Ventilate My machine was turned off overnight. When I turned it back on the word ventilate appeared. I have followed the manual to rectify the problem, however no hot water or steam will come out of the nozzel (this is how you get rid of the ventilate message) What else can I try? It has been on for 2 hours now saying, ventilate with hot water flashing above it.

I fixed my ventilate problem! After 2 days of utter frustration and pushing many buttons, I read another guest comment about resetting to factory settings. Push the up button under the small coffee icon. It should say factory setting with the asterick next to it. Push OK. Then push "yes" for factory settings. Then my machine started working again! Hallelujah! It erased my personal coffee cup setting, but who cares.

Big thanks to the person who posted their solution on Dec. 2007.

To fix this, you are supposed to press the hot water button (with the raindrop icon) once. The message on screen will not change. Then, place a cup or other container below the steam wand and open the steam valve. The screen should read 'Hot water / Ventilate'. Leave the nozzle open until 'Ventilate' goes away. Note: This might take *quite* a while in some instances!

After running about two tanks of water through the machine with no flow problems, the ventilate message still wouldn't go away. After spotting the factory reset trick that's solved it for me, for now...

Had the same problem as Ventilate and Boomer51 with no water coming out of the steam valve. Brought my unit to Saeco and it was fixed in a day. Turns out the steam valve may be faulty in this particular model and it was promptly replaced. Thank goodness for warranty.

I went through 3 machines (both Gaggia and Saeco--both have the same Rapid Steam system), hours of searching the Internet, and phone conversations with support(?) staff before I came up with what seems to be good options for both fixing the problem and then preventing it from being a problem again.

The Fix. Fixing the problem works better with two people, so I will refer to person 1 (P1) and person 2 (P2). To fix the problem: 1) P1 uses either a turkey baster or the small plastic (and leaky) pump packaged with the machine; 2) while the readout says "ventilate", P2 pushes the hot water button, then turns the machine off and removes the water tank; 3) P1 fills the plastic pump (or baster) with water and inserts it into the water intake valve (as best as you can, it doesn't fit perfectly); 4) P2 then turns the machine on and opens the steam wand while P1 pushes water into the intake using the plastic pump or baster; 5) as soon as P1 is finished, P2 turns off the steam valve. Repeat steps 3) through 5) until the machine has accepted 4-5 good pumps of water. If you get the "fill watertank" message, you must begin the entire process over again (if you get the "fill watertank" message every time, just keep following the process until you get the machine to accept 4-5 good pumps of water); 6) turn the machine off and reseat the water tank. 7) Turn the machine on, press the hot water button, and open the steam valve. It may take a minute, but you should finally get water. Run it until it becomes a steady stream, and then some more...about 8 ounces worth. I have found that this process doesn't always work if the machine is hot. When it's hot, it sometimes won't accept any water into the intake valve.

Prevention. To prevent the problem, I have been successful (so far) by: 1) after steaming milk, I push the hot water button and run hot water through the wand until it is a steady stream, and then about 4 oz more. 2) I always steam the milk first, then run hot water through the wand, and then make the espresso. 2) I always run water through the wand after making coffee.

This seems like a lot of steps, but it really doesn't take that long once it's part of your routine. I've been successful with this process for the last several day and before that, I was getting the ventilate message every time I tried to steam milk. I'm hoping it continues to work! It's really a shame that the technical staff have not come up with a better solution or, at the least, addressed the problems people are currently experiencing. When I called Saeco, they told me they didn't know why it as happening!

Like Martin F, my problem was with a defective valve. I don't know whether it was replaced with a stainless steel model (I read about it here) or the original plastic one, but considering the valve failed after over 8000 coffees, I am not going to complain. The cost of the repair was a mere 70$.

My father-in-law had a ventilate issue with his Gaggia Titanium Plus as well, only to solve that one, we opened the machine and pushed on the litlle disc sitting on the shaft of the steam valve knob (pushed toward the outside of the machine): complete fluke, but that fixed the problem.

I just had the same problem and solved it.

As advised on this thread I had reset the machine to it's "Factory Setting" through the pushing the Menu button. then scrolling one up to "Factory Setting". Clicking the menu/ok button again. change the value to Yes. and then clicking the ESC to leave the menu.

Then the machine is doing some "Test" for a few seconds.

Then I clicked on a the small coffee icon, to make myself a coffee and make sure that water is running through the system.

The next step was pushing the "Hot Water" button #26, and then turning the know to dispense Hot Water through the wand.

Only then when some water went through the Wand, I turned off the know and changed the mode to Steam.

I am happy :)

If ventilate stays on for a long time then the steam nozzle has become blocked - take off the nozzle and unscrew the top part then pull off the black component, rinse it, blow through it and if necessary use a pin or paper clip to to move out the debris - the manufacturers instructions are pathetic

I had the same problem and even after phoning Gaggia couldn't get the machine to Ventilate. When i pulled the steam wand apart i had noticed that the water would come through and the ventilate sign was removed. By the way i didn't have to use the whole tak of water for the message to be removed!!. I had to put a needle several times through the black piece of the steamer to remove what appeared to be plastic but was dried up milk. now i can see through the end of the black nozzle however it continues to block and not a drop of water comes through... a real pain.... does anyone know if you can replace the black part of the nozzle under warranty?

I got the "Ventilate" problem when the steamer got plugged up with solidified milk. I turned off the machine and used a bent paperclip to clean out the steam wand.

I usually run some water through the steam wand before/after steaming milk to clean out old stuff prior to steaming, and then to clean out milk after steaming.