# Gaggia Baby Twin water/steam knob problem



## JFitz (May 31, 2011)

Hello. I have the Gaggia Baby Twin less than 1 yr old. The black knob that controls the hot water/steam now rotates too far open, and although the valve can be closed, with minimal force I can rotate it past the point where it should stop/close.

Also, when the knob is at a certain position, the pump can be "triggered" but pumps for only 5-10 seconds, then stops. The knob has actually felt slightly "loose" or lax from the first time we used it out of the box. By that I mean the closed position never felt very tight.

This is our third Gaggia Baby Twin in so we are not strangers to it.

I've pulled the black knob off, the plastic is fine and not stripped or rounded.

Is there an easy fix - I hate to send it out for repair?

Thanks.


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## andyt (Jun 7, 2011)

I had a similar sounding problem repeatedly and found it was a small grub screw vibrating loose; the one that fixes the spindle of the black steam knob to the actuator controls beneath. I cured this by using some medium strength (blue) Loctite threadlock on the screw. Disconnect from the power supply. Take off the black knob and you'll find a screw underneath. Undo this and the two screws at the top of the hot plate/top cover behind the water tank. Gently lift off the hotplate just enough to see the plug and socket with two wires that provide power to it. Disconnect this and you can then completely remove the hot plate/top cover. You should now be able to see the base of the spindle and the small hole with the grub screw in it. See if it has come loose - maybe re-fit the black knob and try opening it to see if it moves the controls. You'll need a small Allen key to remove/tighten the grub screw. Hope that solves it for you.


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