Ellegaard
New member
Dear fellow espresso drinkers,
As an espresso-drinking family, we’ve had several machines over the years, the latest one being a standard Sage home espresso machine. It’s been working perfectly for about a couple of years, I believe, although I must admit I haven’t changed the replaceable water filter as often as recommended.
Some time ago, however, it suddenly stopped working, from one day to another. It turned on, all buttons were flashing, and I could hear the pump starting to work, but nothing came out of the portafilter - as if it was blocked. Very frustrating; it had worked perfectly until just then.
It took a few attempts, and I eventually managed to pull a cup of espresso after some time. However, it went very, very slow, the steamer was also very slow, and it seemed like it had lost most of its power.
After descaling it a few times, a little limescale came out, resulting in a slightly better flow, but not nearly as it used to. It produces practically no crema, and when the machine stops automatically, it has only filled half a cup of espresso, where I would usually watch it and manually turn it off before the cup overflows. The steaming also seems to have lost its juice completely - it can take minutes to steam the milk now. Quite sad.
Is there anything I can do? Could it be that it's clogged internally with limescale still, after numerous attempts of descaling it? Is there anything I can do to fix it? I'm reluctant to throwing it out - it's after all only a few years old, and in spite of my less-than-adequate maintenance in terms of not replacing this quite expensive water filter (I believe they recommend doing it after every three months), I don't think it should be broken already. The water here in the city is quite hard, but it hasn't been a major issue with our earlier espresso machines.
Cheers,
Christian
As an espresso-drinking family, we’ve had several machines over the years, the latest one being a standard Sage home espresso machine. It’s been working perfectly for about a couple of years, I believe, although I must admit I haven’t changed the replaceable water filter as often as recommended.
Some time ago, however, it suddenly stopped working, from one day to another. It turned on, all buttons were flashing, and I could hear the pump starting to work, but nothing came out of the portafilter - as if it was blocked. Very frustrating; it had worked perfectly until just then.
It took a few attempts, and I eventually managed to pull a cup of espresso after some time. However, it went very, very slow, the steamer was also very slow, and it seemed like it had lost most of its power.
After descaling it a few times, a little limescale came out, resulting in a slightly better flow, but not nearly as it used to. It produces practically no crema, and when the machine stops automatically, it has only filled half a cup of espresso, where I would usually watch it and manually turn it off before the cup overflows. The steaming also seems to have lost its juice completely - it can take minutes to steam the milk now. Quite sad.
Is there anything I can do? Could it be that it's clogged internally with limescale still, after numerous attempts of descaling it? Is there anything I can do to fix it? I'm reluctant to throwing it out - it's after all only a few years old, and in spite of my less-than-adequate maintenance in terms of not replacing this quite expensive water filter (I believe they recommend doing it after every three months), I don't think it should be broken already. The water here in the city is quite hard, but it hasn't been a major issue with our earlier espresso machines.
Cheers,
Christian
