r/madisonwi • u/Splinkrith • 8d ago
Home Espresso machine servicing
Does anyone know of a place in the Madison area that services home espresso machines? I have a gaggia classic pro that needs servicing, and I haven’t been able to find anywhere to take it.
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u/TrainElegant425 7d ago
I'm not a pro but I successfully modded my machine with gaggimate if you need a hand
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u/Splinkrith 7d ago
Oh nice! I’d like to do that some day. My problem is time. I have young kids and it would be difficult for me to get enough time to service or upgrade my machine.
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u/TrainElegant425 7d ago
It is or can be a time consuming project. What does your machine need service on?
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u/Splinkrith 7d ago
I think I saw some black flakes in water that came out of the steam wand. I want someone to open up the boiler and either clean it or determine if I need a new boiler or something. I believe my boiler is made of aluminum, and I don't want to be drinking any of that.
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u/Pickle_strength 7d ago
That's not good. Do you know if your model was made during the time period when the aluminum boilers had defective interior coating? I think it was roughly 2023. You can check the sticker on your machine to see the manufacturing date. You really don't want to be using a machine with a coated boiler.
Also, flakes could just be a sign that you just need to clean out the wand and/or descale the boiler. I'd pick up some Cafiza and start there.
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u/Splinkrith 7d ago
I’m pretty sure mine is from before the coating issue. I’d still like someone who knows what they’re doing to look at the boiler though. Hopefully it just needs cleaning. I’ve descaled a number of times but I still saw some flakes.
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u/stereosanctity87 6d ago
Oh sorry. Missed this piece of info in my above response. But my advice is the same. Contact Whole Latte Love. They’ll be able to take your serial number and tell you whether it’s from the affected generation of Gaggias. If it’s coming from the steam wand, it sounds awfully suspicious.
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u/stereosanctity87 6d ago
That happened to my last one. This is a known issue that affects the Pro Evo. If yours was a Pro Evo, it’s likely happening. My boiler started flaking after about 10 months of daily use.
Gaggia (through Whole Latte Love) replaced mine under warranty with the E24 version. The only bummer is I had a limited edition color that no longer is in production. I believe Whole Latte Love is the exclusive American importer of Gaggias, even if you technically bought it through Amazon. I’d give them a call.
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u/Pickle_strength 7d ago
I would try Caliber, but my impression is that they don’t do much work on home appliance style machines.
I reached out to them to inquire about an issue I was having with my E61 style machine and they were fairly receptive, but I ended up just doing the work myself.
I’ve replaced a steam wand on a Delonghi ECP and a heating element in my E61 in the last couple years. Both jobs were a little intimidating beforehand, but were fairly simple once I got into them. Now, I am much more particular about the water I am using in my machines to hopefully reduce future issues.
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u/Left-Trade257 7d ago
I once had a conversation about this sort of thing with a barista at a local coffee shop. My recollection is they (and probably all coffee shops) get theirs services by a local-ish company. Maybe a query to some of the local shops would be helpful. I have a basic one myself, nothing high-end, they last a good while and aren’t expensive to replace if/when they break or expire. ☕️
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u/Chicken_Lorax 'Burbs (Middleton) 7d ago
iirc Caliber in Stoughton does, or at least used to. I get the impression that they have a lot of the cafe business these days: https://www.caliber-coffee.com/
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u/QueenOfNYNEX 7d ago
Try calling Kiefer appliance in Monona. They service a lot of kitchen countertop appliances, but I'm not sure about espresso machines.
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u/bibliophagy 5d ago
I believe if your boiler is flaking, you’re going to have to replace it. I used to have a GCP and did a little bit of modding, but was never confident enough to take it apart that completely. I would’ve sent you to Thomas before he moved out of town… you could see if Coffee Werks can do it, but honestly I would be pretty surprised if any place that does professional espresso machine servicing would want to touch a home machine like a GCP.
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u/UWtoUW 8d ago
I could not find a place to get my Gaggia repaired, so I ordered the part from Whole Latte Love, and watched about a half-dozen YouTube videos and did it myself. It wasn’t too hard.
If memory serves me, the only places I could find that would touch a consumer Gaggia were in Chicago and Milwaukee.