No water coming through brewing head

Hi there, I had a very similar problem with my Gaggia Classic. Worked fantastic every day for two years then one day the brew head was reduced to a very slow drip. I rang some Gaggia service agents and they all said it needs a service ($100-$150). The last one I called told me to descale it before bringing it in for a service as it was probably scale buildup. I told them it wasn't a gradual thing - it just suddenly stopped and they said what happens is the scale builds up to a point where a piece breaks off and clogs the pipeworks leading to the brewing head. So, I used the instructions outlined here: http://www.coffeemachine.com.au/descalin... At then end of the second flush through the steam head, I closed the steam vale to try and push the descaling solution back through the brew head (just dripped through again) then left it for 10 minutes again. Did the same the third time and it went to drip again for about five seconds then bingo - burst back to full flow. Hope this helps.

CLR is a de-scaler that works great on these plugged up machines.

Make sure you remove the round screen that is held by a center placed, phillips head screw. You will need a very short, medium sized Phillips screw driver. Don't ruin this screw. If you have to go to to the hardware store and buy one to fit, go buy one that fits.

Turn the machine upside down so you and get your body weight on that screw to keep from stripping the head. I found that using Acetone and a small wire brush really cleans the coffee "goo" from this screen and the casting above it.

Leave the screen out until your machine is de-scaled.

You can get CLR at any hardware store. Mix it 50/50 with water for really clogged machines. Heat the machine up and pump the CLR mix until at least a little gets through the brew head. Make steam and get it out of the wand, move the CLR through the machine.

Let it sit over night.

It is helpful to put a lot of steam on the machine, then turn off the steam switch and turn on the hot water pump. Steam will shoot out like crazy when the CLR works through the brew head.

Strain the CLR you catch from the brew head and steam wand through and old towel and re-use it. Look for Chunks of scale. When no more chunks come out, you are ready to rinse. Use water two or three times to get the CLR out.

Enjoy your espresso.

Check the magnetic valve, this can be clogged by calc, cleaning doesn't help a lot. Replace magnetic valve, costs about 40 euro.
please check www.espressoxxl.de for parts, great site and great shop.

Regards, Peter

I had the same problem - and because no water at all was getting through the "brew head", running it with descaler (as it recommends in the manual) didn't work.  Worse, when I tried to get the crud out of the "shower head" bit as gaggia recommend in http://www.gaggia.uk.com/usefultips.htm, I could undo the screw to remove the perforated bit, but when I removed the 2 allen screws to get at the rest of it, nothing happened.  Couldn't shift it at all.Eventual solution was to unplug it, turn it upside down (take out the water tank first!) and fill the whole area with lemon juice (it's stronger than commercial de-scaler, but filter the bits out first) and leave the whole thing overnight.  That cleared the scale out enough to allow the Gaggia-recommended de-scaling procedure to work, and the machine now works fine.  (Still can't get the shower head carrier out, though) Hope it works for you...... 

I know this sounds obvious but the "steam" switch (the middle one of the three) should be in the UP position i.e. turned off when you wish to brew. To use the steam this same switch should be in the down (ON) position. Sequence is as follows: Turn switch one to on position. After heating, switch three will light. Now turn switch three on to brew coffee. Off when brewing finished. Turn on switch two leaving switch three in off position. When switch three lights up turn knob to use the steam.