Hi

I have a '14 Alexia, PID'd about a year ago. All of a sudden, a couple of days ago, the pump just stopped working in the middle of a shot. Now, when I try to run the pump, all I get is a trickle of water out of the shower head and a humming noise.

Neither the lever nor the pump switch works. The pressure gauge is stuck at 0.

The reservoir is full, and there is no obvious blockage in the water intake pipes.

Here's a video:
Any help would be greatly appreciated. I've had to resort to aeropress

Looks like you need a new pump... Thats how my Alexia was when my pump died.

Bummer. Is it complicated to replace? Expensive? I see Chris' coffee has pumps for 50 bucks. How hard is it to swap out?

Hello,

Sorry for your trouble. I imagine the pump is the problem but I also, at some point long ago, had trouble with the float / sensor in the water tank, I don't remember how it manifested but it might be worth your time to rule that out.

Also, Chris Coffee is great with being willing to help with things (like installing a new pump, or figuring out the float issue, I think that may have been a warranty replacement) and if you want that help it might be worth it to you to buy from them - I've bought a couple of pumps from them along with a few other parts (and my Alexia) but, having done this a bunch of times, and not sure that I needed a pump, I got an ULKA pump from Amazon for around $20 that is working fine.

I'm not particularly handy but I have replaced my pump several times over many years - the hardest part for me was getting the old curved joint off the old pump and screwing it on to the new pump - I thought I had it tight enough but it leaked, I ended up putting it on so far that there were metal shavings - don't know if that was the thing to do, but it's been working and not leaking - perhaps a new joint is available from CC (?)

Good luck!
Phil

Phil:

Thanks very much. I don't think it's the float sensor - HiTech Espresso (with my approval) removed it while doing the PID. In addition, the pump does try to run - it just hums. I could be wrong, is there anyway I can eliminate the float sensor as a cause?

I guess I'll go call Chris coffee and then look for an Ulka pump now.

Is upgrading to a rotary pump worth it?

Madhu

It really looks like the pump. I took the machine apart and just ran the pump. It's doesn't seem to be, well, pumping. Makes noise but no water flow

New pump arrived from Amazon. And argh - still no pumpage. Am I doing something wrong or is it a bad test - to test either pump, I did the following:
- remove the metal line from the pump to the boiler
- prime the plastic line from the reservoir to the pump (ie ensure there's water in the line)
- run the pump => no water shoots out of the pump

With the new pump, I even went further and installed it and hooked it up to the boiler but got no water flow at the group head or in the steam wand. It was then that I disconnected it from the boiler line and took the below video.

Any help would be appreciated - Aeropress and tea were good the first day, but are getting old on day 4 of the no-spro life

Hello Madhu,

I'm no expert and hopefully an expert will reply but it took a very long time for my new pump to draw water - I think I had this with the previous enew pump as well. I hooked it up and turned it on for as long as I dared (30 seconds), tried over and over, tried blowing / syringing water into the pump (to prime it) I don't remember all the details, I don't know if anything I did helped but after a while, it engaged (quite a bit louder than it had been) and has now been working fine for a few weeks.

I don't know enough to say "just run it for a long time, over and over" but if you don't get a response to this thread, maybe try searching "new ULKA pump not drawing water" or making a new post - I'm not in here much, I just saw your post as an alert - maybe / hopefully you've already got it working.

In any case, good luck.

Phil

I too am interested in this thread as I am going to need a new pump at some point this year



Randy

Phil: your advice was spot on. I had given up and messaged Chris' Coffee over the weekend, who promptly told me that I should do the syringe trick. But what really did it for me was ensuring the input line had zero air - Yes it was a little messy but I made sure that I siphoned enough water and while the water was flowing, quickly attached the input line to the pump input (Of course, with everything unplugged ). That, plus some added pressure on the input side, got things going!

Oh and one last thing, I had to disassemble and reassemble the whole thing again because I hadn't bothered to put Teflon tape on the output side of the pump and had a slow leak.

But on reassembly, the pump started right up and didn't need added pressure. Chris Coffee's theory was that the pump was probably just seized from sitting on the shelf a long time. Five or six shots later, it seems to be working fine. Maybe takes a little longer to come up to pressure than I had thought, but I'll keep an eye on it.

Phew.