Some idiot put ground coffee and water in the whole bean reservoir of out titanium Gaggia machine. I may have been there for a day or 2 before we noticed something wasn't working correctly. we took it apart as far as is easy to do and removed the water & ground coffee along with the whole beans. we cleaned with a paper towel and blew a little air in the reservoir to remove residue. Dried all else up and reassembled. Now the dregs come out very wet and the overflow tray gets water in it with each cup brewed. What else should we do? Help! I miss my morning coffee. Connie

It is fairly easy (if you have the instructions I'm going to give you) to take the grinder apart to clean it out completely. This would be the best way to clean it - by removing the burrs so you can get right into the grind chamber and grinds delivery chute to clean.

At least vacuum it out as best you can and don't add any beans until it has had time to dry out.

OK ... first take off the water reservoir and set aside. And unplug the power cord. While you're at it, remove the drip tray and set aside and remove the brew group and set aside. You'll want to rinse off the brew group very well.

Next remove the three screws that hold the bean hopper and lift the bean hopper out and set aside.

Lift off the round rubber top from the grinder - it has four slots that line it up so it'll be easy to put back on later.

Now, notice the ring with gear teeth on the edges? This is the grind adjustment that turns around when you turn the grind adjustment knob. Twist that ring counterclockwise and you'll see a painted mark - twist counterclockwise until that mark is pointing to about 7 o'clock. Now you can lift out the center part (the burr) - you'll need to wiggle it a little and you should be able to lift it out - notice the painted mark that would have been pointing to about 3 o'clock. Brush this burr clean with a stiff brush (a toothbrush would work) and set it aside for now.

Vacuum all the mess out in the grind chamber - you may need to loosen the coffee grounds up with a toothpick or a stiff brush.

Once you've vacuumed out all the grinds, there is a "chute" where the coffee grounds go through - it's hard to see because it will be caked up with coffee grounds. This is at about 5 o'clock in the grind chamber that you just cleaned out and goes towards the front of the machine. Poke something in there (a chopstick or a wooden coffee stirring stick works well - or the handle of your brush) to loosen up the caked up coffee grounds and vacuum again.

To really get this clean, tip the machine onto its back and open the front door (you've already removed the drip tray and the brew group, right?) You'll see a little trap door with a triangular shaped handle - this is right directly above where the funnel of the brew group would be if the brew group were inserted. Pull down on that triangle and the trap door will open. Vacuum and brush out all the grinds you can and you should see the other side of the "chute" that you were trying to clean out earlier in the grind chamber. Poke your chopstick or stirring stick in there and loosen all the packed coffee grounds (they'll be falling back into the grind chamber now). If you have a can of compressed air you can blow it in there and get coffee grounds all over your kitchen (oops).

You may have to go back and forth a few times between cleaning under the trap door with the machine on its back and then setting the machine upright and vacuuming out the grind chamber and then putting it on its back again and cleaning under the trap door.

You may want to tip the machine completely upside down so any coffee grounds can fall out. This is all very messy but you'll have a nice clean grinder when you're done.

OK ... now that everything is clean and dry - here's how to put it back together and get it aligned correctly.

Put the burr back in with the paint mark pointed to 3 o'clock. Make sure that the outer ring still has its paint mark pointed at about 7 o'clock. Wiggle the burr a bit to make sure it is sitting all the way down in place and then rotate the outer ring clockwise a little - as the ring gets to about 10-11 o'clock it should have locked the burr in and started to pull it down. Verify that you cannot lift the burr back up (if you can, then you didn't get it fully in place and you need to turn the ring counterclockwise again back to 7 o'clock and make sure the burr has snapped all the way into position and try again).

OK - now that you can feel the burr being captured by the ring as you turn the ring clockwise, turn the ring all the way clockwise (the paint mark will be pointing at 3 o'clock. Put the rubber cap back on top of the burr and work it down so the four tabs are fully through the four slots.

Notice the straight plastic piece with gear teeth on it to the right side, just above the burr. This is the dose adjusment - push it all the way towards the back of the grinder.

Now get the bean hopper and set the grind knob to zero and the dose knob all the way to + as far as it will go. Set the bean hopper in place and you may need to wiggle the knobs slightly until they line up in the gear teeth and the hopper can set fully down in place. Verify that you can turn the knobs and see the adjustments moving below (the outer ring should turn and the straight rod with the gear teeth should move forward and backward. Turn the three screws back in to hold the hopper in place.

With the grind setting at 7 or 8, you should see the paint mark on the outer ring at about 1-2 o'clock when you look through the clear plastic of the bean hopper - and this is a good starting place for your grind setting.

Clean the brew group really well (no soap - just water) and put it back in the machine. Put back the drip tray and the water reservoir and plug the power cord back in.

Now that the grinder is completely empty and clean, the first time you fill it with beans and make coffee it will take a lot longer than usual for the first cup to grind - it may tell you the bean hopper is empty - just select a coffee again so it grinds some more. Once it has ground enough beans to get them moving through the chute it should start making coffee again.

Hope that helps --- it isn't as hard as it sounds.