The water tank leaks when I leave it in place. It
If the problem is that you find water leaking out of the bottom of the unit, even when it isn't operating, it may be the same problem I had.
Here is what happened to me: After making an espresso, the unit would start to leak slowly from the bottom and eventually there would be a cup or two of water on the counter.
If that is what is happening to you, you may have the same problem I had. The good news is that I found the leak on my machine, and if you are a do-it-yourself repair person, it is a relatively easy fix (although a bit hard to get to). Here is what I did:
REMEMBER THAT YOUR UNIT MAY BE DIFFERENT THAN MINE, SO THESE INSTRUCTIONS MAY NOT BE CORRECT FOR YOURS. MINE LOOKS LIKE THE PICTURE IN YOUR QUESTION ABOVE.
Tools and material you will need:
- small phillips screwdriver
- flashlight
- pliers (any kind will do)
- small wire cutters
- 24-gauge galvanized steel wire (6" per finished repair)
NOTE: you may not need this wire if you can repair the
clip that is in the machine, as described in step 7) below.
1) Unplug the machine and lift out the water reservoir.
2) On the back of the machine, remove the little black covers over 4 screws (two near the top of the back, two near the bottom).
3) On the back of the machine, remove the 4 screws.
4) Remove the metal back of the machine and the two black plastic spacers that go between the back and the front of the machine.
5) The back that you just removed will still be attached to the unit by an electrical wire at the bottom. It will make things easier if you pull off the connector where it attaches to the bottom of the back. It should pull off without any tools, but mine was stuck on pretty tightly. If you want to leave it attached, that is no problem -- it will just be a bit more awkward.
6) Gently tip the machine on its side, and find the tall black plastic unit on the back of the main part of the machine. Pull carefully at the bottom of this tall black plastic unit. It won't come off, but it should come loose enough for you to get into the underside.
7) Find the little maze of tubing in the bottom. There should be several fittings that have hard metal spring clips where the tubing attaches to the plumbing of the main unit. I used a flashlight to see clearly underneath.
8) Look and locate the tubing that is leaking. Unfortunately by now the water may have dribbled everywhere, but in my case I could still tell which one of the tubing connections had water all around it. You may have to replace a couple of the connections if you can't tell which one was leaking. I was lucky that the leaking one was easy to get to. If yours is the one deep inside, you may have to figure out how to disassemble the unit more than I did.
The leak was caused because the metal spring clip wasn't doing a good job sealing the tubing onto the fitting. Since I didn't have any replacement for these clips, I improvised with some galvanized wire I did have. If you have the real clips or some other tubing clips or if you think you can move them or repair them to make them hold again, you can try that (and skip to step 14 below). If you want to do what I did, continue with step 9.
9) Pull the tubing off of the fitting and remove the spring clip (I actually just pushed my spring clip down on the tubing so that it would be "stored" inside the machine in case I wanted to try to fix it later).
10) Cut about a 6" length of the 24-gauge galvanized steel wire. With the tubing off of the fitting, start at the mid-point of the 6" length and wrap the wire three times around the end of the tubing. Be careful not to wrap it tightly yet, since you need to slip it onto the fitting inside the machine. Gently twist the two long wire ends together close to the tubing so that you have created your own little tubing clamp (with both of the ends of the 6" piece of wire flying free).
11) Push your tubing back onto the fitting. NOTE: If you have made the wire clamp too tight it won't go on. Either loosen up the wire a bit or if it is already twisted too tight, discard it and repeat step 10 with a new piece of wire.
12) Using a pair of standard pliers, grab the wire close to the tubing so you can gently pull it toward you while you twist it. This will pull it tight on the tubing, creating a clamp. This is a little tricky, and sometimes the wire breaks because I twist it too much, but just take it slow and gentle and you will get it right. The goal is to pull and twist just until it cinches down on the tubing. Once you think you have a good seal (give a little tug on the tubing and make sure it doesn't pull easily off the fitting), you are done. Congratulations (I hope!).
13) Push the long wire ends in so they won't get in the way of closing the unit up (I didn't cut mine off in case I need to pull them tighter later).
14) Gently push the tall black plastic unit back into it's proper position. Mine sort of clicked into place.
15) Re-attach the electrical wire to the back of the machine (the one you removed in step 5).
16) Find the two plastic spacers that you removed in step 4 and slip them over the back of the machine. Put the back of the machine in place. Put the bottom of the back in first, making sure that it is in the slot on the rubber grommet that is around the plug wire. Then make sure both long plastic spacers are aligned. Everything should look perfectly in place before you put in the firsts screw. It is kind of a dance to get all these pieces in there correctly, but if you use all 5 of your hands it is pretty easy :-).
17) Carefully screw in the 4 screws and put their covers back on.
Look around. If there aren't any loose parts left, you are done!!! I hope this works as well for you as it did for me. If it still leaks, I would open it up again and see if you can tell where it is leaking. If it is your new wire clamp, try tightening it or making a new one. If it is a different tubing spot, you can make a new clamp for it.
NOTE: when I first put my machine back together, it still "leaked" a little bit of water the first day, but it was just the water that was sitting in the machine. Once this dribbled out, and every day since, I haven't had any more water on my counter.
Good luck!
