Gaggia Evolution descaling problems

[coffeewomble]

I'm a newbie on this forum so please excuse if this post sounds a bit silly.

We have a Gaggia Evolution espresso machine that's about 3-4 years old now. We have been using and descaling it regularly, until a few years ago when we stopped using the machine for well over a month. After that, we discovered that there was very limited water flow through the machine so we tried descaling it. Two Gaggia descaling packets later, water started flowing smoothly through the system again and we thought all was well. However, we waited until another couple of weeks to actually use the machine. Then we found it blocked again - there was barely a trickle of water that came through the system.

We did not do anything with it until many months later, when I decided I had a few hours free to try and tackle the problem once and for all. I dissolved a packet of Gaggia descaler in the water reservoir and tried descaling the machine according to instructions, but it feels well and truly blocked. In fact it made such horrible noises that I had to turn the machine off for fear that something untoward would happen. Whenever i switched it off, water would bubble out into the reservoir again. Does this suggest that the Gaggia actually needs some repair work in a professional workshop and a simple descaling process at home won't clear the blockage?

I'm also wondering if there are any other products i can use besides the Gaggia descalers. They're not very cheap.

Thanks for any suggestions.
coffeewomble

[quar]

IIRC, the Gaggia Evolution is not equipped with a three way valve. You might just have scale clogging up the water outlet.

1. Remove the shower screen
2. Use a 5mm (I think) metric allen wrench to remove the two bolts in the dispersion block.
3. Use a socket wrench to remove the valve that lies under the dispersion block. The water outlet is immediately underneath the valve. When I had to do this once, careful probing with a toothpick worked wonders.

You can use citric acid to descale, but it may be rough on the Gaggia's aluminum boiler. A weaker concentration than recommended for other machines may be advisable.

While this is a fairly simple process, standard disclaimers apply...Do this at your own risk, damage to your machine could result, etc...

Mike

[cannonfodder]

I could also be the aluminum boiler going bad. They will corrode. I had a different brand machine once that had an aluminum boiler. It basically disintegrated, the aluminum corroded and the boiler fell apart on the inside with similar symptoms. In the end it went in the trash and I got a different machine. But definitely check the group jet for blockage as Mike suggests.