keeping your electronics happy doesn't have to involve phone calls for warranty service. many are straightforward jobs that require a sink, a screwdriver, and an episode of DS9 playing in the background.
today's fun bit of elective surgery and preventative maintenance: taking apart and cleaning the brew unit on my GE Profile automatic espresso machine
(if you recognize the shape of this machine, that's probably because SMEG re-shelled the machine and uses identical parts internally. so anything i've done here equally applies to its cousin.)
the manual assures you that there are no user serviceable parts inside, and that only GE's warranty service can do it. it doesn't say that GE stopped offering any kind of service or parts for these machines two years ago.
espresso machine elitists are of zero help as well, toeing the usual line "just go buy a REAL machine like a $2k Lelit that uses standard parts" blah blah.
understandably, everyday people give up and toss these machines in the landfill.
i've owned a half dozen machines and grinders in my life - some in the $3k range, and none of them make an *excellent* espresso for the $200 this machine can.
in the interests of extending its life for as long as possible, some preventative maintenance is super easy to do:
the brew unit detaches from the side of the machine with two squeeze-clips. it has six beefy phillips #2 screws to remove. once those are off, you'll see the guts of the brew unit. it's just a few plastic gears. look how vile they've become after 2 years of daily use 😬 (pic 1)
as soon as i started cleaning it, my fingers got gunky - sticky! all of the parts were gooped in white lithium grease, which had mixed with old coffee and produced quite a mess. i took out all of the gears, and scrubbed them all in the sink with hot water and lots of dish soap. an old toothbrush worked great.
pic 2: the cleaned up parts. cleaning off all the gunk also removed all of the grease, so i re-greased each gear using an old tube of food-grade silicone grease i had laying around from years ago.
pic 3: the brew unit back inside of the machine. you can see the orange plastic squeeze-clips that let you easily remove the brew unit for cleaning.
pic 4: the re-assembled machine, working happily.
#selfrepair #diyrepair #mottai #coffee #permaculture
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