What am I doing wrong, nothing coming out

[David23]

Just got my new MINI, and am trying to pull my first shot on it. I followed the directions to fill the boiler, seems to have done that fine. Now I can't get any water to come out the grouphead. I am sure I am doing something (or not doing) stupid, but I need some guidence. Tried to program dose, and can't get any result that way also.
Any help out there?

[chas]

Lots of questions to help narrow this down...

• 1) Do the hot water and steam functions work?
  2) Do you get the same exact result when pressing either the one-cup or the two-cup button?
  3) When you press the one-cup or two-cup buttons, do you hear the pump come on?
  4) If no water flows when you press either button, after 10-15 seconds you should get a no flow alarm where either 3 green or 3 amber lights blink depending on which button is pressed. Does that happen?
  5) What does the group boiler pressure gauge read when you press one of the group buttons?
  6) When you turn on the Mini, do you see the temperature lamps sequence up to your set temperature indicating that the boiler is actually heating?

[David23]

Ok thanks, will try to answer:
Yes, hot water and steam work.
Yes, same result: nothing.
I don't hear the pump
Yes, I get the flashing 3 lights
Group pressure reads almost straight up, does not change
The lights did sequence up indicating it has reached temp, hot water and steam come out.

[chas]

Ah, I finally remembered. I knew that sounded familiar from something previously seen. See the text below from one of the FAQs located on the VII/VII Mini Site.

So my guess is that you did NOT purchase the optional timer. However, they probably hooked one up either at the factory or at the place you purchased from, verified it worked, removed it, then forgot to change the timer enable switch back to the OFF position.

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When I press the two cup button, lights 17 18 and 19 flash once and then back to the current temp light or when I press the one cup button lights 14, 15, and 16 flash once and then back to the current temp light. The pump never turns on.

These are the classic symptoms for those VII or VII Mini users that do not have the optional timer but have the timer enable switch set to ON on top of the black controller box. This switch MUST be set in the OFF position if you don't have a timer otherwise you will get the exact symptoms noted above.

To access this switch you need to remove the top cup warmer tray. This is done by removing a single recessed screw in the front center of tray. Once the tray is removed, look inside the machine for two switches on top of a black box. This is on the right side when facing the front of the machine. One switch is marked 15/20 and is set to whether you are running in 15A or 20A mode. The other is labeled On/Off. If you do NOT have a timer this switch MUST be set to OFF!

[David23]

OK, it was indeed set to "on", I switched it to off and will try it.
Oh, just heard the wife drive up, have to show it off to her!

[chas]

Excellent. You'll be good to go now. You and your wife can stay up and drink shots all night!

I need to discuss this with Chris Coffee. Not only do they seem to do this with some frequency but it appears that this may actually be an intended LaSpaziale Alarm condition to tell the user that the timer has failed or that it's enabled but not communicating with the machine at any rate. This isn't in the list of officially documented alarm conditions in the User's Manual but perhaps it should be.

[David23]

Hmmm, well, that didn't really change anything.
??

[chas]

Try unplugging it for a minute and plugging it back it. I can't remember if the state if those switches is only read on power on or not.

If you try that and it still doesn't work, do the lights flash once as noted in the FAQ I quoted in the earlier post?

[David23]

Well, now it seems to be working. Just ran it and it flowed etc. I think your solution worked after all.
Thanks so much for the help. Need to get some beans tomorrow!