DeLonghi coffee watery

First, make an assessment: Empty the grounds container. Place a glass under the coffee spout and draw an espresso of about 60 ml.

Coffee watery

How it should look

The coffee should not run through too quickly. It should be deep brown, with a hazelnut-brown crema about 5 mm thick on the surface. The temperature should be around 80° C. Take a look at the puck of grounds; it should be about 13 mm thick, and the moist ground coffee should be uniform, fine-grained, and not very wet.

If that is not the case, some corrections must be performed:

First, check the settings:

• If the ground coffee is too coarse, turn the adjuster on the grinder to a finer setting.

• The change will only take effect on the second cup. Gradually work your way toward the optimal setting; in general, the coffee should be as fine as possible. However, if it is too fine, the pump pressure will not be enough and the machine will report a fault.
• If the puck is too thin, not enough ground coffee was used for preparation, which is why the coffee is too thin. In this case, you must use more ground coffee.

The adjustment process varies depending on the type. Consult the user manual for this. If you have lost the manual, you can find it on the DeLonghi website.

• If the ground coffee looks good and the puck is not too thin, try a different type of coffee. Try different types. Don't be too frugal; the cheapest coffee doesn't necessarily taste the best!
• DeLonghi devices adapt during use, which means that some settings are "learned" to a certain extent by the machine. Perhaps your machine has not adjusted optimally; in that case, a reset can help. Check the instruction manual to see how to reset the machine to factory settings.

Repeat this process several times.

Another possibility for correction is to draw coffee without any beans in the grinder. Ignore the warning messages and repeat the process several times. If these external measures have not yet been successful, you must perform interventions on the device:

To ensure the mechanism runs more smoothly, the drive spindle under the brewing unit should be lubricated with food-safe grease. You must remove the brewing unit to do this.

Brewing unit

Drive

Spindle

Remove the brewing unit and service it as described in the following guides. Replacing the seals and checking the crema valve is important.

The crema valve in the lower piston

• Guide for ESAM models
• Guide for ECAM/ETAM models

If your coffee is still watery, only slightly more complex interventions will help:

After about 10,000 cups, the burrs can be worn out. The coffee beans are no longer cut nicely and evenly, but are crushed. You can recognize this by the fact that the grounds are uneven and rather coarse. Unfortunately, replacing the burrs on DeLonghi grinders is not possible, as the manufacturer only sells the grinders as a complete unit.

The price is acceptable, but you might be able to find a good used part. Here are our guides for this:

• The DeLonghi grinder
• Guide for ESAM models
• Guide for ECAM/ETAM models

You can find more information about the DeLonghi grinder in our wiki DeLonghi grinder jammed

With DeLonghi devices, the ground coffee is pressed against the upper piston in the brewing unit. There are seals and valves inside the upper piston.

These seals wear out over time. You may be able to tell this if the transparent upper piston is filled with water. The upper piston is not very easy to see. Lay the machine on its side and check with the help of a small mirror.

iFixit has guides for replacing the piston and/or the seals.

• Guide for ESAM models
• Guide for ETAM models
• Guide for ECAM models

The temperature of the coffee is important. If it is too cold, it tastes watery because the ground coffee is no longer being extracted properly. The temperature immediately after brewing should be about 80° C. Check our wiki for solutions.

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