Buying a broken Barista Express

NoNameNoNumber

NoNameNoNumber

NoNameNoNumber

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Faulty steam wand, apparently only intermittently works.
Everything else is fine.
I see spares online seem to exist for the main parts.
The machine is up for £100 and I'm fairly handy, although I've never had a coffee machine in bits.

Worth a punt or is it £100 down the drain?
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
I'd like the option tbh
Are you suggesting it's worth having anyway?
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I would go on YouTube and see who's fixed a similar problem for not much money.

Personally I don't know enough about the symptom to know if it will cost £10 or £200 to fix, but the spares are definitely plentiful for this machine.

The other thing to say is that you can try it and if you can't fix it, just get a milk frother if that's acceptable.

At worst you then have a very good £100 espresso with grinder less the parts you bought, that you could possibly just flip anyway for similar money?
 
I really like my BE. Worth the neck end of £500 I paid for it.

If I saw one for £100 I'd probably take a punt. If I could find another around that price with different issues I'd probably go for that too, with the dream of making one decent machine out of two bad ones.
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
Did you read the OP?
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Clearly. You said the steam wand only intermittently works. Someone asked if you liked Lattes and you said you'd like the option.
That to me suggests you'd want to use the steam wand more often than not as that would require you to use the steam wand and if it only worked occasionally that may become bit of a palaver depending on your patience levels.

If you can fix it, clearly a good deal. But if not, it could be a bother.
 
IIRC the steam wand and the water production for the coffee extruder are linked, this could indicate a tank fault rather than just the steam wand being the faulty part, given the original cast of the device and the going price of a working one I would be inclined to see it as either irreparable or not financially viable to repair.

I have worked on commercial La Cimbali machines in the past, if the domestic market is anything like the commercial they tend to be hugely expensive to repair.
 
Cadder said:
I really like my BE. Worth the neck end of £500 I paid for it.

If I saw one for £100 I'd probably take a punt. If I could find another around that price with different issues I'd probably go for that too, with the dream of making one decent machine out of two bad ones.
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I've been umming and ahhing for a couple of years, the Mrs has started drinking coffee now a little since working from home, so I have a little leverage.
Just not 5/600 pounds worth:D

Junglist said:
Clearly. You said the steam wand only intermittently works. Someone asked if you liked Lattes and you said you'd like the option.
That to me suggests you'd want to use the steam wand more often than not as that would require you to use the steam wand and if it only worked occasionally that may become bit of a palaver depending on your patience levels.

If you can fix it, clearly a good deal. But if not, it could be a bother.
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I'd only be buying it to fix, if it was beyond economic repair, it's scrap to me.
BigBoy said:
IIRC the steam wand and the water production for the coffee extruder are linked, this could indicate a tank fault rather than just the steam wand being the faulty part, given the original cast of the device and the going price of a working one I would be inclined to see it as either irreparable or not financially viable to repair.

I have worked on commercial La Cimbali machines in the past, if the domestic market is anything like the commercial they tend to be hugely expensive to repair.
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I'm not implying you're wrong, but spares don't seem too bad for these, a quick search suggests solenoids, thermostats etc are all fairly cheap (£20/30 range)
That said, the seller may already know its none of the easy bits that are broken.
 
Worth a punt in my opinion, common coffee machine faults are due to poor maintenance ie lack of descales. As its an intermittent fault I'd be trying that first.
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
I've been umming and ahhing for a couple of years, the Mrs has started drinking coffee now a little since working from home, so I have a little leverage.
Just not 5/600 pounds worth:D
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I'm not the type to spend money without serious consideration and have often found myself a but nervous spending these amounts on appliances and such. I can say with absolute certainty that there has not been the tiniest bit of regret on paying the £500ish we forked out for our BE. It is worth the money and, with decent fresh beans, we have never had a better coffee outside of our home.

Part of me fancies the challenge of fixing a scrapper. Part of me also tells me to figure out if it's worth my hourly rate spending time repairing instead of working.
 
sufficient threads on coffeeforums to suggest it is fixable "coffeeforums sage intermittent steam" £100 including carriage ?
I'd want to try and confirm it hasn't already exchanged hands and you are buying from first owner who has not himself tried to fix/bodge it.

otherwise you can buy warehouse delonghi dedicas off of amazon (with guarantee) less than £100 and get a separate grinder which is very close in performance.
not sure I'd have payed £500 for a new be, rather I'd get a ebay warrantied refurb for £250, or a duotemp pro <£200 , plus a separate grinder

(coffeeforums advice helped me fix 2nd hand italian bezzera heat exchanger I bought on ebay to upgrade from a rancilio silvia I'd had 10+ years, now make as much steamed hot chocolate with the machine as coffee based drinks.)
 
Sorry guys but it didn't work out. In my 2 or 3 days of procrastination it had been sold.
I've since bought a refurbished bambino with ebay having a 20% off deal.
Doesn't come with the following though. Any recommendations on which cleaner/descaler to buy?
Cleaning Kit
Descale Powder
ClaroSwiss Water Filter
Cleaning Tool
 
Thats a shame, would have been a really easy fix. I would have bet money it was just in need of a descaling through the rear. Happened to mine and I thought it was bust but then phoned up a repair company who suggested I try descaling through the water tank and it was exactly the issue.
 
Yeah not to worry.
I'm loving the bambino though and despite my limited exposure to pulling shots I'm getting nice consistently good espresso.
The Mrs really appreciates the less imposing nature of the bambino too. I've not told her how many grinders I've got my eye on though :D
 
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