Unit does not discharge water, even without a pod in place.

It does sound like an airlock, I managed to sort my machine, with the same problem, by doing the following:

Phase 1: fill water tank and with machine turned OFF and everything set to dispense cold repeatedly put the water tank on and off. This pushed water into the system, you can check it is working by looking for air Bubblé rising in the water tank as you do it.

After approx 40 cycles (probably equivalent to 1 mug of water) or if water starts “leaking" out the back of the machine clean up any residue/spilled water.

Phase 2: *please ensure all spilled water is cleaned up so the unit and area is dry!

Refil water tank, put into correct position and turn machine on, with capsule holder and lever in dispense position. Waitt until green light shows then switch lever to hot water position. CAREFULLY lift and replace water tank “pushing more water” until it dispenses water by itself.

Use the rest of the water in the tank to flush through. I cycled between hot and cold.

Phase 3: celebrate!

Probably the same problem as ours, you need to purchase a genuine Dolce Gusto descaler powder kit.

Use hot water, do not use vinegar or acetic acid.

The solution for me is quite simple. I took a syringe,and broke the top part and then keep pumping the water through the system. It took me around 5 minutes to get the system working again. Thanks for all the tips!

There’s a little metal tool in the back of some of these machines behind the water tank for cleaning out the water spout . A metal loop when you pull it out comes a long tool for cleaning the water nozzle ! Genius!

Did the the lift and lock 100 times and it worked on the Dolce Gusto Circular but not successful with the Dolce Gusto Portable.

Hi been having same problem but when I put the pod holder back in it’s slot - it worked !! just run some descaler solution through and green light stayed on so was able to get the water to run through

Here is a neat trick to fix no-water-flow without being looking silly lifting the water tank up and down a gazillion times. The key is to flush the water tube to remove air pockets but for some of these portable Nescafe machine, it's nearly impossible to access the water tube. Here are the steps:

-find a squeeze top water bottle, the biking water bottle type works well

- cut off the bottle squeeze tip and remove the pin; the open squeeze top fits snugly through the Nescafe water entry nozzle

- fill the bottle with water, fit the squeeze top through Nescafe water entry nozzle & squeeze hard 4-5 times to flush the tube

YouTube video instructions

https://youtu.be/5G5vWGJnIwM

Worked by the technique of lifting on and off the tank multiple times and using a syringe from baby calpol and using that to push water down the inlet (disconnect the tank and where that connects to) again multiple times. Also cleaning the nipple where the pod goes using the small tool provided on the back of the machine. Can be a bit messy with water but with a towel in hand you will be fine.

Our Dolce Gusto Circular has been left unused for more than a year now and experienced this same issue. With the availability of the Nescafe-Starbucks pods(saw them on sale the other week so bought several boxes), I had to put the unit into action again! :-)

Anyway, I did just what was mentioend above. Here are the details if anyone is interested…

1. Fill tank with water
2. Place the tank in the machine as if you are going to make a coffee. Suggest to turn the dial-up to maximum - this is to allow the pump to operate at the maximum duration eventually allowing the duration of the ‘flushing’ process to maximum.
3. Do the second step multiple times noting that you need to turn-on/turn-off the unit multiple times (approximately 30x in my case).
4. Halfway through the turning-off/turning-on and water tank attach/remove processes, I was tempted to pry-open the unit to look at the tubing and/or to see what may be wrong inside. Patience was a virtue - what I did instead was to turn the unit upside-down/left/right several times - the premise is to allow the residual water in the tubing to move (and possibly get rid of the air pocket and or and lodged materials/deposits however minisucle they are). I am not sure if that really helped but was worth a try - what’s important is I had a positive outcome out of it.

Hope this helps!

And btw…yes, the coffee tastes great!

;-)

We just had this issue, not used ours for about a year as we take ours away with us on holiday, it definitely works to keep taking off the tank and replacing it! Only took us bout 5-10 min to get it going! Thanks for this post existing ❤️

Is impossible to get an air lock with 15 lb pressure, If you didn’t use a descaler when it was flowing, you will have to poke out the calcair which blocks the outlet of the heater unit, if you have even a tiny flow the descaler will work.

Need a 8mm tork screwdriver to dismantle the case etc, look on youtube.

I hadn’t used my machine in over a year, and decided to get it back out to use. I also had no water coming out, tried unjamming the nozzle with a needle but still didn’t work. Then saw on here about the possibility of it being air locked, I tried the docking and undocking the water tank and it worked! Only took maybe 10x? It did shock me when it finally worked though as it was spluttering from the sides first before I saw the stream of coffee going to the cup. Now all is well and I’m de-stressed lol

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&...

worked for me as the jet/nozzle had scaled up and no amount of putting the tank on and off would have worked.

whatever method gets the water to flow there is always the chance it will block again, so use a descaling compound to clear all the pipes for the next few weeks or more.

We ordered one and it came, we had this problem with a brand new unit… so we sent it back and got a replacement…. the replacement has the same problem… you cant make this stuff up! What a crappy product.

Was having same problem with my gusto oblo, it had been left for over a year when my son asked if he could have it, gave it to him and he said it doesn't work, took it back and tried this that and t'other, no joy until I found ifixit, in only 10 mins I have just got it going again after about 30 attempts at putting tank on and off. Gave it a shake for good measure and voilà it's working like a good un. Only problem I have is do I tell my Son it's working again or do I keep it ?? Big thank you for putting the post up.

sounds like it needs a decalc, get one these from yr supermarket, a powder one.

Should have been done before after standing for 12 months, the water sludge would have settled in the pipes.

I have a Nescafe Red Mug machine. Same concept with pod machines but for coffee powder. Was in storage for a year. I have tried descaling and poking. But I noticed the machine does not takes water from the tank at all. So I googled and came upon this post. However I have no time to put the tank on and off a hundred time, I also do not have a sports bottle around. Luckily I have an empty bottle of cleaning fluid with a tip almost same size as the water tank inlet. What I did was filled the bottle with water, placed it on the nozzle, turned on the machine, pumped the bottle around 5x, and whala! Hot water eventually flowed out like it was a brand new machine again!

Hi

I had the same issue tried all the suggestions above but nothing really, then to my amazement at the back of the machine when you take the water holder off was a small pin with a circular end, i pushed the pin up the nozzle of the machine and the water squirted out and then finally its working, seems it was clogged up at the nozzle

This works but you must have the unit switched on while pumping from the water tank by lifting and placing back in a tight controlled manner, remember you are pumping from your end at the tank while the units pump pumps the air bubble out from the nozzle end, yes it works, I would descale it afterwards. See Adrian B’s channel on you tube re cleaning the injector nozzle and diffuser unit.

https://youtu.be/u392qDLuo-I

If the pump just tries to pump even for a microsecond the flow is blocked by calcare.

If you have the slightest weep of water from the jet you will be ok with a de-blocker, but I would use hot water to dissolve the powder. Just keep switching it on and off until the flow increases and dissolves the calcare.

The manufacturer should install a switch to stop the pump in case of no-flow or too low water level. Although this is a cheap device, the switcch could differentiate them from other products that has the same anoying issue.

It worked!!!

I literally had to do it like 300 times, it was exhausting. But seeing the other comments saying it's gonna take a lot of time and to keep trying even if you lose all hope kept me going!

I did it with the tank full of hot water while it was running in the max lines on hot. Eventually, little drops started to fall out and then it kept going.

I used the full tank on hot so the flow was perfect. Then I mixed 3 tbsp of baking soda with 2 cups of water and put it in the machine, then ran it on descaler mode. After it ran through I mixed 1/2 a cup of vinegar with 2 cups of water, put it in the tank, and ran it again on descaler mode, the water came out bubbly from the reaction, but I bet it's really clean. Then I ran it twice for rinsing with clean water, in both modes; It didn't smell of anything and the water flow was perfect. This post saved my coffee machine

It sounds like your machine might indeed have an air-lock, especially after sitting idle for a month. A good way to check is to remove the water reservoir and carefully refill it, making sure all connections are secure and the tubing is properly seated. Gently tapping the water lines can sometimes release trapped air. Running a few cycles without a pod may help push the air through. On a side note, I recently learned about sites offering customizable water bottles—perfect for keeping hydrated while troubleshooting or daily use.

I use a powder calcair deblocker and hot water, If you then keep switching the machine on and of every 30 seconds it will deblock itself.

Then flush it out with clean warm water then cold.