Coffee machine makes too little coffee
Author: AMT Serwis
A machine that dispenses too little coffee is not just annoying — it is a sign that the appliance is not working correctly. Unfortunately it is a fairly common problem. Here is what you can do when your coffee machine pours less than it should.
Does a fault that shows up as a small volume of coffee mean you have to send the appliance in for service? Not necessarily — although it is undoubtedly the simplest and most reliable way to solve the problem. If you would rather attempt the repair yourself but do not know where to start, read on.
Work out why the machine is making too little coffee
Let us start with the obvious: to fix the problem you first have to locate its cause. How do you do that, and what should you look at first? The sections below explain.
A dirty coffee spout
A machine that has stopped dispensing the right amount of coffee is often the result of irregular cleaning and descaling. Scale and other deposits can collect in the coffee spout, for example, restricting the free flow of the drink. The result is less coffee in the cup than there should be. If you have reached that point, the first thing worth doing is running the descaling programme, ideally with the cleaning products recommended by the manufacturer. In addition, to be sure the built-up deposits are removed completely, you should take the spout off, soak it first in clean warm water and then clean it thoroughly.
A faulty brew unit
If your machine is making too little coffee, it is also worth checking the condition of the brew unit. Owners of automatic machines quite often forget that the brew unit needs regular washing and maintenance. So if you have not been doing that consistently, it may well be the reason your machine is producing less coffee. Take the brew unit out and wash it thoroughly under clean running water. It is also worth considering a dedicated lubricant for the brew unit. If it still does not work properly, the unit may have suffered mechanical damage — in which case the only option is to buy a replacement.
Water leaking from underneath the machine
A common reason for a machine producing a small amount of coffee is a leak. If water is escaping somewhere along the way, it is hardly surprising that the appliance cannot brew the right volume. A leak underneath the machine is a clear sign that the system is not sealed. So the first thing to check is whether water is collecting under the appliance. It may be caused by something as simple as a badly seated water tank. That is hard to call a fault at all, and the fix is child's play. Unfortunately, a leak in the system is not always so easy to trace and eliminate.
Leaking hoses inside the machine
Things get more complicated when the source of the leak is inside the appliance. To begin with, it is not always possible to tell at a glance that a machine is leaking. But if it is dispensing too little coffee, there is solid reason to suspect exactly that. Most often the culprits are loose or worn hoses or seals. These are consumable parts working in high humidity and under high pressure, so their life is limited and sooner or later they will need replacing. The difficulty is that to check which of them is leaking, you have to look inside the appliance. If you feel up to it, you can open the housing and replace the relevant parts, or reseat them so that the leak stops.
Professional diagnosis and repair
Too little coffee is one of the more common faults owners of automatic coffee machines run into — whatever the brand, be it Nivona, Krups, Jura or any other. Sometimes it comes down to poor maintenance. In other cases it is the result of worn consumable parts or mechanical damage. If you are facing this problem and have not managed to trace the cause, or you are unsure how to repair your coffee machine, you are welcome to use the services of AMT Serwis.