# Gaggia Titanium seems to struggle at times



## gomommago (Dec 28, 2011)

Hi Everyone....new to the forum, but I have scoured as many posts as I can and can't find an exact solution to my problem.

We are fairly new owners of a Gaggia Titanium and in general love the machine...I couldn't convince hubby to go the manual route, so super-automatic it is!

The problem that has developed recently is that the Titanium has developed a bit of a groan, as if it is straining. (Video here:





 )

Here are some observations:

* this usually only happens with the titanium-ground coffee, not coffee put through the doser

* I am using the same beans now that I was when the machine was working perfectly a month ago

* I assumed that the strain noise was because the grind was too fine, or the dose too high, so I moved to progressively coarser grind and lower doses. That did not solve the problem (Question 1 is whether that could have actually CONTRIBUTED to the problem). The externally ground coffee is fairly fine.

* the pucks with machine-ground coffee were very wet, while not so much with doser coffee

* The problem is mitigated somewhat after running quite a few shots in succession

* Today I tried a different tack and set the grinder to a finer setting (12/18 instead of 16/18) and a higher dose. Things seemed to improve a bit.

FYI, I have:

-- run 2 descale cycles in the last two months (as prompted by the machine)

-- run a rinsing cycle once a week

-- cleaned and calibrated the grinder

-- rinsed the brew group every few days.

I can't tell you how many "test" shots I have run to try to figure this out, and I am at nearly wits end. I am now waiting for the machine to cool so I can see if my grind/dose settings have really solved the problem or not.

Suggestions??

Many Thanks,

mb


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## gomommago (Dec 28, 2011)

When the Gaggia groans, the volume of coffee it puts out is much lower (50-75% of normal) than when it doesn't.


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## howie (Jul 23, 2009)

Hi.

Just noticed your post-my Titanium is set at 6/18 and doser adjustment is set at mid point. I looked at your youtube video and it appears that your machines flow rate is at least half that of mine. Could you try selecting a pre-ground coffee but without actually putting any preground into the hopper. Does this improve the flow rate? If it does I'd suggest removing the 2 stainless steel filter discs ( 1 in the top; 1 in the bottom) from the brew unit and soaking them in a scale removers to ensure they are scale free.

Also worth mentioning perhaps is that in my experience the 'groaning' you refer to might be reduced/ removed bythoroughly cleaning and then re-greasing all sliding parts in the brew unit with food-grade grease.

Hope this helps and good luck


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