Why do I get Ventilate all the time?
The ventilate problem will always come back if the flow meter is restricted. If the flow meter is plugged it will never go away.What happens to cause this problem? Coffee grounds are the answer. If you remove the water tank, it exposes the water intake receptacle under the tank on top of the machine. The small opening in the receptacle that has a hose that goes to the flow meter that then goes to the pump intake. If some coffee particles fall into this opening when you are filling the bean hopper (and they do). When the pump is activated, it creates a suction, moving the water and anything in the hose to the flow meter. The flow meter has a small opening in the intake side. ). When the pump is activated, suction inside the flow meter creates a jet of water, which spins the little turbine inside. The turbine has a small magnet on top that passes a pick up sensor, which tells the computer that water is flowing. If the intake opening is restricted with coffee grounds, it will let some water flow but won't create a jet of water needed to spin the turbine. Water will come out of the steam wand, but won't spin the turbine and the ventilate signal will still be there. If the flow meter is slightly restricted, the pump can create enough suction to spin the turbine when there is no restrictions when the steam valve is just flowing water (priming), but when you try to steam or make coffee and the pump slows down, the jet of water stops and so does the turbine and the ventilate comes back.How to fix this problem? Answer, the flow meter has to be removed and cleaned, or just replaced.How to prevent this from happening? If you are working on the bean hopper (filling with beans) keep the water tank on and covered. This will prevent a bean chip from falling into the receptacle and getting to the flow meter. Do the same with the bean hopper. If you ware filling the water tank, keep the lid to the bean hopper on, so water doesn't spill into the bean hopper and ruin the grinder.
