# Sage faults



## Dylan

So with a couple of faulty Sage threads going up recently I am sure there are a few beginning to wonder if the predictions of many are coming true and this machine is suffering a higher that usual return/repair rate.

Obviously those buying from Lakeland have a fair amount of peace of mind, but it would be interesting to know how many faults have been experienced so far, and try and gauge how that relates to the total ownership.


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## jeebsy

Steamy guage is a pretty minor problem in the grand scheme of things but that poster got a new machine out it.

Plenty of other machine owners have had to unstick valves, do minor repairs etc themselves


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## Dylan

jeebsy said:


> Steamy guage is a pretty minor problem in the grand scheme of things but that poster got a new machine out it.
> 
> Plenty of other machine owners have had to unstick valves, do minor repairs etc themselves


These all seem like relatively young machines to be experiencing even minor faults. After all most other established european makes seem very rarely to have even the smallest fault, especially when they are new.


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## jeebsy

Dylan said:


> These all seem like relatively young machines to be experiencing even minor faults. After all most other established european makes seem very rarely to have even the smallest fault, especially when they are new.


I don't have any evidence to cite but reckon that's a bit blinkered. There's been a few threads with people phoning BB (for example) and being told to run too remedy small faults themselves rather than send the machine back.


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## 7877

Being honest I think this a little unfair. As you know, the nature of things on Internet forums is that people are looking for help for problems and even opportunity to complain when they are not heard otherwise. I am sure there are many more quiet owners out there who haven't had an issue.

At the end of the day these things come of a production line like most others, and there will be a fail rate target for them I'm sure. Having said that I've not seen anything yet where a machine one of these has totally had it. My pressure gauge condensing up actually didn't effect the machine in operation at all and I'm sure if Sage had come across it before they would have had the part handy to fix it rather than the replacement machine I ended up with. I would be very surprised if quality is much different to any other brand and service certainly seems to balance this out anyway.....speaking of which I still need to book my white glove service!


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## Dylan

Thats true Sibling, and actually I do seem to remember there being a problem with the first few Londiniums I think... they are still a relatively new company to the scene.


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## jeebsy

El carajillo's quickmill was it?


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## CoffeeChris

When white glove service collected my machine (steam boiler had failed) he was very surprised, certainly the first issue regarding that part he had heard of. Can't fault the service though. just hope the pulsing issue can be fixed .

Sent from my HTC One S using Tapatalk


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## DavecUK

Dylan said:


> So with a couple of faulty Sage threads going up recently I am sure there are a few beginning to wonder if the predictions of many are coming true and this machine is suffering a higher that usual return/repair rate.
> 
> Obviously those buying from Lakeland have a fair amount of peace of mind, but it would be interesting to know how many faults have been experienced so far, and try and gauge how that relates to the total ownership.


It seems to be a very small number of minor faults to be fair. If you consider how many machines they must be selling and usually people tend to post about problems with machines and not post when there is nothing to post about. Take the Mazzer grinders thread on Coffeegeeek and the Baratza vario thread as an example.....oh sorry, there isn't a Mazzer grinders thread, just a Vario one with over 1000 entries!

*The sage should be no less reliable for it's component parts than say a Gaggia or Silvia, it has more complexity than either so arguably a little more to potentially go wrong.* It's a machine that seems to perform well, built to a price point. I strongly suspect the machine will not have the Longevity of the more expensive machines, but even there, some Sages will no doubt go on for many many years. I think the issue will come with some of the cleverer, less repairable parts of the machine e..g non replaceable heating elements, sealed boilers, difficult to get parts etc.., which may make the unit uneconomical to repair.

Lakeland may eventually change it's policy with these machines if the support from Breville themselves starts to fail, but while Breville are willing to support the retailers, they may well be able to keep their lifetime guarantee....*which is a fantastic guarantee*. in fact a USA company was doing a similar lifetime guarantee on it's products (Bed Bath and Beyond), but the Breville Dual Boiler at some point a year or so ago, changed to a 1 year warranty...I got this information at the time from Home Barista.

Ultimately the decision to buy any particular machine is often more emotional than logical.....e.g. It's not a machine I would want, but for lots of people, it might be their ideal machine


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## doolallysquiff

So, today I did a detergent back flush and then dropped the shower screen and the Plastic dispersion block to wipe clean. I noticed the black coating on the group head was pitted and is staring to chip away. Anyone else found the same happening to their Sage DB?


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## Beanosaurus

doolallysquiff said:


> So, today I did a detergent back flush and then dropped the shower screen and the Plastic dispersion block to wipe clean. I noticed the black coating on the group head was pitted and is staring to chip away. Anyone else found the same happening to their Sage DB?
> 
> View attachment 12166


Nope, how long you had it and how often do you backflush?

I understand Caffetto isn't as harsh as something like Cafiza but I don't backflush all that often. Maybe once a month or so.


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## doolallysquiff

Backflush with water everyday. Detergent backflush also around once a month. Had it since October. This was the first time I'd actually dropped the shower screen. I've spoken to Sage who have passed the matter over to their engineers.



Beanosaurus said:


> Nope, how long you had it and how often do you backflush?
> 
> I understand Caffetto isn't as harsh as something like Cafiza but I don't backflush all that often. Maybe once a month or so.


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## Beanosaurus

doolallysquiff said:


> Backflush with water everyday. Detergent backflush also around once a month. Had it since October. This was the first time I'd actually dropped the shower screen. I've spoken to Sage who have passed the matter over to their engineers.


Aw boo, doesn't sound like there's anything untoward that could be the cause of this.

Do you whip off the shower plate holder when you backflush as well?


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## doolallysquiff

No, I've never taken the shower plate holder or screen off up until the other day. When I did take it down it was very clean. At first I thought the pitting was coffee but after wiping with a j cloth it didn't come off. I took a picture and thats when I discovered the black coating was starting to chip away. I wonder if maybe it was like that from new. Apart from that, I've had no issues with the machine at all.


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## Beanosaurus

doolallysquiff said:


> No, I've never taken the shower plate holder or screen off up until the other day. When I did take it down it was very clean. At first I thought the pitting was coffee but after wiping with a j cloth it didn't come off. I took a picture and thats when I discovered the black coating was starting to chip away. I wonder if maybe it was like that from new. Apart from that, I've had no issues with the machine at all.


Could have been like that from new, I'd keep an eye on it and see if it gets any worse, hopefully it won't and is a result of the manufacturing process.


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## urbanbumpkin

I've noticed a similar thing on mine (but to a lesser degree) which is used and about 10 months old but has had low usage.


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## doolallysquiff

Not really too sure what to make of it. I was informed the purpose of the Teflon coating was to stop corrosion and discolouration of the Aluminium group head.


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