Monday 30 September 2019

Fixed: Saeco Intuita coffee machine - water coming from steam wand only

At the weekend I decided it was time to decalcify my coffee machine - a Saeco Intuita bean to cup machine that's served us well for 5 years.    I hadn't decalcified it for ages, and hadn't used the steam wand for months either.

After the cleaning cycle, I found the machine could not make coffee any more.  The brew unit seemed to be doing the rights things... Coffee beans were ground, and the little pucks of ground coffee were put into the waste hopper.  But water came out of the steam wand, and no coffee from the coffee spout.

The fix was to run some more cleaning cycles, and to use the hot water mode (press the tea cup button) to run lots of hot water through the steam wand.

I think the issue was that the decalcifying cycle must have disturbed some crud in the boiler, which then got stuck in the solenoid valve that controls the steam wand.  With that valve blocked open by the crud, the water was taking the easy route and coming out of the steam wand rather than going through the brew unit.

So.. if you get no coffee - just lots of water from the steam wand - your first step should be to set the machine to send hot water to the steam wand, and/or try one or two decalcifying cycles with or without decalcifying chemicals.