We talk a lot about coffee here. Like, a LOT. Most of the time, we’re talking from the point of “you’ve already pulled some shots, things aren’t perfect, now what”. What this misses is how we get from the box to being able to pull a shot, which still has quite a bit to it.
Below I’ll go over step by step how to get from that point A to point B. Do be aware that we sell many types of espresso machines, if a step doesn’t seem relevant to your specific machine, it may not be. If anything here seems confusing, please! Email in, call in, come in. We love to see you, and we want your experience to be great. Confusion without a visible end is not great.
So!
Off we go
Step 1 - Open the Box
Be careful when opening so as not to destroy the box! If you need to return it for any reason, or get warranty work down the road, the box and all accessories will be needed. Not having a box may affect the ability for you to get warranty work done if you should need to ship the machine, or may result in incurred costs to you due to the heightened risk of shipping without proper supports.
Remove and set aside all the instruction manuals and extra bits the machine comes with. For some machines, this may be as simple as a single and double basket, the portafilter, and potentially a cheap tamper. For other machines (including most of the Brevilles), this includes basic cleaning supplies, a milk jug, a razor tool, cleaning tools, and sometimes more!
Pull out and unwrap your machine, and set it on the flat surface that will be its new home. Unwrap and put any applicable drip tray in place.
Step 2 - Water
Remove the water tank from the machine. For Breville machines, these will be at the back and be able to be lifted off and away. For most other machines, there is generally a lid covering where the water tank sits inside the machine, and it may have inlet tubes in it, or have an adapter at the bottom that directly connects the water tank to the inlet tube through the bottom of the tank. Regardless, remove the water tank, and give it a good wash with soap and water. Fill with clean, cold water, and return to the machine.
In general, you should be using a water softener for your espresso machine. Some coastal cities like Vancouver may have soft enough water to avoid this step, but in general water in Canada is pretty hard (especially where we are in Calgary!) and you will need to use a softener like a BWT BestSave or BILT Oscar 90 to passively remove minerals from the water. Install this now!! Keep up on this! Preventative maintenance will ensure longevity for your machine over time in ways repair can’t always. Some machines even come stock with a water filter, such as Lelit and most Breville machines.
Step 3 - Electricity and Water 2.0
Plug the machine in! No home use espresso machine that we sell will need more than a standard 110V outlet, but I do recommend having it on a dedicated GFCI plug, partially to protect the machine, and partially to protect your own house wiring. The first time you turn on the machine, depending on what machine it is, it may automatically attempt to fill its boiler. If it successfully does this, fantastic!
If the machine does not immediately start to fill its own boiler, you may need to ask it to “run a shot” to pull water into the boiler. You can do this on E1 machines by raising the group head lever, and on most other machines by pressing the “shot” or “1 cup” buttons.
Step 4 - *Common Problem Point*
If you’re trying to run water through the group head and nothing is coming out, likely you’re experiencing an “airlock”. What that means is that the boiler is full of air without an escape route, and the air pressure is stopping water from entering the boiler. Generally this is solvable just by opening the steam valve all the way, this works because the steam valve is generally connected to the top of the boiler, so opening the steam valve creates a physical pathway for air to escape. Of course, if you have a dual boiler machine or heat exchanger machine, the steam path is different from the brew path, so this may not be effective.
If you’ve tried running water through and it doesn’t work, and you’ve tried opening up the steam valve and it doesn’t work, the next step is to force prime the pump. This may sound like “absolutely not, I am going to blow the house up”, hear me out here. Generally the only tool you need is an empty squeezy bottle. For any machine with an inlet water line that dips into the water tank, it's really quite easy. To force prime the pump, you fill your empty squeeze bottle with water, and fit the inlet tube around the nozzle of the squeeze bottle. Hold the bottle upside down, run the machine (with the steam valve open), and squeeze the bottle to put pressure on the inlet tube. I’ve also seen this done with large syringes, here in the shop we mostly use the equivalent of empty ketchup bottles. As soon as you are able to get water into the pump and through the group head, you should be good to go! Generally this only happens with brand new machines that have not had water in them, but it can also happen if you’ve emptied the boiler completely and left the machine in storage for a length of time, or running it with an empty water reservoir.
If your machine has a more complicated water inlet, generally force priming is still doable, it may just take a couple more steps. The idea of putting positive pressure on the inlet side of the water pump is the same, you just may have added steps between you and that inlet tube. At this point, I recommend calling the vendor (probably us!), or just googling it! As well, though we're happy to help you through the kind of scenario where you may need to open the casing to prime the pump, not all vendors are. Be sure to check your warranty fine print!
At this point, all going well, you should have a hot, running machine. Congratulations!
Step 5 - Pull your first shot
For steps on this, please see our Your Very First Shot blog =)
