I've spent a lot of time reading on this website, now is the time for my first post. A short time ago, i bought a lightly used Gaggia Lever, unaware but unphased of any maintenance issues. The machine is working beautifully, and i plan on it staying that way, so as my new coffee shop is growing i need to perform any necessary cleaning and de-scaling. I have scoured the web for help, but have drawn a blank, can anyone help. I have seen a lot of rebuild projects on this website, and have become familiar with espresso machines in general with quite some years in the business, and living in Nicaragua with a near 30 year old machine, i know parts and labour are not easy to come by, thus some general pointing in the right direction would be grateful.

Thanks

Gary

Hi Gary.....seems a good start for you if the machine is working beautifully. If you do not have it on a water softener to prevent scale then an occasional descale may be in order. If you are using it on gas only scale should not be a big issue but the electric elements draw scale. A good way to check is to disconnect the heating element wires and remove the element and look inside with a flashlight to get a start point. For a commercial machine I would do a complete service at least once a month with preventative descale if you note any problems on your inspection and if you are pulling a lot of shots a group clean and lube every 2 weeks or so....this one is easy, just pull the piston out of the top of the group, wipe the seals with a cloth, inspect....pop out the shower screen from above with a wood dowel and clean the screen and swab out the cylinder with a cloth, then lubricate the cylinder with DOW 111 or equivalent and run a bead of lube around the seals (not in the V part but across the face of the seals, then slide the piston back in and bolt it down. Wipe off any lube at the bottom of the cylinder before snapping the screen back in place.
You can expect the seals to last about a year under normal use and the pf group gasket about the same, maybe less, so likely when you do get parts you should stock up on both piston and group gaskets. Steam wand seals too, but these do not bake out as fast as the group parts do.
The piston/group lube and clean takes about 10 minutes and the descale an hour or so if you descale hot....but with a softener you might be able to avoid down time on the descaling. Most parts available for the Gaggia, no problem.

Thank you so much for your quick reply, it's greatly appreciated. I will let you know how i get on after the weekend.