Troubleshooting Saeco/Starbucks Barista Not Pumping and/or Brewing
Important precautions:
Stefano’s Espresso Care is providing these troubleshooting steps to help you find basic and easily fixed problems with the water system inside your Barista. We accept no responsibility for damage to you, your equipment, or your property. You will be working with electricity and water, so please exercise caution and use common sense. If you are uncomfortable with performing any step of this troubleshooting, please contact us to arrange for a technician to inspect and repair your machine.
We do not guarantee that any of the following procedures or replacement parts will fix the problem(s) with your machine. This is just a logical procedure to follow to determine what is likely wrong.
Never run the pump for more than 1 minute at a time, and be sure to let it rest for 1 minute between priming attempts.
If water is not present inside the boiler you can damage the heating element and or the thermofuse. We strongly suggest removing one of the heating element wires to eliminate the chance of burning out the element out or the thermal fuse (some machines will have a non-resettable fuse some will have a manual resettable safety thermostat). To do so:
- Unplug from power supply
- Remove six screws and pull the stainless steel cover up. If the front lip is stuck, you can try carefully prying it out.
- Locate the heating element (2 posts in the middle of the boiler with 2 bare spade connectors)
- Remove one of the spades/wires from the post, insulate it with electricians' tape to avoid accidental shocking or shorting.
- Once the wire is safe, plug the machine back in.
Troubleshooting:
We are starting this troubleshooting assuming that voltage is arriving to your pump.
Make sure your machine is properly primed (refer to your instruction booklet).
Refer to the diagram and the parts pictures on this link if you do not know the names or where to locate the parts mentioned below.
http://www.espressocare.com/products/saeco-home-machines
If you are getting some water to flow through the machine, but not enough to activate the brewing cycle, you should consider descaling the machine. We do not recommend using vinegar to descale an espresso machine, instead, use a product that is specifically designed for your equipment, such as the Puly Caff brand we sell.
Water will always find the easiest path. Just because there is water coming out of the grouphead or steam wand during these tests, it doesn’t mean that the flow is strong enough to push open mechanisms or push through fine coffee grounds. Here are a couple of scenarios to consider:
A. There is no water at all and/or the pump is humming: The machine’s passages are possibly clogged by scale/sediment, or the pump might be bad.
- Start inspecting the pick-up filter screen in the reservoir and the silicone hose and make sure neither is clogged.
- Open the steam valve and remove the silicone hose elbow fitting from inlet side of the pump.
- With an air compressor blow air directly in the pump: air/water should come out from the steam wand.
- If not, you have a clog somewhere (you will need to start from the pump and follow the water path and eventually open the boiler for inspection).
- If yes, reassemble the elbow/hose and try priming the unit again.
- If there is still no water coming out and you followed the above air-compressor step, and you don’t see water moving inside the silicone hose, then most likely your pump is bad.
B. Water comes out from the steam/wand but NOT from the grouphead:
- Remove the showerscreen for inspection (small Phillips screw in the center). Hold it up against the light -- are the holes clean? If not, clean the showerscreen with a brush and espresso detergent or replace it (links below). Forcing the pump to push water through a clogged screen will weaken i prematurely.
- With the showerscreen removed, push the brewing button. Is water coming out from the group? If yes, reinstall the clean showerscreen, insert the portafilter, and push the brew button again. Is water coming out from the portafilter? If yes, then try with coffee. If it brews properly, then you found your problem. Make sure you remove and clean your showerscreen with espresso detergent more often.
- If it does not brew properly, then the problem may be in your portafilter. You could be adding too much coffee or the grinding the coffee too fine. If that is not the case, then remove the basket from the portafilter and inspect it, holding it up to the light as you did the showerscreen. You may need to soak this in espresso cleaner as well. If it looks clean, then carefully open the portafilter from the bottom and confirm that the mechanism is not gummed up from old coffee and appears to be functional. If you harm or lose parts, some are sold separately here on our site. If it is not working properly, you may need to replace the portafilter. If all the parts look nice and clean and you are not getting water to brew through the grouphead, then most likely the pump is weak and needs to be replaced.
- If no water at all is coming out of the grouphead, then remove the mushroom valve holder, spring, and mushroom valve. (Use a wide, flat screwdriver or a coin gripped with pliers. Be careful not to strip either the threads from the showerscreen screw or the threads on the outside of the valve holder.) Try brewing with the above parts removed -- is water coming out? If so, it’s likely that your pump is weak and doesn’t have enough strength to open the mushroom valve. If not, then something is clogged and the boiler needs to be disassembled so it and the pipes can be cleaned.
Product links:
Espresso Cleaner for basket, showerscreen, portafilter mechanism, and mushroom valve assembly