Is your De’Longhi Magnifica dribbling coffee drops instead of pouring steadily? It’s annoying; but don’t worry; it’s not normaly a serious mechanical problem. Here are four easy things to check as you troubleshoot why your machine isn’t working properly:
You can troubleshoot this issue by checking four common causes, because the problem is usually simple rather than a major mechanical failure.
Clearing Clogs and Descaling
Take a look at your list of suspects and see which one is causing it to be flowing slowly.
Because of this, the grind setting is the very first thing I look at. If your grounds is too fine, they won’t allow water pass through easily. So if the powder’s too thick, you’ve created a clog in your machine, and you’ll want to turn down the dial on the coarser side.
Run another cup with new setting and you’ll immediately notice the difference: It flows! A big no-no is leaving grinder on the fineness setting for day-to-day coffee, as those grounds will clog up the system fast.
Keep in mind that you can also run into same problem with pre-ground coffee if it’s ground too finely or you use too much. The trick is to do what instructions say. Only use one level scoop of medium (similar to a drip coffee) grind.
Do not put any sort of espresso powder into the manual compartment… The powder is just way too dense for these types of filters. If you’re having trouble, this is an easy thing to check. Try switching back to a medium grind and stick to the level scoop to solve the problem.
However if your grind is not corrected then it’s safe to assume that there may be something blocking inside of the machine. Coffee residue and oil can build up in the internal passages over time.
To unclog the machine you need to run the rinse cycle which is simply pressing and holding down the rinse button. This make the machine flush water through the system several times. It forces water through tubing to remove whatever was lodged. Do it a couple times just to make sure and you’ll see the flow increase.
It can also be that your water isn’t mineral-free enough: Hard water deposits scale in the pipes and heating element, which block water flow and results in slow dripping. Look out for red light on the panel, it’s an indicator of this issue.
Before descaling, machine must be prepared for the process, so rotate the milk frother knob into the hot water position.
But here’s the thing: The machine walks you through the descaling process (with blinking lights) and you follow along. It takes as long as it needs because that is what works best for the machine.
You wait until the milk frother icon stops blinking, which shows the descale process is finished and the internal passages are clean of mineral deposits.
Once the clean cycle has finished, you switch it back on and just like before, everything’s illuminated on control panel as normal.
This time around, though, system informs you that your coffee machine is good to go. Making yourself another cup of coffee, you’re interested in seeing how it turns out. Lo and behold, the slow drip problem is fixed and water flows freely once more.
