Your De’Longhi Eletta coffee maker should always deliver perfect coffee if you take good care of it. With regular cleaning and maintenance, you can enjoy delicious coffee drinks for years to come. However, these coffee makers can show some faults with use and time.
To help you get the most out of your coffee maker, we have created this troubleshooting guide, which will let you know what to do if your Delonghi Eletta ever develops any of these faults; you should not throw it away first trying to repair it.
Don’t forget to consult the troubleshooting guide for the Delonghi Magnifica; many of its faults are common to the Delonghi Eletta. You can also check the instruction manuals here.
Water leakage from the front of the Delonghi Eletta Cappuccino Top
This is not exclusive to Delongui or the Eletta model; it is common to find water leaks in all coffee makers. These leaks can occur in different places, the most common being the coffee brewing area and the base.
The loss of water is uncomfortable and can even represent a decrease in the amount of water that comes out to prepare the coffee or even that it does not come out. It is necessary to pay attention to this problem before these leaks cause damage to other parts inside the coffee maker.
Problem: Every time you try to start the Delonghi Eletta Cappuccino coffee maker to prepare a coffee, water starts to drip from the front, and it is not exactly from the nozzles that dispense the coffee but behind them; in addition, the drip tray is always overflowing with water.
Cause: With time and frequent use of the coffee maker, it is normal for worn or damaged O-rings to appear in the internal connections of the machine. Some of the leaks due to O-rings are easy to identify. Still, others occur in less visible places, such as, in this case, inside the piston valve of the coffee generator group.
Solution:
- Turn off and unplug the coffee maker.
- Disassemble the coffee maker.
- Locate the piston of the coffee generator group and disassemble the valve attached to it.
- Check the valve parts until you find the damaged gasket and replace it.
- In some cases, when the piston structure has been damaged, it will have to be replaced.
- Clean all the parts you removed very well before replacing them.
- Reattach the piston of the coffee generator group to the machine.
- Assemble the coffee maker.
No milk comes out of the Delonghi Eletta Cappuccino Top’s frother
Suppose you like coffee preparations accompanied by milk. In that case, it will not be pleasant for you to know that one day the frother of your Delonghi Eletta coffee maker stops working and no longer dispenses or froths milk. Fortunately, it is repairable, and here you will learn how to do it.
Problem: When you start the Delonghi Eletta coffee maker to froth milk, you realize that, although the machine starts normally, the milk does not come out in the cup.
Cause: The coffee maker’s proper and regular cleaning is essential to avoid blockages. Suppose you do not clean the frother nozzle after each use. In that case, milk residue will begin to accumulate inside until it obstructs or blocks the liquid outlet.
Solution:
- Place a container under the milk frother.
- Press the hot water button to dispense some into the container, and press it again to stop this action.
- Wait a few minutes until the milk frother has cooled down.
- Press the grey button on the frother and gently pull it.
- Disassemble the frother and remove the steam nozzle.
- Check that the nozzle opening is not clogged and clean the opening with a toothpick.
- Clean all milk frother parts thoroughly with a sponge and warm water.
- Reinstall the nozzle and other parts of the frother.
- Reinstall the frother in place.
The Delonghi Eletta Cappuccino Top coffee maker does not grind enough coffee
Knowing the correct operation of the coffee maker and carrying out good maintenance and cleaning is of vital importance. This will allow us to identify when things are not going well with the machine without affecting the final preparation of the coffee, obtaining the correct amounts of optimum quality.
Problem: The coffee produced by your Delonghi Eletta is getting worse and worse; the machine is not preparing the sufficient amount of ground coffee needed to have a good cup of coffee. The machine can grind is not enough to obtain a final quality brew.
Cause 1: Every time the coffee maker performs its grinding function, coffee residues can be left in many places inside the machine, hence the importance of periodic cleaning, since the accumulation of residues in the same part will sooner or later cause obstructions and blockages.
The infuser (a fundamental part of brewing coffee) is exposed to damage due to the accumulation of dirt. If the infuser is clogged, you will not obtain enough ground coffee for your preparations.
Solution 1:
- Turn off and unplug the coffee maker.
- Remove the water tank, and you will find the door that leads to the infuser, open it.
- When the brewer is visible, press the two red release buttons and, without releasing them, bring the brewer outwards.
- Place the brewer in a water container and immerse it for about 5 minutes.
- Then rinse the brewer under running water only.
- Use a brush to remove any coffee residue left on the brewer and its support.
- Reinsert the brewer back into place.
- Press firmly on the «Push» button until it clicks, indicating that the brewer is now in place.
- Check that the two red buttons are locked.
- Close the door and put the water tank back in place.
Cause 2: Since the grinder is already preset in a position that will allow correct delivery of the coffee, you will rarely need to reset it. But suppose you notice that your coffee is coming out too fine after several uses, with too little crema or dispensing too slowly (drop by drop). In that case, you will probably need to correct the grind degree by adjusting the knob.
Keep in mind that the degree of grind can only be adjusted when the grinder is running.
Solution 2:
- Run the coffee maker for the function of brewing a coffee.
- If the coffee output is too slow or does not come out at all, turn the knob one position (just one), clockwise (towards “7”).
- To obtain a fuller-bodied coffee with a better crema, turn the knob one position (only one) counterclockwise (towards “1”).
- Never turn the knob in more than one position at a time. Otherwise, the coffee may be dispensed drop by drop.
- Brew two more coffees to see the effect of the correction you made to the grind degree.
- If you are not satisfied with this setting, turn the knob one more position until you get the degree you want.
The coffee prepared by the Delonghi Eletta Cappuccino tastes very bad
There are fundamental factors that influence the final taste of the coffee. The most important is the type of coffee used, its freshness, and the water quality used to prepare the coffee.
Problem: Despite cleaning the machine regularly and verifying that the grinding of the coffee is carried out optimally, every time we prepare a coffee, we realize that it has a strange taste.
Cause: Since 98% of the liquid in coffee is water, this should be fresh, of neutral taste, and colourless so that the coffee has an optimum flavour. It is necessary to change the water in the tank frequently and descale the coffee maker frequently since excess limescale inside the Delonghi Eletta affects the taste of the coffee.
It is also necessary to ensure that the water hardness level registered in the coffee maker is adequate. According to the hardness level in the water we use, more or less will be the frequency with which we must describe the coffee maker.
Solution:
- Descale, the coffee maker.
- After descaling, in a container, extract some of the water in the reservoir; immerse the indicator paper or test strip, which comes with the machine, in the water to check the hardness level and adjust the machine appropriately.
- After one minute, remove the strip from the water and shake it slightly. Wait another minute, and the degree of hardness highlighted in red will appear like this:
One red square = soft water
Two red squares = slightly hard water
Three red squares = hard water
Four red squares = very hard water - The standard degree of hardness of the machine is set to 4, but after testing the degree of hardness is below 4, you should adjust the machine to the corresponding degree as this means that the machine should be descaled less frequently.
- Decalcify the machine, if necessary.
I programmed my Delonghi Eletta Cappuccino coffee maker incorrectly
The Delonghi Eletta Cappuccino coffee maker is like all coffee makers and has a standard factory configuration. Still, it gives us the option of modifying this configuration to suit our particular needs better.
Problem: I tried to configure my Delonghi Eletta Cappuccino coffee maker to my liking, but it did not work as I expected; the programmed quantities were not what I wanted, and everything got a little out of control, and now I do not know how to fix it.
Cause: If this is the first use of your Delonghi Eletta Cappuccino coffee maker, you wanted to explore what each menu button was for, or you were looking to change the settings of the machine to your liking but did not take the trouble to read the instructions for use, it is likely that you have uncontrolled the configuration of the coffee maker and it is necessary to reset all the menu settings.
Solution:
- Press the ESC button to enter the menu.
- Press one of the scroll arrows until the default values option is displayed, then press the OK button.
- The confirmation option will appear; press the OK button again to confirm and exit.
- Done, you will have reset all menu settings and programmed quantities to the default values, except for the language, which will remain the same.
Related: Delonghi Troubleshooting (complete guide)
Download the Delonghi Eletta instruction manual here:
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- Eletta cappuccino fully automatic coffee machine ECAM44.660.B
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