-machine which perhaps deals with both my issues..... The problem is the terminology is flakey for me. I can't for the life of me work out what the filter is.... or where it is on my machine? There's a water filter, a bit like a module at the back of the machine but I was told this doesn't need changing and never has coffee running through it. So I don't know where else it could be coming. Maybe it's the infuser/brew head/group head/filter??? Gahh. Anyway, HELP


















6 Mugs later:


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## Skezza

Found this video. I can safely say I've never done this once.... time to have a go me thinks.


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## mremanxx

Get some descaler cleaning tablets like Puly etc. Looks like the machine hasnt been cleaned in awhile. You usually get a message on b2c machine warning you that cleaning descaling is required.


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## eusty

IIRC there is a light which tells you to descale, but it's the worth taking the grouphead out to clean as well (yes it's the bit with the clips).

I'm trying to think how it clears the puck after it's finished, but I had mine two machine ago.


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## Skezza

Ok.... so wow. I took out the infuser/diffuser/group head/brewhead/filter (yep, not a clue which is the correct term, but for what it's worth I'll continue to refer it from now on as group head) and decided to disassemble it. As I mentioned before, mine was very hard to push, solid almost.... which can apparently cause the transmission at the back of the unit to fail. Hope I haven't done any damage.

What I found was pretty grim it's fair to say. The two red O-Rings were completely caked in coffee grounds and the smell wasn't clever. I gave it a good clean, but the coffee looks kind of burnt onto the O-Rings so I'm not sure if I'll really be able to clean them. Two new O-Rings are only a fiver so I'm already getting them on order.

Anyway, I reassembled the machine and the infuser runs better now and the water is cleaner. Still some bits in the coffee but it's a lot less. The smell has also gone pretty much.

I think another clean + some new O-Rings and we might be there.


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## Skezza

So, an update:

After cleaning and lubing the hell out of the 'group head', I then thoroughly cleaned it. So, I ran water through the machine until there was very little dirt in the water. I then put some of that oust cheap crap cleaner solution through. I'm pretty sure it's just white vinegar sold at a higher price.

Anyway, long story short. I ran the rinse cycle with the oust in, hopefully to clean out the grime and dirty coffee oils in the system. I then ran the descaler programme. Afterwards, I flushed the system with a whole tank of water.

Result? Two coffees, two perfectly shaped moist coffee poos, and two coffees that haven't tasted as good since the machine was new. So this story has a happy ending.

Not bad for a machine that's made probably over 100,000 coffees in its life time (I failed to mention that part







)

But that's another story.


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## johnbasssic

Jura E8 Coffee Machine

The ultimate in automatic coffee machinesSPECIFICATIONS & CAPACITIES

• Weight: 22lbs.

• 64oz Water Tank w/ Patented Filtration

• Powerful 18 Bar Pump

• L.E.D. Display

• 8oz. Bean Hopper & Pre-Ground Coffee Port

• Steel Conical Burr Grinder

• Height Adjustable Dual Spout

• Adjustable Doser 5 - 15 grams

• Made in Switzerland

DIMENSIONS

W 11" x H 13.6" x L 17.1"

WARRANTY

1 Year Limited Warranty

I want to buy it. where it?


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## Skezza

johnbasssic said:


> Jura E8 Coffee Machine
> 
> The ultimate in automatic coffee machinesSPECIFICATIONS & CAPACITIES
> 
> • Weight: 22lbs.
> 
> • 64oz Water Tank w/ Patented Filtration
> 
> • Powerful 18 Bar Pump
> 
> • L.E.D. Display
> 
> • 8oz. Bean Hopper & Pre-Ground Coffee Port
> 
> • Steel Conical Burr Grinder
> 
> • Height Adjustable Dual Spout
> 
> • Adjustable Doser 5 - 15 grams
> 
> • Made in Switzerland
> 
> DIMENSIONS
> 
> W 11" x H 13.6" x L 17.1"
> 
> WARRANTY
> 
> 1 Year Limited Warranty
> 
> I want to buy it. where it?


I think you meant to open your own thread?

Anyway:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Jura+E8+Coffee+Machine


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## johnbasssic

Skezza said:


> I think you meant to open your own thread?
> 
> Anyway:
> 
> http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Jura+E8+Coffee+Machine


Reputable xD


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## DavecUK

johnbasssic said:


> Jura E8 Coffee Machine
> 
> The ultimate in automatic coffee machinesSPECIFICATIONS & CAPACITIES
> 
> • Weight: 22lbs.
> 
> • 64oz Water Tank w/ Patented Filtration
> 
> • Powerful 18 Bar Pump
> 
> • L.E.D. Display
> 
> • 8oz. Bean Hopper & Pre-Ground Coffee Port
> 
> • Steel Conical Burr Grinder
> 
> • Height Adjustable Dual Spout
> 
> • Adjustable Doser 5 - 15 grams
> 
> • Made in Switzerland
> 
> DIMENSIONS
> 
> W 11" x H 13.6" x L 17.1"
> 
> WARRANTY
> 
> 1 Year Limited Warranty
> 
> I want to buy it. where it?


My advice, don't buy it....I tested one extensively for a retailer to see if they wanted to stock it. It's not the ultimate, in fact it's really not very good at all....quite a few things I didn't like. There are much better BTC machines for less than half the price.


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## johnbasssic

DavecUK said:


> My advice, don't buy it....I tested one extensively for a retailer to see if they wanted to stock it. It's not the ultimate, in fact it's really not very good at all....quite a few things I didn't like. There are much better BTC machines for less than half the price.


thankss. I would rethink

I would rethink


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## DavecUK

Skezza said:


> Not bad for a machine that's made probably over 100,000 coffees in its life time (I failed to mention that part
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> )
> 
> But that's another story.


Wow, how old is it and was it used in a business?


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## Skezza

DavecUK said:


> Wow, how old is it and was it used in a business?


Just realised that I never actually replied to this message.

The coffee machine was indeed used in a business (totally against the manufacturers recommendations). At it's prime, the office had upwards of 150, 200 people. Most people have one cup a day, but there were nutters like me having 4-7, easy. It was the original machine purchased by the business (before then was ground or instant only). This was around 2007-2008 when the office count was slightly smaller. I got my hands on it in 2014, according to this thread https://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?18883-Delonghi-Esam4200-Squeaking-and-Leaking-(

In reality, my 100,000 seems a huge under-estimate, I suspect when I consider the maths again..... it's more like 200,000 or maybe 300,000!!!!!

Ever since I did that strip down, clean, serviced the brewing module/unit, cleaned it thoroughly, it has ran brilliantly. Still does to this day and I still use it regularly. My plan is to eventually retire it for the VeroCafe LattePro which is just a better machine. Seems sad to get rid of my original beauty though, so I might move it into a flat work have offered to lend me, as nobody from abroad is set to move in for a while.

I did run some diluted orange oil cleaning agent through last year, followed by gallons of fresh water just to keep it running nice and fresh. I have to say, considering all the bad reviews DeLonghi get, this beast has been unwilling to die on me


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## Guest

Can you describe the 2 orinhs location? I am having the same issue with dry grounds all over. Especially the first cup of the day


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## Michaelsl

Yeah the delonghi machines have a extremely bad rep, but they are absolutely one of the best in my opinon, obviously this is a very old thread but they're easily fixable by anyone I. E the steam wand is £20 from the common e aution site 10 min job with a YouTube guide, and as by you said that a good clean fixes things for the grounds going everywhere on the e bay you can get a complete oring set and food grade silicone for around £10 repleces to orings in the infuser and boiler seal at the top again YouTube guide, its child's play will make the machine work like new again.


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## DavecUK

I wouldn't worry he was only trolling and hasn't been back in 9 months.


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