Have had 2 Gaggia Classics which have both developed the same problem now… there is an airlock in the system which means it won’t pull water through to make coffee.

The steam wand works ok.

Can’t find any info on bleeding/purging the system.

Any help?

I have a different model of Gaggia but to remove an airlock on mine it’s a case of going through the cleaning mode. On yours I assume that will be running hot water through the steam wand.

From cold, open the steam knob right up, switch the machine on and then hit the brew switch, water should start to drip/flow from the grouphead – ps : you should be able to hear the pump working.

I had a similar problem that i thought was an airlock but it turned out to be a bit of scale in my solenoid valve, there’s small valve bolted onto the right hand side of the head unit with two allen headed bolts, remove this and you may find an obstruction in either of the water ports at the bottom of the unit, you can dismantle these valves quite easy so go ahead and give it a try – remember and unplug your machine first though. The black plastic surround is the coil that activates the solenoid valve – this may be at fault also.

Digger90 – funny mine just did that. Does it clear if you put the machine on in steam mode, but turn both buttons on to make hot water not steam. it’s meant to prime the system.

Top info! I have one with same fault.

Will give it a go

Cheers folks – I will try that.

jsm – will try that too.

My Baby D did this.
Took the solenoid valve apart (as above pic). Looked into the two holes with the red rings. Slightly gummed up with years of crud. Jiggled a cotton bud into each one until clean. Re-assemble expecting nothing to happen still. Machine worked as good as the day I got it. Result 😀

yay, this thread fixed my Baby Class 🙂

Got it off ebay for super happy cheap, but the flow started to drop after I descaled it. Reckon some scale must have made its way into the solenoid and jammed things up. Opened it up, gave it a clean and it’s way better.

Glad to hear it debaser, the solenoid valves have really small pathways for water flow and it doesn’t take much to block them up.

I suggest you drop the filter screen into some puro espresso machine cleaning solution to clear all the teeny holes and it helps to drop the grouphead out by removing the two allen key bolts and soaking that as well.

Thanks somafunk, will give that a shot. Have some pulycaff cleaner which I assumed is similar to the puro stuff.

These things are like Fox forks, great results but a lot of maintenance to keep them going.

It’s more fun when you get to take things apart and fiddle wi them to keep them running correctly, more so when you improve them to your own personal tastes, i’ve even shimmed out the burrs of my Kitchenaid Artisan coffee bean grinder to get the precise grind that works best with my particular choice of fresh roasted beans, and i’ve fiddled with the pressure regulator of both of my Gaggia machines to pull a double espresso with a certain tamp pressure in a certain time.

I should really get out more…………..