Sunbeam Cafe Series Espresso EM7000 (Stainless) Questions & Answers (page 4 of 6)

Hi Larry, The problem may be with the humidity changes in the air affecting the beans. I put small amounts of beans in the grinder hopper to avoid this but the changes in pressure are significant through moisture in the air. I experiment but even if there is little pressure, the coffee is still very drinkable. I never throw any out! I always keep opened beans in an air tight container in the dark and this minimises changes in the beans.

So when u turn the black dial on the left just above the steam wand water comes out of the group head.. maybe the wand is blocked. U will find a pin for the steam wand clipped to the back of the water fill area door.. try that.. u can unscrew the tip of the wand and clean it properly to..

Sorry I cannot help you. I ended up busing a Breville as I wasn't happy with the Sunbeam. I advise you to ring the hotime line at Sunbeam and talk to them.

Are you letting the machine heat up fully? You'll need to wait until all the lights are lit up.

Otherwise sounds like a faulty heater which may need servicing.

Hi kath, Doesnt sound Good!..best too contact Sunbeam on his one.!..

Best to phone Sunbeam hot line . They should be able to talk you through

Hi Alison, Your coffee grind is to fine! it will build pressure into the group head and their is no extraction..Set your grinder to a different calibration, a bit courser..You will find it will ease pressure on the group head and coffee will start to extract( a bit of trial on the coffee grinder till you get the right setting)..LUFORGE :-)

Take it back,and maybe try the replace.ent in store

Sorry I cannot help you,. I had so much trouble with the Sunbeam I replaced it with a Breville machine equivalent. No problems.

Hi Dianne, I have had my Sunbeam espresso for 6 months and it is easy to make 2 cups of coffee. Make sure you have fresh beans and the right grind put the 2 cups underneath the group head and pour,that easy! Some people have had problems with this machine such as leaking from group head, That's because the grind is too fine and causes pressure build up.its a good indicator that you need to course the grind and dont put to much pressure on tampering the coffee into the group head! the coffee gauge on the machine will be able to tell you,(best to keep in the orange range)..But then again, the Breville is just as good possibly better.depending on how much you wont too spend..I highly recommend the Breville Oracle...

Hi, I am sorry I can't help you. The best idea is to contact Sunbeam hot line and they may be able to. Good luck with it.

Hi Naomi, A few things you can do.Change your milk to whole milk.? If so, try texturing your milk by tilting your jug slightly to get a cyclonic swirl of the milk and make sure the tip of your steam wand is just on the surface of the milk while heating so you get that creamy texturng.I find it best if you use Paul's full cream milk.As long as you have decent pressure from your wand this should work, also check to see the tip of the wand is not leaking from the seal. If that fails,then contact Sunbeam...

Sorry I cannot help. I only had problems with the Sunbeam and bought a Breville. It is great. You may need to wait until Sunbeam back to work and ring their hot line or take it back to where it was purchased and see if they can help. Good luck.

Thanks for your input might wait till they come back from Christmas
Looks like instant coffee or coffee shop for the time been

Hi, Maybe you should phone Sunbeam customer service and they might be able to help you. Good luck with it.

Sorry I cannot help you. Contact Sunbeam and they should be able to guide you. Unfortunately I didn't have any success with the Sunbeam (I bought two faulty machines and we're replaced with a Breville.

Hi Castlewen, if you go to the back of your EM7000 coffee machine there is a handle insert. just pull the insert out and the plastic resevoir unit comes out..(refer to your manual)..

Try contacting the store where it was purchased. You could even show them these articles in Product Review saying maybe some of the machines are faulty. I bought mine from Joyce Mayne and the staff couldn't have been more helpful . Good luck. I would be intereted to know how you get on as it is most annoying when something stops working in a short space of time.

Thanks so much. I did a new fine grind of beans this morning and the gauge worked fine but I will keep an eye on it. I had changed beans but not the grind so that might be why.

Sounds like your coffee grind is too course.? Try a finer grinder and see if the gauge moves to orange..If so, its the grind of your coffee.If you have a new grinder try between 10-15 if not, set it between 3 and 5.
If this doesnt help, then you need to contact your service provider(Sunbeam) and they will give you details what to do next..

Are you grinding your own coffee beans? If so try different grind settings on your coffee grinder (try a coarser grind setting) until the machine consistently goes into the orange zone. Your grind setting will be right when you can get extraction in the orange zone with a reasonably heavy pressure tamp. The machine going into the red zone usually means that the coffee beans are ground too fine.

The simple answer by brant is spot on and that is all you need to do to fix your problem. Just forget what I say he has the correct answer. :) but I can talk under water so here is a bit more.

I am sorry to say if the pressure is going too high it would be operator error. (as mentioned by brant) I did this when I first used the machine but when I saw it go near the red I pushed the button and stopped it as I under stood too much pressure would not do the machine too good.

From now on just do a light tamp until you get it right. Now there is only one other thing to fix which is the grind. Firstly what grinder do you have? I googled and found the Breville Smart Grinder Pro to be better than the Sunbeam grinder. From memory the Sunbeam does not have all the digital readouts like the Breville so that you can get the same grind. That is if you remember where you had the grind for a certain coffee you can go back to that grind. It is a bit harder when you just have numbers on knobs. I guess Sunbeam have made the grinders simple for the masses.

Do not under fill the basket (or whatever it is called) you must do everything the same to get good coffee. I tamp so that there is just a bit of the silver ring on the tamper showing.

Now to the main problem. If it goes to the red you need to make the grind coarser. Simple as that. That is assuming you have the almost $200 Sunbeam BUR grinder or the Breville one at $245. I know the prices as I checked yesterday for a friend who wants to buy a machine and a good one for him is the new model EM700 does pods also. He has a pod machine now and can use pods if he gets lazy.

Just keep making it courser until it works right in the middle of the orange on the gauge. Also the coffee you buy makes a big difference. Forget the coffee from the local supermarket as it mainly all comes out all black with no crema. Sometimes you can get lucky but 99% of that is no good.

You need to go to somewhere like DiBella or another place that actually roasts the coffee at the location and must be roasted within the last week as shown on the packet.. But there is nothing like roasting the beans yourself. You get the BEST tasting crema and lots of crema when you roast them yourself and therefore a BETTER coffee. As with all beans they usually only last three weeks after roasting. Some use the about $400 stainless steel roaster but I use a couple of popcorn machines. You MUST get the right popcorn machines and that is another story. Guess I'll put a disclaimer here in that you use the popcorn machines at your own risk.

So it is right coffee, right grind and right tamping for a good coffee but just the right grind/tamping to get the gauge to go in the middle of the orange on the gauge.

Mine is making a buzzing noise which I thought started was somewhere when I first got the machine. It is more of a very fast rattle (or buzzing noise) near the top of the machine but is still working about 18 months later.. I suppose that is the same noise as yours?

All the best with it. .

As long as you have the EM69101 filter it will go in.

I forget exactly but there may be an exact way the filter goes in. I mean spin it around but my text on the filter is exactly on the top.

It is VERY hard to push it in. Just be careful where you push against. That is do not push on the top of the tank or you will break it. Push hard right down near the filter. That is force the front and back out near the filter and then force the filter in.

I would have thought it would screw on but looks like you just push the filter down and in. The high pressure keeps it in place.

Instead of what I said above I guess the Sunbeam answer would be simply line it up and push it in. (it is very hard to do)

Hope it goes in well for you.

Make sure the alignment tab is exactly in the correct position. Push the filter toward the inlet valve and the top of the filter should drop into place without too much force or drama. FWIW instead of buying new filters every year I purchased what is essentially a lifetime supply of granules for less than the cost of a single Sunbeam cartridge and just renew the granules in the cartridge annually. It is not difficult to take apart and the cartridge has screens to keep the granules in. The internal baggie makes for easier manufacturing and is not really necessary. If you have good water quality and/or use filtered water you do not need to use the filter unless you just want to (confirmed by Sunbeam). Search on "truwater ion resin" for the ion exchange product - it comes in various sizes.

R8ng Sunbeam again.

Have you solved the problem and what was the fix?

Did you take it back and get another one? Always interested to hear the answer.

We use a fine grind (5 on the Sunbeam grinder) without a problem. You may need to get the machine checked out.

I guess you may have worked it out by now but you also have to tamp it down the same if changing settings to get right. You must use the same volume of coffee when trying to get setting right but I guess your grinder does that. Also I guess you are filling the basket height enough.

If the needle goes too high you just adjust the grinder a bit courser until it is right. When you go too far with the grind and the needle does not go up enough you just keep adjusting until it is perfect. There is a bit of fiddling to get the correct grind. I bought the Breville grinder as thought it was the best in the price range.

If the setting is almost right I sometimes adjust the pressure I tamp to get it to go to the correct place on the gauge.

When you get that right then you need to get the coffee when you remove the head nice and hard. I still have not got that totally right after 15 years of doing coffee as I had many other things to get right first. Apparently you need EXACTLY the right amount of coffee in the head.

What coffee are you using.

Col

Hi,

I presume you are talking about the replaceable anti calc/ hardwater filter that sits in the watertank. The one in mine looks like a sort of brown gel. It's not completely full as such. I guess when new they are a powder/crystals and change into the gel when installed into the tank water.

According to the manual the anti calc filter is optional depending on your own taste as to whether it is needed or if you live in an area with hardwater.

It is the anti calc/ hard water filter that sits in the water tank.

I was hoping that the powder/crystals would expand but was not sure.

Thanks for the reply and information.

I have not put the filter in the coffee machine yet but went to David Jones today and saw a couple of filters in the new EM7000s and the crystals are in two bags in the filter and not filling up all the filter.

I guess the bags may dissolve when wet but with so many Fakes on ebay I am trying to work out if the one off ebay is a fake. I bought it from a small electrical company in Australia but that does not mean they do not sell fakes.

So I wonder if a filter with loose crystals inside is a Genuine Sunbeam product? (I think it may be)

EDIT: Looks like the filter is genuine. The crystals expanded when they got wet.

Hi Lorraine,

I'm not sure what you mean by underneath the unit.
Do you mean underneath the whole unit (ie where the little rubber feet are on the bottom underneath the drip tray)? If so try removing the water tank at the back and inspect the seal of the quick connector.

Or from the group head where the water is pressed through the ground coffee and falls into the drip tray? If so then it is possibly a solenoid inside the unit that may not be sealing properly. Have you tried descaling the system as per the manual? Otherwise may be worth getting it serviced.

Hope that helps
Val

Thanks will give it a go. I think that is is coming from the trip tray. I will do another descaling too to see if it is helps.

Filter blocked?
Try running some cleaner through the it.

Without knowing what coffee you are using, check your grinder setting - it sounds as though it is set too fine.

The rubber disc will send the pressure up into the red.

What happens if there is no coffee or disk in the handle?

Much appreciated - once we eliminated a couple of things we agree the filter is blocked. Cheers for the help Lynne

Aren't long blacks made with extracted coffee on the top of hot water from the hot water wand. Short blacks are made with just extracted coffee. Pardon my lack of correct terminology but I hope you get my meaning.

My hunch is given there are 2 thermoblocks - (1 for the extraction water and 1 for the steam function) that the hot water dispenser is linked to the Espresso extraction themoblock.

You can adjust the temp of the extraction thermoblock by switching the machine off >
press and hold the 1 cup button, whilst holding also press the power button >
The machine will beep/switch on into programming mode and the current temperature setting is indicated by whichever button is illuminated, this stays in programming mode for approximately 5 second in which time you need to press the power button which is the maximum available hot water setting >
The machine will beep and cycle the gauges then will be ready for use shortly. The maximum temperature that the water can be set to approx 96 degrees.

Being linked, this will also affect your espresso extraction temp so remember to set it back to your favorite brew setting once done with hot water.

Don't worry about messing up the setting as you can easily reprogram it and/or reset it back to factory settings. The programming is also explained in the user manual.

If the water flows thru slowly and the coffee is true crema then there is something wrong with the pressure gauge. Or if the water flows thru quickly and the coffee is weak, then your coffee grind is not fine enough or your coffee tamping is not tight enough. hope that helps!