Many thanks to all those who previously advised me on how to revive my neglected Gaggia Carezza. I have since undertaken some cleaning efforts, including running the Cleancaf descaler through the machine, soaking the various metal pieces in an Urnex Cafiza solution, brushing the grouphead, and doing lots of scrubbing of the metal pieces (baskets and shower screen excluded from scrubbing though). I seem to have succeeded in getting all of the coffee grounds out of the machine so that the water now runs clean. The baskets and shower screen seem to be in good shape (although one stubborn hole remains clogged in the shower screen). But there still seems to be a lot of gunk stuck in the group shower plate and associated screws (all of which experienced both the descaling and the soak) as well as a little bit in the group body. The portafilter also has some apparent discoloration which may or may not be problematic.

Here are some photos with notes:

1. First, the portafilter:




Seems pretty clean to me, but as you can see parts of the metal have turned a yellowish, brassy color. I don't know whether that is some residue on top of the metal, or some sign that the original metal has eroded. No amount of scrubbing or soaking seems to remove it though (if anything it seems to be spreading). Is this a problem?

2. As seen from the next photo, there is a fair amount of white junk in the shower plate, as well as the screws that attach it to the group body, and that attach the shower screen to it.



3. The actual group body seems a lot cleaner, but there is also some white stuff circling the inner edge where the shower plate attaches:



I'm out of photos, but I also unscrewed the bolt from the shower plate, along with the spring and plastic ball. The bolt also has some white stuff in its threads just like the other screws, as (less so it seems) does the threads of the plastic ball. (the latter I haven't really tried to clean because I'm hesitant to remove the plastic from the spring, and I'm not sure whether I should be soaking the plastic in chemicals.

So . . . I would love someone's diagnosis of how bad this all looks in the great scheme of things. Is it important to clean these parts further? If so, it is possible? Or do I need to start looking at either replacing all of these parts or just buying a new machine.

Many thanks in advance!
Sasha

The brassy color on the portafilter is... brass! That's what the portafilter is made out of. Scrubby and heavy use probably just scraped the chrome coating off the brass, leaving the yellow brass exposed. No big deal, in fact some people even deliberately scour the chrome off of the brass inside their portafilters.

The other white stuff on the shower head and bolts looks like some limescale buildup. You might be able to get rid of it by soaking the parts in a mild citric acid or vinegar solution, but I doubt it will cause any real problems. I'd be tempted to just reassemble the whole thing and trying making some espresso. If the machine works fine, just go with it and don't worry. If something is still clogged or not working properly, then you can try a deeper cleaning.

Thanks so much! Is limescale the same thing as scale? And isn't scale supposed to be a bad thing (hence the need for regular descaling?).

Definitely pcyched to start making some espresso - I've just been hesitating because if it sucks I'd like to have the confidence that it's my technique rather than the equipment that's the culprit! In any event, looks like I may be at that point now.

Hi Sasha,

Nice job with taking on this project many folks wouldn't want to mess with it. Looking at the photos things don't look too bad to me at all. After a soaking and a scrubbing with a stiff brush and then a clean water rinse I would dry the components and reassemble the machine. They really don't look too bad but you could decide to replace them if you really wanted but I'd do a full test myself first. Nice job!

Yeah limescale is scale. Really what you have there isn't too bad. I remember when I used to take my Gaggia Coffee Deluxe apart many of the parts looked discolored too. Don't get too excited about it as long as the machine heats up and the pump runs well without any obstruction you should be able to make espresso.

The biggest part of making espresso is on the handle end of the portafilter (you). Good luck!

Thanks again Tim - you have been a real help to me!

I just tried my first espresso using fresh beans (Cafe Grumpy's Hearbreaker blend) ground in my new Rocky, and brewed with my newly clean Gaggia following some of the temperature timing suggestions I've seen for this model - and I have to say that I was absolutely astounded by the quality. A million times better than anything I'd ever gotten out of this machine. I'm sure it was nowhere near perfect in real life, but to my palate it was! So I am a very happy camper right now.

One maybe worrisome thing I did notice before I started pulling the shots was that the water seemed to pour weirdly out of the shower screen with no portafilter attached. I saw two main streams of water of unequal volume and a then a third spot where water was kind of dripping down. When I removed the shower screen, it seemed weirder still. At one point the water seemed to be kind of spraying erratically out of the center hole. Then later (after I further tightened the plate using the allen wrench) I seemed to perceive a relatively straight pour out of the four "corner holes" whereas the center hole was sending water horizontally across the plate toward the back edge of the plate and then down, so that the water (although actually coming from the center hole) seemed to coming from a mysterious opening along the edge of the plate in between the two farther back holes.

I was about to grab my camera to photograph this, but then the stream just seemed to correct itself, settling into a pretty steady pour out of the center hole which more or less went straight down. The flow out of the four corner holes seemed to weaken a bit and settle into a kind of pulsating pattern that looked like a steady stream of drops (rather than a single stream) flowing out.

Anyways, the espresso that came out subsequently was, once again, quite delicious to my taste. I wonder whether there may be weird things going on with the water flow, which perhaps had something to with the uneven pours my machine was making in the past. Perhaps the ball and spring were overly constricting the water flow so that too much water was being sent to the corner and the center was spraying? In any case, I will keep my eye on this!

Glad to hear you're up and running and the espresso is flowing nicely. It's amazing what a difference it makes to have a clean machine, a good grinder, and fresh beans.

The irregular flow you noticed may have been caused by a bit of scale that was dislodged during cleaning and had to work its way loose from the group. Hopefully it's all cleared out and you'll have a good flow from now on.

Thanks beezer - I hope so too. Although you know, going to back to the chrome and brass in the portafilter, it does strike me a bit how the exposure of the brass has been uneven, and my memory (wish I had taken notes) is that when the portafilter was dirty it was also concentrated on the side which is now more brass heavy. Wonder whether this is somehow all connected.

I've seen a couple of pictures here on the forum (in a thread I can't remember) that showed the various dispersion methods used to break up the flow of water. Aka the Elektra has a large brass puck that breaks the main flow into 12 (I think) smaller flows which then hits the dispersion screen.

Mark