well, I use bottle water only on my Alexia so I've only descaled it a few times over the past 3 years. 3 days ago after i descaled, I noticed that my pressure gauge was not working correctly, the pressure would only raise to about 6 bars instead of the normal 9.5. Well today I turned on the Alexia and the pressure gauge is not working at all!

I don't understand how the gauge operates so I can't figure out how this problem is related to my descaling?

I will say that other than that the machine seems to be working normal.

EDIT: Now that the machine has been on for an hour, the pressure gauge has crept up to almost 3 bars of pressure, but it doesn't fluctuate when I pull a shot, its staying at about 3 bars...

Does anybody have any ideas of what may be happening here?

Thanks!
-Rob

Is the pressure gauge of which you speak the brew pressure gauge? When you say it creeps up to 3bar, is that during the extraction, or on its own?

When you extract, is the pressure normal (does it extract well at the normal grind?)? Is the temperature correct (or seem to be) in the cup?

What my questions are pointing towards is trying to identify if there is actually a problem with the machine's operation, or is it just that the gauges are having a problem. It is possible that some scale got into the small copper tubing that needs the pressure gauges.. maybe.

Thanks for your time Randy -

Yes, it is the Brew pressure gauge. it does not increase due to extraction now, it just recently slowly raises on its own now.

yes, the pressure and temp do seem fine.

But i should have said this earlier, the reason why i thought that my machine needed to be descaled was because the temperature of the espresso coming out was suddenly getting waaay too hot, even though the PID was still reading the correct temperature. this happened about 2 months ago, and when i descaled then, the temp went back to normal, so i was guessing that too much scale was building up in the boiler and buffering the pid sensor too much...

Rob,

Sounds like you had a small piece of scale flake off and lodge itself in the line that runs to your brew pressure gauge. The only way to dislodge it is to undo the piping and clean it at the fittings. Hopefully that's where the blockage is. If it's in the tubing that runs to the gauge...i dunno how you'll get it out.

Wow, I do hope to avoid having to remove parts to get out any scale. I may try to do one more descaling exercise this weekend to see if it can dissolve any of the dislodged flakes of scale...

What it won't dissolve is the dislodged pieces of nickel from the mushroom which have likely found their way onto the exterior surface of the gicleur filter screen. So, . . . try this as an inspection procedure: Checking an E61 Espresso Machine for Scale

I use Ro water and tap water all tested for hardness...my alexia interestingly had the same issue.

the gauge stopped working after i descaled the boiler...go figure.

I had a new gauge shipped and will install it soon...

Hope it works..if not..then i imagine the capillary tube has a chunk of it stuck inside.

ugh.

If the tube is not soldered to the gauge it would be easy to check. Just take the capillary line off the machine/gauge and blow in it. No air, plugged tube. A lot cheaper than a gauge. That is like getting a new engine for you car to diagnose if the battery was dead. If the tube is plugged with a bit of scale, just soak the tube in descale solution to dissolve it.

Thanks..i'll try that..

I've never removed a "cap" tube before. I know it's simple to remove from the back

of the gauge but what about removal of the cap tube from the boiler itself?

I haven't really looked at what kind of connection system is used there..

Don't know if it's soldered in or not.

It is just a screw on fitting. Just unscrew it on the boiler side and the gauge. Obviously the machine needs to be cold when you do that.