Then you see the red triangle on your De’Longhi Magnifica control panel in the morning. At least it gets your attention; that’s the thing about it: it’s an irritating alert. You don’t even know yet what it means. The machine looks ready to make coffee, but then that light changes everything. Perhaps you dismiss it as trivial, and sometimes it is.
Next thing is, is it solid or is the light flashing? Triangle flashing is typically an easy fix. The infuser wasn’t reinstalled correct. Classic.
Dealing with a Solid Red Light
Maybe you didn’t remember one step of the clean/reassemble process. Now you’re looking at grinder attachment, which has gunk all over it. You’ll need to align things carefully because that clog can make reassembling it difficultly. The machine won’t allow you to start brewing until it’s properly in place. It prevents jamming of internal gears.
Remove the infuser and wash it out in sink. Don’t use washing up liquid because it can damages the plastic components, just run some water through them. The flashing light should of now be fixed. Reinsert the infuser.
Once you have cleaned the infuser, snap it right back in (it’s clean so I know this isn’t a mess… it clicks into place). Triangle go away. Flashing also ceases. Sometimes that’s all your machine needed. A little love and now it knows to pay attention again.
But that’s not you. Instead, the triangle isn’t flashing. It’s solid red. That’s not good.
In fact, it’s worse: A solid red triangle signal that the inside of the machine is quite filthy. There is just too much stuff in there. Sensors picks up on this and warn you that things aren’t right. “I know,” you say to yourself, “it needs to be cleaned thoroughally.”
And you can’t do this with just a wipe down; so you venture into the machine. The first step is to unplug the socket. You do this mostly for safety reasons, but also so you can access insides.
The front cover of your coffee machine come off and there it is, all those insides that make up the coffee machine. There’s the motor, there are some gears, there are some wires. It seems complex. Where do you begin?
Then you see a beige plastic housing for a gear. And it’s full of dark burnt residue. It’s old coffee oil and grounds combined and baked onto the plastic over time. How can that be? You cleaned this thing regularly. What happened? It was hidden down inside.
As a result, you grab your brush and rub at the grime until it is gone. Some of it comes off easily; some of it doesn’t come off quite so easy. But the gears looks far more spiffy when they’re clean.
Carefully, you put it back together again, double-checking to be sure each component sit exactly where it belongs. After replacing it, you connect it again to power and let it boot up. And there’s the red triangle. Still.
Frustration sets in. You wiped down everything visible, but the machine say you left something behind… That it’s still filthy inside somewhere. Time to call for service, then.
You didn’t realy want to do that, but maybe it was a sensor issue? Maybe you rubbed too hard in one place and missed another? In the end, you call for assistance anyway, and it pays off.