Hello. I have a five year old Sage Oracle machine that has recently developed an annoying habit of dripping through the grouphead once the shot has been pulled and the porta filter removed. At this time, there is a soft "pup, pup" sound from inside the machine.

I've changed various leaking O rings over the years and removed/dismantled the 3? visible solenoids to check for wear and/or any traces of dirt/calcification but all were very much 'as new'.

I use filtered water and back flush the machine every day. I run the descale programme regularly (monthly).

There are no obvious leaks when I remove the top although I've avoided powering it up with the top removed in case the machine detects this state and throws an error code that I may be unable to clear.

I've scoured the internet for any hint of a similar condition - unsuccessfully.

Does anyone have any ideas please?

Thank you.

If boiler water is making it through the brew valve to escape at the brewhead, a back-flushing might fix it. If not, re-examine the 3-way solenoid brew valve, see why it's able to leak and replace it if needed.

Hi JRising - thanks for getting back to me.

I've taken a brave pill and pulled the top off and let it heat up and then run a few backflushes/shots. I can see no leaking/sign of leaking which was positive. I did note however that the dripping seemed to occur whilst, and for a while after I'd used the hot water spigot - it seemed to come out of the spigot AND the grouphead. It doesn't come out of the spigot when pulling a shot however. That would seem to support your suggestion I think.

Is the 3 way solenoid the one in the middle of the machine at the front please?

Lotus26R wrote:Hi JRising - thanks for getting back to me.

Is the 3 way solenoid the one in the middle of the machine at the front please?

No, because that's a 2-way solenoid valve. Only the 2 teflon hoses going to it... The three way will have a third connection, almost certainly a silicone hose connected at the middle of the coil...
I hope someone with more Oracle experience than I have might jump in and tell you where you can find it... I haven't touched one in years.
Or, you can try to trace your backflush port up to it... It will be connect to brew-boiler, grouphead and wherever the back-flush comes out to the tray.

Perfect - thank you. It'll be the one on the left then. Cheers, I'll have another close look at it in the morning.

There was some marking on the alloy of the base - but it didn't look like it would be the source of so much fluid leak. Maybe it is.

Just by way of an update, the solenoid contains a piston with a synthetic seal at each end. At the lower end, the green seal presses against a "nozzle" that leads to the Grouphead. This nozzle has become damaged - no idea how - but the seal no longer seals it thus allowing water to pass it when it shouldn't.

I've ordered a new 3-way solenoid and am pretty sure this will fix the problem.

And indeed the new part was perfect. Thanks for the guidance at the start.

Just need to solve the quiet "pup, pup, pup" noise now and everything will be back to being perfect.