# Gaggia New Baby - problems...



## bigstick (Sep 6, 2014)

Hi everyone, my first post on the forum.

I bought a Gaggia New Baby on eBay for £40, the listing didn't indicate that it didn't work, just that it might need cleaning/descaling.

I did that (used the Gaggia Descaler), and turned it on and flushed it. I got water through the wand, but not through the group head.

Google search, found your forum, read some posts, watched some videos.

Cleaned the Shower head - full of crud. Cleaned the Group head nozzle.

Dismantled the machine, took the solenoid valve apart and cleaned it with some copper wire. There was crap in it.

Started up again, hooray, water through the group head, I made an espresso (not exactly a great espresso - it was my first) and spent a long time working out how to texture milk, and failing. Then I worked out that the steam wand was actually pumping a lot of water into the milk, so back to YouTube to see what I ought to be doing!

After working out the controls, I then got actual steam through the wand - no water at all. Unfortunately, now I have no water through the group head, and nothing through the steam wand. Grrr - it wasn't supposed to be that hard.

The solenoid valve seems to be working, so the problem is elsewhere.

I suspect that I may have a clogged pump. Anyone have any suggestions?


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

Send it back. It doesn't work? The seller should have indicated it didn't work. eBay will back you.


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## bigstick (Sep 6, 2014)

If I knew it wasn't something related to cleaning, and that the problems weren't down to a dirty machine - I would.

I'm not sure though.

After my last post, I opened it up again and cleaned some of the hoses to the pump. I ran it without the Group head, and I had water through it. So I reassembled it (again) and now it seems to work. Maybe it was accumulated muck. I'm not sure about the pressure and flow and temperature though. Something doesn't seem quite right.

I now get a decent flow of water through the group head, I can make espresso (haven't cracked crema yet), and I can 'froth' milk.

Micro foam seems like a black art right now. I seem to get burnt milk with a bit of froth with the Panarello steam head. Back to Google and Youtube I think...

I'm not sure how much is dirty machine and how much my own incompetence


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## Obnic (Jan 14, 2014)

bigstick said:


> If I knew it wasn't something related to cleaning...


Love that dogged, ditch stand, methodical mentality. Exactly the borderline OCD you need for this espresso nonsense. I predict you'll be drinking good coffee and posting pictures of a refurbed modified Classic imminently.


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## bigstick (Sep 6, 2014)

I hope so









I'm the sort of person that sends my coffee back if it's not right!

I have actually looked at the links on modding my machine...


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## Eyedee (Sep 13, 2010)

A simple modification at no cost would be to take the outer sleeve off the panarello and leave yourself with a simple one hole nozzle. You then control the amount of air (and obviously foam) that is induced into the milk.

Ian


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## bigstick (Sep 6, 2014)

That's interesting - I didn't think of that. I have looked at the Rancilio Silvia wand mod. There's a great video on YouTube showing how to do it, and it's straightforward if you are the sort of person who is comfortable with taking things apart.

I'm going to persist with the Pannarello wand first. There's a good video on YouTube by Whole Latte Love that shows how to use it. It may well be that the Silvia is better, but until I can use the Pannarello (with and without the sleeve) first and make microfoam, I'm not going to screw around. I need a base level, and I haven't got there yet.

I know at this stage that most if not all of the issues are my incompetence. There's a lot to learn, it's very much like learning to drive.

There's the amount of coffee to put in the portafilter, tamping (I'm not even going to get into the grinding stuff right now), flushing, cleaning, temperatures, wand depth, amount of milk, size of jug, milk temperature, height of nozzle, duration of frothing and heating, and angle of jug to get a roll going.

To go back to the driving analogy, I'm bunny-hopping along the drive right now!

It's much easier if someone shows you how to do this stuff. Written instructions are fine but videos are best. More YouTube I think, unless you have a post with resources for this stuff, I must check...


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## donkeykong (Sep 5, 2014)

I also bought a used gaggia the same, already swopped the steamer nozzle for a proper one. made a big difference.

descaled and cleaned it just waiting on a blind cup so i can backflush it.


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## Eyedee (Sep 13, 2010)

donkeykong said:


> I also bought a used gaggia the same, already swopped the steamer nozzle for a proper one. made a big difference.
> 
> descaled and cleaned it just waiting on a blind cup so i can backflush it.


Cut a piece of soft rubber to fit in the base of the basket, it will seal it good enough to backflush

Ian


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## donkeykong (Sep 5, 2014)

good idea, i have one being delivered tomorrow along with a grinder )


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## Charliej (Feb 25, 2012)

If you are reticent about taking things off or apart to modify your machine then you could always buy one of these, which simply replaces the pannarello and gives you a standard one hole tip.


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## bigstick (Sep 6, 2014)

That's a great link - thanks!

Bit pricey, but you pay for convenience I guess!


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## Guest (Sep 11, 2014)

bigstick said:


> That's a great link - thanks!
> 
> Bit pricey, but you pay for convenience I guess!


Yes it is.....

I heard you could mod Gaggia Classics to have Silvia V1/2 wands.....

Hmmm.... I've wanted to mod a Baby to get some Silvia treatment....

But i sold the baby for a Silvia long time ago....

Now its just Silvia and Domobar Junior HX....


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## bigstick (Sep 6, 2014)

Quick update - this morning I spent a little time watching the





 showing how to use the Pannarello wand for microfoam.

I was able to duplicate this reasonably well so that I can happily say that I actually made microfoam so that this morning's coffee was better than I can get from many commercial coffee shops









This really surprised me. Okay, for my second cup of coffee it wasn't awesome, because I've still go a lot to learn, but it does show how low the bar is set by most commercial coffee shops.

I still need to work on crema though. Does anyone have any tips for this? I suspect it may be partly due to the coffee (pre-ground Lavazza Qualita Oro) and partly due to something I'm doing - or not doing.

I'm looking at a bottomless portafilter, which might help. I know that grinding my own coffee from the beans with a conical burr grinder should produce better results, but that means I need a grinder. I don't want to spend more than £30 on this (my wife will go spare







so if anyone has any recommendations, I would appreciate the advice.


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