Hello all,

I own a Gaggia Classic (and a Baratza Vario) that I service regularly -- see bottom of post for use/service details. The Classic is now having a dreaded "no flow" from the grouphead problem. The steam wand, however, works great, and creates plenty of hot water and steam.

Problem: Several weeks ago -- about 2 weeks after a recent descale -- the machine began to have restricted flow from the group, characterized by very little water coming from the group and the pump laboring after a second or two. After about a week, all flow stopped from the group entirely. The steam/hot water wand has always been fine. A ton of scouring the web and forums, etc, led me to believe that the solenoid valve could be clogged, so I followed these instructions for disassembling the solenoid. When the solenoid released from the machine after loosening the first allen screw holding it to the boiler, a bunch of water shot everywhere, including on to my glasses. The spots it left on my glasses were whitish and nearly opaque (cue laugh track), which made me suspect scale. However, no scale or backup was present in the solenoid at all. I still took it apart, soaked the parts in Urnex Dezcal, reassembled it, and put the whole thing back together. I also took apart the shower screen and dispersion plate, and found almost no scale at all. The machine seemed good as new, until exactly 7 days later when it clogged right back up again -- exact same behavior.

I have not attempted any repair on it right now. Some further searching around here and the Gaggia users' forum have led me to two new ideas: first, that the solenoid coil is blown (the brass part of the solenoid itself appeared to be in excellent condition when I disassembled it a week ago), or second, that there is something wrong with the OPV valve that is constricting flow. Is one/both of these a reasonable conclusion, or should I go to the trouble of taking apart the boiler assembly to hunt for a blockage?

Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

Use/service details: The machine was purchased new from Whole Latte Love in Oct 2012. I make one 18g double shot gibraltar/cap per day (occasionally two drinks). As mentioned, I service the machine regularly. I descale every 4 to 6 weeks. I have relatively soft water where I live, and I fill the machine from a Brita pitcher only (I change the Brita filter after each descaling). I do also backflush, although not all that often.

If you turn it on and the pump starts laboring, does cracking open the steam valve let a high pressure stream of water out of the wand and let the pump run normally? If so, the OPV is probably not the culprit, and the problem lies further down the line.

From the description, it sounds like you have a lot of buildup inside the boiler (that chalky stuff is calcium carbonate). There's a tube inside the boiler that runs to the 3-way solenoid. It's possible that buildup clogged the tube and/or the solenoid. These boilers are fairly easily disassembled and make cleaning a snap. Just take plenty of pictures so you know where the wires go back if you do take it apart.

Update: Scott_G per your suggestion I disassembled the entire thing -- boiler, steam assembly, OPV, solenoid, the works. There was no appreciable scale to be found. There were a few trace whitish scale deposits on the inside of the interior walls of the boiler -- which is to say, basically nothing. I took a high power flashlight and peered inside every opening and tube and found no blockages at all. Nonetheless, I soaked everything in a Dezcal bath, put everything back together, and, again, nothing. No change.

I had even disassembled the Ukla vibratory pump and found a small piece of debris (likely a coffee ground shard) inside the pump assembly, but even removing that didn't help.

I investigated the OPV issue, my curiosity piqued, and after adjusting it a few times, nothing changed. Then, after, say, the third or fourth adjustment, I began getting normal flow. I was even able to adjust the pressure per the instructions that are all over the web for tweaking the Gaggia Classic's default pressure to 9 bar (apparently it ships at more like 12 bar). I made a gibraltar, and yea, verily, it was good.

Still, though it's functioning now, I'm unsettled by all of this no-flow business. Given that there was almost no scale inside the machine at all, it makes me think that the OPV, solenoid, both, and/or some other part is defective.

Any thoughts? Anyone had similar experiences?

Hey Applky,

I'm glad you got it working! If adjusting the OPV several times fixed it, the OPV could have been stuck open from debris, causing water would take the path of least resistance back to the tank (I don't have one of these machines at the moment, so I can't double-check OPV internals). On my main machine, I run a filter between the tank and pump

Here's a link to someone's blog whose OPV wouldn't open due to scale.
http://www.ruizs.org/archives/46