I have a La Pavoni Espresso Plus that still makes pretty good espresso. We've had it for 8 years or so and used it daily at home to make two cups per day (more or less). Lately the pump has become significantly louder than usual. I haven't done anything to address this. It's been a while since I've decalcified, but I'm generally lazy about that... I'm suspecting that the pump itself is beginning to fail. It has that very loud, almost grinding sound, that I've heard in other compressor-type devices before they fail. If it helps, the pump was loud for a few days, then suddenly went back to being normal sounding for a week or so, and now it's been loud for at least a week. Any hints on how to diagnose this?

If it ran dry for even a short time and ran air through it, the noise level may be a result. Also, it may take some time to flood the pump after a dry run, so it may persist somewhat. On the other hand, on our old Saeco, before the small Ulka pump died, we had intermittent normal sound levels mixed with very quiet operation...

Interesting idea. I didn't consider air as a possible problem. Today it's not loud. Yesterday it was. I'll pay more attention to the possibility that we're simply letting it run dry (though I don't think we have, it's also possible that the intake hose wasn't all the way down in the H20 reservoir.)

Thanks!