Is my Breville broken?

[brisbane1]

I recently purchased the BES820XL and have a serious problem: While the water comes out hot, there appears to be ZERO pressure (the gauge arrow doesn''t move a tick) and the espresso comes out like mud. Has anyone encountered this problem before? Could there be something I''m missing/not doing? Or is it just busted?

 

[shadow745]

First thing I'd do is check the basket(s) that go in the portafilter. That machine utilizes pressurized baskets to reach the proper pressure and the holes may be stopped up, causing the problems you speak of. If I'm not mistaken that basket uses a 2-step design, meaning one part of the basket has alot of holes and then the water drains out the bottom through 1 larger hole. Soak this basket thoroughly in a backflush detergent solution (JoeGlo works wonders) and see if that helps.

BTW, household OxyClean also works OK for this cleaning application. Later!