# Sage Barista Express - pressure problem?



## jimmyuk81 (May 5, 2021)

Hi all - first post after learning a lot from the Forums over the past months! Would be very grateful for any advice on a problem with my machine.

Bought my first espresso machine last autumn, a Sage Barista Express, and it's given good service up until now. Unfortunately in the last couple of days it seems to have developed an issue where it's not getting up to pressure and producing very weak insipid shots.

I'm using the same beans & machine settings that were producing perfectly acceptable shots a few days ago. Here's the full details of what happens:

- Grind 20g of beans into portafilter, using single wall double basket

- Before fixing in the portafilter, hit the single shot button to flush the group head

- Fix in the portafilter and hit the double shot button

- Extraction takes approximately 10s before anything comes out of the portafilter

- Pressure gauge *shows a very low increase in pressure - well below the "Espresso" range marked**

*- *As the extraction continues the pressure gauge seems to stutter or wobble back & forth

- The extraction continues for around 45s in total, with the shot thin and weak with only a slight crema

- Once the extraction has finished, total yield is about 65g

* This behaviour of the pressure gauge has definitely changed - when it was producing OK shots it was rising to the high end of the marked "espresso" range and once it reached a maximum pressure it would hold steady. The wobbling about of the needle is new.

I don't know if it's related or not, but separately the hot water outlet is no longer producing a smooth stream of hot water - instead it sputters and spurts out hot water. The steam wand still seems to be working fine.

Just to confirm I've run the cleaning cycle on schedule when indicated and descaled the machine - we have medium soft water so scale is not too bad.

I've looked up the usual espresso troubleshooting tips, but honestly I don't think any amount of tweaking the grind size etc. is going to help here - something is more fundamentally wrong, isn't it? ☹

I'm absolutely no espresso machine expert, but wondering whether a seal or gasket has failed. It's still under warranty so planning to give Sage a call, but is there anything at all I could try myself first?

Thanks for any advice!


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

@jimmyuk81 It sounds like the machine is not building sufficient pressure for some reason. it's not very old, so it sounds like a component may have failed. I would contact the retailer and use your warranty. Welcome to the forum.


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

I'd agree with Dave, it's what warrantees are for. You could try doing 2 descales on the trot and see if that does anything useful / improves things. Also crush up 2 tablets and do a back flush after he descale. Run one with no tablet afterwards to make sure residues have gone.

Given what you have said about hot water it *may* be scale related.


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## jimmyuk81 (May 5, 2021)

Thanks both for your replies & suggestions! I have now spoken to Sage support who got me to run a couple of tests including a backflush cycle and pulling a shot with the double wall basket instead of the single. Interestingly with the backflush cycle the machine did go up to maximum pressure, as it has done in previous cleaning cycles.

So clearly the machine *can *still hold pressure... It's just not doing it when pulling a shot, for some reason. 🤔

After those tests they've escalated it for an engineer - I wasn't clear on if I'll have to send it back or someone with come out/collect. We'll see!


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

Covid may be messing up engineer visits - not sure.


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## Fozzman (12 mo ago)

Hi Jimmy

my machine is four years old and has developed exactly the same issues you described. What was the outcome of your engineering consultation please? Sage support recommended the same at £140 for call-out.

Thanks

Anthony


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