When I try to prepare espresso, water does not always pump out. It grinds and tamps, then makes the sound as if it is trying to pump out the steam shot, but water does not come out. I have tried cleaning it and that solves the problem for a few cups and then it acts up again.

All espresso is coffee, but not all coffee is espresso. Espresso is a term used to describe a way of preparing coffee.
Coffee is a drink made from the roasted seeds of a Coffea plant. Espresso is made by pushing a shot of hot water at high pressure through very finely ground coffee

Try to redo what you have been doing, but set it to the extremes to see if everything is functioning. If you set the grind say to 4, it should come out very slow or maybe not at all.

When it is blinking on steam it means it is preparing the unit for steam. When the steam light goes solid your unit is ready to make steam.

• Turn from standby to steam then wait for steam light to go solid.
• When solid steam wand will begin dribbling then spitting out water, which will then turn to steam.
• When it begins to steam, turn back to standby. NOTE: you only have 6 seconds before steaming turns off.
• place steaming wand in jug and turn from standby back to steam.

You will hear pumping noises when you turn off your steam, because it releases the steam and puts the excess water in to the drip tray.

• make sure your bean hopper is properly locked in to the unit. Grinder won't work if hopper not locked in.
• Make sure your water filter has been prepped and locked securely in to the reservoir and your reservoir is filled.
• Use fresh beans.
• Sounds funny but use good quality water, do not use ordinary tap water. Make sure it is filtered or use bottled water (cooler bottles).
• Try to grind your beans to a good consistancy.
• Breville recomends about 10kg tamping pressure, use a set of scales to check the feel.
• Tamp to about 3-5 mm below rim of grouphead (portafilter). Or the tamp has a guide on the side, that silver side on the tamp is the tamp line. Pretty vauge about that in the book.

If all else fails go to www.breville.com.au and check your model and watch some of the vid clips.

The coffee grind is too fine, or you are tamping too hard, First remove the portafilter and press the brew button if water flows move on if not remove the shower and clean. Now that we have a nice flow of water without the portafilter. Now we will add coffee to the portafilter, and level it out, do not tamp and try to run a coffee, if that works then the Tamp is the problem, if you tamp and still have the problem then the grind is too fine.

1; Second hose is for expansion valve from pump, in case there is excess pressure the water returns to the reservoir.

2; Either the coffee is stale or the amount of tamp pressure is not enough. Think of your grind coarseness rocks and sand, that will help you find the right grind.

3; No

4; Yes it is normal. You need a higher temp for steam than for coffee, therefore the thermostat on the machine is programmed to get the water in the boiler to steam temp when you ask for steam, a few seconds at the most.

I do not know what model or make you have but it sounds like the problem is inline after the pump, check the grind and tamp if semi machine, if auto then it is being blocked either the brew unit screen and output tube or the grind, it is also possible that there is buildup just after the pump, try descaling the machine.

Remove the brew unit and check the shower screen under the red o-ring, it might be blocked.

Remove the brew unit and check for blockage in the shower screen, then try to brew coffee if same result machine might need to be descaled.

Hi
If you are doing it right and using the double shot filter basket, with the correct amount of coffee, with the right grind and tamp. You should not get anything, for about 5 seconds after you turn the pump on, and it should take between 25 and 35 seconds for an 1 1/2 oz to 2 oz of espresso.

Check the grind on the coffee or the packing pressure used to tamp. If it flows great without coffee in the portafilter, then the problem is the grind or tamp. The grind might be too fine that the pump has to use so much pressure that the relief valve open and most of the water goes into the drain tray.