*Result*
I will have a working Gaggia Baby for the sum total of €50.44 🎉
Currently it looks like this!
In the thread: the detail of how to do a repair like this, and why #RightToRepair matters...
First, why do all of this?
I have been the happy owner of a Gaggia Classic for years (it's fab), but need a 2nd coffee machine for somewhere else. The original Gaggia Baby is like a Classic with a plastic case
I bought this for €10, sold as defective, on Kleinanzeigen
Second, what was wrong?
Upon opening the machine (4 screws - easy) it was clear there was some severe corrosion at the *top* of the machine
4 t-shaped plugs connect power to the boiler - one was melted through, 3 seriously corroded
Sourcing direct replacements for these is impossible - nowhere sells them
Coffee forums to the rescue!
This thread kaffee-netz.de/threads/gaggia… suggests replacing them with ceramic (heat resistant) screw joints
€4.99 + €2.70 postage on eBay ebay.de/itm/3021960391…
Those haven't arrived yet, so for tests I stripped the plastic off some regular screw joints - this isn't safe for everyday operation but is OK for tests - it looks like this at the moment (red and purple cables, silver joins)
Third... it still doesn't work!
Doing that resulted in one step forward... the boiler would now warm as it is supposed to when the machine is powered on
But the pump would not pump, and indeed would do *nothing* - no power to the pump?
🤔 But if other contacts were rusted due to liquid leaking from the top, what about the switches of the machine too - also mounted at the top?
Turns out these were corroded - springs holding the contacts in place had corroded away completely
New ones from Komtrade ordered and delivered here within 24 hours! Impressive!
The switches are not identical - needs 1 of each komtra.de/gaggia-ersatzt… and komtra.de/gaggia-ersatzt…
€32.75 including shipping
But what cables go where? I thought of that... marked each cable before disassembling, so as to be able to reassemble it all afterwards...
At the moment I cannot mount the top casing back on it as I still need to exchange the screw joints...
... but with a little care I powered it up to test it.
Pump is fine. Boiler is fine. Water comes through at an adequate pressure and temperature. This is going to be FINE 💪
So that then is how you get a working Gaggia Baby coffee machine for €50.44
Had this problem been with pretty much any other part of the machine getting parts is no problem
This is why #RightToRepair is so important. Gaggia has generally been good with things like this (that's why I like their machines - the older ones in particular)
But it ought to be possible to do this with *any* coffee machine
And I understand that doing this, this way, is not to everyone's tastes, but that's what things like Repair Cafés are for - a repair café could easily do a repair like this, but would not succeed with machines of less repairable makes
Right, so, where's my espresso... ☕️
/ends
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