Actually, I should write this post 2 years earlier, unfortunately those days were a bit messy, so today is the time to share this experience with you, and hopefully it's not too late :)Well, you may already know that we have an espresso machine, that was bought 5 years ago. For people using it daily, sometimes twice or up to xxx times a day meaning, it is quite heavy loaded.
Basically, daily cleaning and occasional back flush should be good enough, plus a yearly descaling process will be perfect, too.
One day, it stopped working, totally - no more coffee comes out from the blew head = clog as assumed ?! Even though I went through all basic cleaning and checking procedure, it refused to work again. You may think sending back to the manufacturer will be the only solution......
......the magic happens to Gaggia Classic because it is a mechanical machine, i.e. no chips or complicated computerize parts and therefore, we can try to repair ourselves. But, how to start??? This is what I've found from the Internet
reedsmeals.blogspot.hk
A detail step by step guide to teach you how to open the machine, what to check and what to clean. So, I tried by ready all tools + the print out guide and began with the "operation".It took me 4 hours to complete the task and make sure no clogging inside the solenoid (detail please refer to the above link as the picture are much more clear), then re-assembling everything together, started the de-scaler process, that took another 2 hours......
I have to say the "Overhaul of Gaggia Classic Espresso Machine" blog post is gorgeous, but, still not working. It's a frustrated before a clue that suddenly woke me up : the group gasket was deteriorated, Yes! it was as hard as a metal after four years working. So... a replacement makes everything alive !If there is not a good blog post to guide me, I can never using deduction method to reduce the affecting issues; and if this is not a true CLASSIC,
I can never try to repair it on my own.
Thank you Christopher Reed and Gaggia !
