# Sage Bambino Plus - cleaning lights won't stop flashing



## BellaBee

Hi There

I've had my machine for a couple of months. It's been through the cleaning cycle twice.

Following the second clean, the 1-cup and 2-cup lights (signalling a clean is required) still flash when the machine is switched on..

I have cleaned it again, but the lights are still flashing.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.


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## authuser

BellaBee said:


> the lights are still flashing.


 This happened to me also when trying to perform my very first cleaning process. Well, that particular "still flashing" issue was due to the fact that I simply did not let the machine complete the entire cycle on its own. Started all over again and after 5 long minutes of restarts and pauses, my Bambi was working again, as expected.

What's your experience on the matter? and how frequently do you descale your machine, please?


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## BellaBee

I know what you mean about letting it run through the cycle.

The problem in this case though was that there was a fault with the machine. When I phoned Sage about it, they asked for the number on the bottom of the machine, and told me that it was a known fault. I swapped it for a new one, and haven't had any problems since.


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## Slurps

Is water supposed to come out?

Ran the cleaning cycle with a full tank and 2L bowl underneath expecting a deluge. But nothing came out and the machine sounded like it was going to explode.

Cleared the blinking lights though.


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## BellaBee

No the water isn't meant to come out. Oddly, on my first machine it did because there was a tiny hole in the rubber thing you put in the cup. I have read about this in other threads. But, no, that high ppressure is needed to clean the head.


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## ajohn

They have dropped the hole on some models. If some one want one a pin should do it.

John

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## AndyJH

Glad someone has raised this question as I can't get my girlfriends Bambino to clear the flashing lights either. In fact it doesn't seem like the machine is doing a cleaning cycle at all. I start by pressing and holing both 1 & 2 cup buttons until they remain lit, then if I press either the 1 or 2 cup it just seems to run an extraction cycle. The manual says the light to flash, I assume both 1 & 2 cup should flash?


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## joey24dirt

AndyJH said:


> Glad someone has raised this question as I can't get my girlfriends Bambino to clear the flashing lights either. In fact it doesn't seem like the machine is doing a cleaning cycle at all. I start by pressing and holing both 1 & 2 cup buttons until they remain lit, then if I press either the 1 or 2 cup it just seems to run an extraction cycle. The manual says the light to flash, I assume both 1 & 2 cup should flash?


Isn't this how you set the extraction time?

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## AndyJH

joey24dirt said:


> Isn't this how you set the extraction time?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


 Similar, pressing both buttons for 2 seconds allows for programming, 5 seconds for cleaning cycle..... is how I've read the instructions. Having said that my machine seems to of re-programmed the buttons!


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## AndyJH

With a bit more testing, I can't see how to get my Bambino into the cleaning cycle?? Pressing the 1 & 2 cup buttons I can see start the programming mode for volume but continuing to hold the buttons doesn't seem to change anything? Am I doing something wrong? I think it is a case of holding the buttons for 5 seconds? When I do this I don't see anything change and when I then press either 1 or 2 cup, it just starts to flow in order to program the button flow.....


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## BellaBee

Can I check with you that when you try to enter the cleaning cycle, the 1 and 2 cups are flashing intermittently? Then you press them both for 5 seconds, which stops the intermittent flashing. To start the cleaning cycle, you press either button. The flashing resumes until the cleaning cycle is complete, when all three lights are on and constant.


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## AndyJH

Right, ok, I know what's wrong. Got so used to seeing the lights flashing I hadn't really payed enough attention and noticed that it's the descale warning and not the normal cleaning anymore! Off to do a descale now rather than another clean, that might help.....


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## Mickfootie

I have been pressing the steam button and it works as normal everytime i turn it on.


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## Jackyang

To perform the cleaning cycle, you have to press 1cup buttons and 2 cups buttons, WHILE the lights alternately ARE FLASHING. Then it shall start the cleaning cycle. DO NOT start from the machine is off.


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## katharine

Ah, this last post may be the answer, thanks Jackyang I have today, (and seems like others also find this) the cleaning cycle description of what should happen is not detailed enough. I have now probably reset my extraction volumes three times! My Bambino machine is 3 months old and this is first time have had the alternate flashing lights, which seems fair enough; have a rubber disk with no hole, and I think I finally reached the cleaning cycle (longer, louder pump noise and no water escaping) but again the tablet was not dissolved and little water seemed to come through.

So I will see what happens next time we want coffee - this is our first venture with a posh machine so still learning!


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## facboy

@katharine i assume you've done this, but for reference when doing the cleaning cycle make sure you let it continue until it stops on its own. it will pause intermittently for several seconds (10+?) during the cleaning cycle with the lights still flashing, it means it hasn't finished. the lights will return to normal when it has completed the cycle. otherwise on the next power-on you'll be greeted with the flashing lights again as it will think the cleaning cycle hasn't been completed.


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## Hannah 123

hi
On my sage bambino plus the 1CUP, Steam button and Froth button are all lit but my 2CUP and temperature aren't. What does this mean ?

Thank you


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## AlexR

And now my machine (about 2 years old) started bugging me with the not going away group head cleaning program issue.

I've done this program many times. Never had this issue. 
This time around it came up right after a full descaling program completed. I thought, well ok let's get done with it and then I'll finally enjoy my morning coffee. I did the group head cleaning. Enjoyed my coffee. Turned machine off and went on with the day. Next time when I turned machine on it requested the same cleaning again, well ok your wish is my command, I need my coffee flowing smooth and fresh, so I obediently put it in another cleaning cycle. It did it deeds and all three lights turned on in ready mode. I decided to check if that was enough, turned machine off and on, and to my frustration the two dreadful 1 cup and 2 cup lights were winking me the cleaning cycle again.

I tried another few cycles and no luck. It seems just stuck in the loop and can't see the end of the program prompting me to run over and over again. And lead me to seek for advice from the internet.

Any suggestions before I resort to contacting support?

Thank you


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## Callum_Pg

AlexR, Can you do a Reset on the machine?

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## AlexR

Callum_Pg said:


> AlexR, Can you do a Reset on the machine?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


 I was thinking about it, but not sure if I ever seen that in the manual. I'll check that later


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## Callum_Pg

AlexR said:


> I was thinking about it, but not sure if I ever seen that in the manual. I'll check that later


AlexR, follow this video as below. I would recommend you to subscribe the channel from ukcoffeeblog on YouTube, there are lots of good tips. After the reset, power off and on the machine again. I managed to get out from this nightmare after several attempts. Seems like there is a known software bug in this machine.

Please remember that once the machine is reset, all the previous settings will be gone especially the manual program setting. Hope this helps.






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## AlexR

Thanks Callum.

I tried that, no luck unfortunately. I finally receive descaling blinking. Going to do it over the weekend and see if that resets the warning.

And a side note, I think the whole group head program is borked. I cant enter it anymore. It just performs normal long none-programmed shot. I let it ran a couple times like that, with no results. I hope this didnt mess up with the compressor and its internals. Is that possible?


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## Callum_Pg

AlexR said:


> Thanks Callum.
> I tried that, no luck unfortunately. I finally receive descaling blinking. Going to do it over the weekend and see if that resets the warning.
> And a side note, I think the whole group head program is borked. I cant enter it anymore. It just performs normal long none-programmed shot. I let it ran a couple times like that, with no results. I hope this didnt mess up with the compressor and its internals. Is that possible?


AlexR, perhaps you may want to reset a couple of times to see whether it escapes out from the software bug loop.

Unfortunately Breville/Sage doesn't have any software upgrade just like iPhone to improve the problem stability. They should consider to improve their design to incorporate an USB cable or Bluetooth to connect the CPU for future upgrading purposes.


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## Unitynow8

thank you all for your instructions and advise
I now have fixed the 2 cup to 2 fl ounces
and properly run the cleaning cycle.

thank you *Jackyang*
To perform the cleaning cycle, you have to press 1cup buttons and 2 cups buttons, WHILE the lights alternately ARE FLASHING. Then it shall start the cleaning cycle. DO NOT start from the machine is off.


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## ajohn

While looking for something else I came across a retailers comment on these machines. It makes sense on all thermo machines really. Descale every 200 to 250 drinks. He then mentioned that indication had been built in now in a way suggesting there is no need to count now. That will assume the filter has been changed when it should be and that tap water has been shown to be ok via the test strip they supply. I assume there is a comment in the manual about that.

The problem with scale is that it doesn't stop a machine from working but if a descale doesn't remove all it will build up and eventually cause grief one way or another.


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## Bonniebonbon

I had this problem after doing the back flush - 1 cup and 2 cup lights still flashing. Reading advice on another forum I found the answer. Dont start the back flush/cleaning cycle from OFF. After fitting the blank disc into the 1 cup basket, fit the portafilter. Turn it on first, see the 1 and 2 cupflashing lights then press then both together for 5 seconds. They should go solid then press the 1 cup button. Then, most important, WAIT, which is what I didnt do. I thought it was over after the first flush - its takes around 5 minutes to repeat the cycle a few times and then it stops and the buttons show solid lights. I tested it by turning the machine off and on and, hey presto!, they had stopped flashing.


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## Teenytinytony

Having reached the same problem recently and sought this online stream advice I can offer a crumb of help. Assuming you have performed the cleaning/descale cycle correctly, I reset both one cup and two cup volumes. However I was still being prompted to clean with the two flashing lights so I switched the machine off at the mains and kept my finger on a combination the display buttons while switching back on at the mains. After a couple of tries I saw that when switching off and keeping the 2 cup button pressed whilst switching back on it flashed 3 times and went into 'ready' mode. This seems to have done the trick in a similar way to a 'soft reset' on an iphone. Good luck!!


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## Rune A

Hi, our Bambino is doing the same thing, it constantly and randomly wants to clean, and blinks and blinks. We have tried letting it run to the end several times, but a few days later, buttons start blinking again.

We are so tired of this machine, we are not in control anymore. The machine decides if we can get coffee or not, just hate it. My wife still makes coffee using it, but often the espressos are made using the cleaning program, it's awful. We have decided to sell it (or throw it out) and buy a manual quality machine where we can start the cleaning program when we want to, not the oppesite way around.


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## facboy

Rune A said:


> Hi, our Bambino is doing the same thing, it constantly and randomly wants to clean, and blinks and blinks. We have tried letting it run to the end several times, but a few days later, buttons start blinking again.
> 
> We are so tired of this machine, we are not in control anymore. The machine decides if we can get coffee or not, just hate it. My wife still makes coffee using it, but often the espressos are made using the cleaning program, it's awful. We have decided to sell it (or throw it out) and buy a manual quality machine where we can start the cleaning program when we want to, not the oppesite way around.


 did you talk to Sage CS?


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## dsp10

Yes, Jackyang nailed it. Thank you. What I didn't expect was for the cleaning cycle to be so ... intermittent. But after pushing the two buttons at the same time, the water starting coming out into a container. Word to the wise, however, I did not have a 2 litre container that would fit so transferred back and forth between two. This worked okay at first, but toward the end, you have very little time, like maybe five seconds before the water starts coming out again! But once done, everything is reset and ready to go.


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## FidgetSL

Teenytinytony said:


> Having reached the same problem recently and sought this online stream advice I can offer a crumb of help. Assuming you have performed the cleaning/descale cycle correctly, I reset both one cup and two cup volumes. However I was still being prompted to clean with the two flashing lights so I switched the machine off at the mains and kept my finger on a combination the display buttons while switching back on at the mains. After a couple of tries I saw that when switching off and keeping the 2 cup button pressed whilst switching back on it flashed 3 times and went into 'ready' mode. This seems to have done the trick in a similar way to a 'soft reset' on an iphone. Good luck!!


You are the GOD, the saviour ......you have saved my head from exploding and my brain from melting down. I have tried every other solution I could and only this one helped and IT STOPPED asking me for cleaning. Thank you!


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