Delonghi La Specialista is an automatic coffee maker that puts in your hands the skills of a barista with its professional quality design and exclusive innovations. Such a complete coffee maker, despite costing $800, is not expensive compared to the machine’s performance.
Its high quality is indisputable. However, this does not exempt it from presenting one failure or another, and the most common is usually due to water leaks, but fortunately, you can solve it easily. Here we leave you the complete guide to solving these leaking problems.
My Delonghi La Specialista leaks from the bottom
The worst nightmare for any user of any coffee maker is trying to brew a coffee and finding water everywhere. I am afraid that Delonghi coffee makers are no exception. Most of the brand’s automatic coffee makers suffer from water leaks.
The problem: Normally, this problem arises after many uses of the coffee maker, and we detect it in the same base. It is a puddle of water that grows under our Delonghi la Specialista whenever we use the coffee maker.
The first cause: Frequent use of the coffee maker causes the heating element to heat and cool many times, and over time this can result in damage such as cracks (or complete breakage) of the small plastic connector at the outlet of the Thermoblock.
The second cause: The O-rings of the internal connectors of the coffee maker are quite susceptible to break or deform over time, so if the outer plastic connector was not the problem, check these seals on the inside because they can also cause leaks.
The solution:
- Disassemble the coffee maker.
- Check both the boiler outlet connector and the O-rings inside the machine and if you find any parts broken or worn, replace them with a new ones.
- Reassemble the coffee maker.
My Delonghi La Specialista leaks from underneath the coffee group
When the coffee group presents water leaks, it is annoying because of the mess it causes and because the quality of the coffee that comes out of the machine is affected. This problem can be due to various causes, some of which are easy to solve, while others represent a much more complex problem.
The problem: Every time the coffee maker prepares a coffee, the water escapes from the edges of the filter holder, and the output pressure decreases.
The first cause: This cause represents a somewhat more difficult problem to solve. One or more tabs that hold the portafilter to the coffee group are broken. If the portafilter is not held tightly enough, coffee will spill over the edges as it comes out.
The first solution: The solution to this problem is a little more complex because the tabs are part of the machine’s chassis.
It will not be possible to change only this part, but the entire chassis must be changed, and all the internal components must be moved to the new one. This work can only be done by someone qualified and experienced enough to repair these coffee makers.
The second cause: This cause is frequent and easily solved; the whitish rubber gasket located in the filter holder support (as you can see in the previous image) is worn out or completely damaged and does not allow the filter holder to fit tightly, causing the leak.
The second solution is as simple as buying a new rubber gasket and replacing it with the damaged one. You can do this yourself; remove the center screw of the filter holder bracket and remove the gasket with your hands.
The third cause: There is another black rubber gasket on the filter holder bracket; it is located just behind the white rubber gasket; it can also wear out or break, causing leaks.
The third solution: Remove the central screw of the filter holder bracket and remove the white rubber gasket with your hands, then remove the black gasket and replace it with a new one.
Conclusion:
- If your Delonghi La Specialista coffee maker is leaking water, it is most likely caused by plastic connectors that have lost their sealing capacity or breakage.
- More extreme cases, such as the breakage of the plastic tabs of the coffee group, are due to incorrect handling of the coffee maker.
If your coffee maker is no longer under warranty, we encourage you to disassemble it and try to solve the problem yourself. If you think that this is too complicated a job, please get in touch with Delonghi’s technical service.
In any case, we hope this guide has helped you detect the source of those annoying water leaks in your Delonghi La Specialista.
