Unable to brew espresso

[vancity2010]

My saeco odea giro espresso machine seems to be unable to brew an actual espresso. I put in real espresso beans which were very dark and oily, but when I went to brew an espresso, the machine seemed like it doesn't have enough pressure to push the water through the grinds. The machine will try to brew the coffee but it will just drip out into the cup very slowly.

Am I doing something wrong or is there anything I can change on the machine so that it does make the espresso properly?

 

[espressoaddict]

Did you grind the beans yourself? They may be too finely ground.

 

[Yarbooa]

Do you know how many bars you machine has ?
Do you squeeze the ground coffee tightly before closing the cover cup?

 

[cece74]

Saeco I think is a good.

 

[ceegee]

How long have you had the machine - does it need a good clean?

 

[ToyDogCoffee]

It is really hard to say why it is not brewing properly. It could be a number of factors including:

Packing the beans to tight: The machine has a hard time pressing the water through
Malfunction of the machine: Not generating enough bars of pressure
Needs a cleaning: If you live in a region with hard water, you could have build up that needs to be cleaned out.

Try a cleaner designed for espresso machines, and also try a loosely packed coffee to see if you are packing it to tight. While it won't make a drinkable espresso it might tell you if you are packing it to tight.