The Starbucks Barista Digital Italia Espresso Machine is a marvel of coffee technology … when it works. Unfortunately all this technology is easily thwarted when a small plastic tab on the inside of the door breaks. The system then thinks that the door is not closed (when it is) and no coffee is allowed to be made.
Below are the hacks implemented to make the beast function properly. Note though that I did not actually implement the hacks; I merely documented them.
That’s a butter knife stuck inside the door so that the close door sensor knows the door is actually closed.
The end of a broken plastic fork taped (with electrical tape mind you) to the end of the broken door tab.
The things humans will do for coffee. 
And the money humans will spend for coffee! That’s an expensive coffee machine.
Agreed, and I’m glad it wasn’t my money.
It looks like that the coffee machine has a cell phone attached to it in the first picture. That little grey, rectangular bit in the middle-left part of the picture. That’s pretty rad. Does it call you when you’re coffee’s ready?
whoever left the previous comment is a complete idiot and should die. thats the place the espresso comes out you dumbass. now go do the world a favor and drown yourself.
Oh, sweet! Thanks. Now that I know where the espresso comes from I can drown myself in that.
very innovative… hmmm. maybe a nail would work? covered with tape? less sightly…
I’ve printed this out and stapled it to the back page of my Italia’s user manual, just in case this ever happens to me. Thanks!
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If mine ever dies I’ll just use the butter knife on myself. Just kidding.
Thanks for posting the tip. Could save a lot of cash if the thing actually breaks… Not to mention the panic that would set in if my coffee machine died at O dark thirty and I was in need of a coffee fix!
Great “hacking post” !
unfortunately, all these hyper-tecnological espresso machines always fail !
My grandfather (ancient coffee expert) always says: “Moka is the right, easy way, to make a good coffee”
Jim
I bought one of these machines from Starbucks a couple years ago. About one year into it the machine failed. The good news is that Starbucks had a great warranty policy and replaced the machine and re-started the warranty!!!!
If you press single, long and descale down all at the same time it will magically refill the hopper full of beans! A new hack for ya, enjoy!
I am nervous about buying one of these Italia’s, although I want one. Please please some decent feedback… The internet is not providing too much thus far. I can get an Italia for 399.00 or a digital Italia for 499.00. Worth the money with a 6 month warranty? Help, I don’t know what to do…. Thanks
I wouldn’t recommend one; after about a year the one we had finally died and we replaced it with two seperate units (espresso and brew). I only saw it in its final few months, but I can tell you it made terribly weak coffee.
Mine only worked for 20 days – then no power at all. I also had the door not closed problem. Two year warranty – I contact Starbucks and they do not sell them anymore and will not fix it. Buy directly from Saeco or another vender. Do not buy a machine with less than one year warranty – I’ve had three different machines and all have died in about a year.
I’m on my third machine….or is it four. Each time Starbucks gladly honored their warranty and bent over backwards to do it. Last time, they upgraded me to the digital italia for a small sum. I’m totally hooked on the machine. The meter says I’ve brewed 3500 shots. No problems. The secret is to use distilled water. It’s cheap, and has zero minerals to conjest the machine. Coffee is consistently perfect. No descaling required. I love it!!!
Looking for a new machine for under $500. Any advice? One with a warranty… So tired of grinding coffee every day.
I’ve had the digital Italia from Starbucks for over a year now and have experienced no problems. I brew about one or two capuccinos a day on average. I’ve tasted some stronger coffees from other machines and can easily recommend the Breville ESP8XL which I got for my ex-wife. It makes an excellent cup of espresso and cost about $280.00.
Mitch
I’ve had the Starbucks Digital Italia (unfortunately out of warranty now) for awhile and it worked great – until…… Brewed a lovely latte Friday morning and when I went to make a second, no response from the beast. There’s power and the panel lights up, but no words – no numbers – nada. Did I mention – no coffee either? Just “blocks” across the readout. I called Stbx and they tried walking me through several tests – to no avail. Finally suggested calling Saeco. Will do that after the holiday. Anyone else had this? Has my beloved friend fried his electronic brian and am I looking at saying a final farewell to my expensive habit?
johnson’s reply to the cell phone comment made me laugh for 10 min. straight. We have had one of these machines for almost 1 year and it makes good coffe but it leaks a little water into the spill tray. We bought one for my parents for Christmas and right away they had problems not being able to get hot coffee. Also they have to push on the edge of the door with the hinges to make it work. I’ll have to tell them about the butter knife trick. Maybe we will have to try Starbucks new( and hopefully improved) model out. Hopefully they worked all the bugs out.
A lot of good information, I have one that works great. I haven’t had to do the plastic fork thing yet but its a great idea. My problem is that I lost the instruction book let. Anyone know where I can get one or a web site I can download one from?
Here ya go:
http://www.starbucks.com/retail/Starbucks%20Italia%20Digital%20165895600%20Rev01.pdf
For the folks who think the Barista is “expensive”, all I can say is you need a longer view of finance than you have. We did the math; as a couple we were spending $6 to sometimes $20 a day on cappuccinos etc at Starbucks and Joe Muggs. Average that to $8 a day, or $240 a month, and a Barista costing $600 cost-justifies in a couple of months. We’ve owned our Barista for 2 years now, theoretically saving more than $5000.00. No problems so far, but we do treat it with great care – as we do all our long term investments
I need a User Manual. Does anyone know where I can get one?
Uh…look up.
My comment from June 12th has the URL you need.
Sorry tale: we bought the machine and had the little leaking from the wand into the tray. So what? we loved it. Called Starbucks and they suggested we descale. Okay, but the water for the machine is reverse osmosis. Didn’t fix the little leak but. . . Anyway-we are now three months out of warranty and last week the machine starts spewing scary sounding steam inside the body. Overheated top of machine and was really hot. It is unusable now- by that I mean I’m not sure I’d use it even if it did work- which it doesn’t. Starbucks is not helpful because the warranty period is over. My advice is get it replaced if it isn’t great.
I just plugged in my new Digital Italia. I filled it with water, turned it on and it said ‘NEED TO PRIME’. I turned the knob counter clockwise and the motor ran for 5 seconds and stopped. The display reads ‘HOT WATER CLOSE KNOB’. What’s wrong? I checked the water intake and it isn’t blocked. Could it be “vapour locked?” How do I fix it?
I am experiencing the same problem as above. We can’t get past the NEED TO PRIME stage. Called Starbucks but to no avail. Any ideas??
“Need to prime” is indeed troublesome. If it happens because I want to steam milk, OK, I am willing to just have a long shot and heat the milk in the microwave BUT once you are at that message no function works.
Here is a trick that NO ONE would recommend to you, however I have had some success with sucking on the hot water spigot. When it works it seems to work regardless of whether the knob is open or closed. Yes the water that eventually starts to flow is hot, but no hotter than a cup of coffee. Works 9 of 10 times. The other time I simply become disgusted, walk away and when I return it magically works.
Even though we also use filtered water only, our unit was a demo and I think it is bits of scale lodged in the tubing somewhere. Overall we are in month 15 of the demo unit and use it 24/7 with consistent results, good lattes, and by adjusting the grinding knobs to 8 and slightly + , we get a robust cup of coffee from it. So much better than a drip system – always hot, always fresh, I’m a huge fan.
Gawd I love the internet! We have this machine and it is stuck in “Need to Prime” mode after I descaled it the other day. I primed it, it worked ok for a couple of shots, and now it will start to steam and then revert to the “NTP” error message. I have filled many, many large bowls with hot water in attempt to prime it, to no avail. Any ideas??
Overall, I have to say, this machine is a piece. It’s the second one (first replaced by Starbucks b/c it was faulty) and this one has always leaked. I won’t be purchasing another one….
anybody know the key sequence to e nter the service menu on the saeco digital?..I’ve had a brain fart and forgotten//the three middle buttons display firmware, but I want the cofee a little hotter then the highest setting allows
I had the same issue but descaled it and it has been fine since then!
I have the same problem with my machine recently when I tried to steam the milk, it suddenly stopped steaming and then switched to “need to prime” I get get water to flow out buy adjusting the knob counter clockwise; water will come out for a few seconds and then says “hot water close knob” and have repeated this process oer 50 times and still I can’t do anything else. Even when I try to descale the process takes like 15 seconds because hot water will not flow out for more than 5 seconds.
any helpers?
Hi there, has anyone ever had the comment temperature rising on it?? The water is not hot, so I am assuming that the heat gauge went out. Any ideas or solutions?? Thanks!! I am enjoying the machine a great deal!!
Does anyone know where I can get replacement parts for this machine? The plastic part of the steam wand attachment (the peice between the machine and the wand iteself) broke the other day and now I am forced to microwave the milk in my wife’s latte. Please help. I fear she is growing suspicious!!!
i just bought the saeco v’spresso and am having the same problem — i can’t prime the machine, so it’s stuck saying “ventilate”. i hit the water button, turn the steam knob counterclockwise, and then nothing happens.
did anyone find any solutions to this?!
I have this machine. I bought it lightly used on eBay – great deal. It worked for 3000 shots and then I had the same issues with needing to prime and then the entire unit died. It was out of warranty but I took it to a repair shop recommended by Saeco for warranty repairs in Vancouve, WA:
http://www.espressoresourcenw.com/Default.asp?Redirected=Y
I got it back today and it works like new – $140 for service and replacing a “fuseable link” that killed the machine previously. The machine powers on and no issues with priming. For anyone who wants to have their digital italia serviced I would highly recommend this shop and you can ship the item there and they’ll ship it back when repaired.
How do i get the machine to start? Im a TA an the teacher lost the manual and cant get it to start.
One more thing…. Matt…your not very smart.
Jesse S., you do realize that that should read “you’re not very smart” right? I hope you’re (huh, huh) not a T.A. for an English class.
Augie, are we allowed to feed the trolls?
Jesse, I’ve gotten the go-ahead to feed the trolls.
So, to that end, I feel like you need a hug. It seems to me like you might not have gotten a lot of hugs when you were growing up. Mostly, I base this on the fact that you state you are a TA.
Why would we care? How is it relevant to the conversation? The sad realization is that it isn’t relevant. Like your job as TA, there is the very real possibility you only mentioned it to suck up to someone or to separate yourself from the stupider people (like myself). After all, how could someone as brilliant as a TA not figure out how to turn on an electric coffee machine?
You must also be a very hateful person, probably brought on by the aforementioned lack of attention. It may not have occurred to you, but it’s glaringly obvious to me. How so? Simple, really. You *actually* took the effort to type out an insult to me and submit a second comment just so that I would know.
Well, Jesse. You got me. I are not very smart. I admit defeat to my intellectual superior. Go, now, with honor and praise: you are smarter than some random guy you don’t know from the internet.
P.S. I “Googled” the phrase “Starbucks Barista Digital Italia Espresso Machine manual” and found the following link to your lost coffee machine manual. Sorry I’m so “not very smart.”
http://www.starbucks.com/customer/faq_qanda.asp?name=brewequip#manuals
i took my digital italia on a trip from dallas to minneapolis and she hasn’t been the same since. i think the grinder settings got messed up. i’ve played around with the two knobs inside of the grinder: one with plus and minus and one with 0 to 18. i tried all kinds of settings, but it’s coming out all weak and watered down. right now i’ve got it on 0 and the maximum + setting. that seems the best i can do. any advice?
I have had my machine for 4 years, use it all the time and tonight it says it needs to be primed. This is the first problem I have ever had and love it; it saves me $4.50 each morning and I can prepare my drink and have it withme on the way to work without having to drive in traffic and wait in line. The machine is awesome and I love it and don’t know what I will do if I can’t prime it.
No drink tonight. I have had 2 other machines and this is the GREATEST one I have ever had. Buy one. I paid $1,000 for mine and now they are substantially less; go for it and enjoy.
I’m with Brad on the $ value of a home machine. We save $600/yr with our Starbucks Barista machine. Had it two years with no problems. I’m wondering about the plastic water tank, though. Given the recent nix on plastic drinking cups and bottles I’d prefer a stainless steel tank. I’m on a quest for one.
Does anyone know the Saeco “equivalent” model for this? I am considering doing some home repairs and want to find the corresponding parts.
the Saeco Equivalent is the
Saeco 178435 Italia Home Espresso Cappuccino Machine you can find it on Mazon for about $340. We had one of the origianl ones and the steam clamp inside the wand broke and it was dripping so we got that fixed and then the need to prime problem hit. All that was fine and dandy but the problem we had was the bean hopper, the machine WOULD NOT BREW anything. It would say the hopper was out of beans when it was totally full. So when that happened we had to 1)empty the beans 2) unscrew the screws that secure the bean hopper in place 30 pull the entire hopper out and rubber boot seal 4) vacuum the inside of the grinder out completely out.
It was a hearbreaker to be ready to enjoy a great latte at home only to find out you have to spend the next 10 min disssembling the unit and dragging the vacuum inot the kitchen to fix the damn thing.
Okay,
So I buy a replacement from ebay and get the warranty. this new machine is a refurbished model as I dont think Saeco even manufactures them anymore. The brew unit consistently needs cleaning on this one and drops grounds everywhere and it is way noisier than the on form sbux. It also is kinda inconsistent with the responses. The first shot it brewed it gave me a little chime to say it was done brewing. Now it hardly ever does it. But now and again you hear the chime. Other times it will grind the espresso beans and goe through the measuring cycle and you hear it clicking and thunking like normal only the water pump does not engage. WTF? I just wasted a shot! But it has not done this after the following steps were performed. this is the interesting part i found.
Well the water line got clogged last friday night and I had to take apart the part of the brew unit where the water comes from. I pulled ou thte part with the screen and the o-ring. Pulled off the water line that is on the back and on the piece that makes a right angle down tot he rubber tube and into the piece witht the screen and oring, there is a pressure spring with a little insert that stops water from flowing or leaking when no water is actively pumping. This spring was also PACKED with grounds. I cleaned it out and put it together and it brewed a shot.
Out of curiosity
I dug the original machine out from the basement and pulled out the brew unit and put it in the newer machine. IT SOUNDS AND RUNS LIKE FREAKING NEW!!! I swear after doing that, that these machines are great as long has they have a great brew unit. With the old brew unit in the new machine there is no more loose grounds or leaking water inside the coffemaker and it rns smoother on the purs as well as the measuring cycles, much quieter it really sounds like a brand new machine. I have yet to see a cycle grind beans and not pour a shot. The old machine’s final problem was that it would think the hopper was empty, but I am keeping that machine on the side for spare parts. So if anybody out there has one of these machines please put up the brew unit for sale on ebay cause they are really in my opinion one of the most vital pieces of the machine.
Does anybody know of a place other to find replacement parts?
I hope my shared comments can help someone out there.
Thanks to all of you who have contributed as well, I will be trying the Sucking of the wand to prime this thing someday I am sure.
This forum has been quite entertaining. It always amazes me how when someone goes to the trouble to help others that there are some who feel they must snipe. Thanks to all those who put up such helpful advice.
I too, of course, have the machine and am having problems. Wish I’d searched the close door aspect earlier. Then a piece of the brew unit stayed in the down position, locking the grounds drawer in. Eventually it went back up but now the coffee and grounds all end up in the drawer. Then when I just used it to steam the milk, it started smelling like burning rubber. Ack!
So I’m wondering if it’s worth it to get it fixed. It’s a year and a half old. My husband got it for me on ebay.
Don’t know if anyone’s still around, but thought I’d post anyway
I bought my SBDIEM used from an old Italian man. I’m lucky his wife was a neat freak as she kept the unit clean, even after 3000 shots on the counter. Only problem they had was the door latch breaking / bending and it was replaced. They had been making some weak espresso as the grind was huge. I accessed the grinder from the top through the bean bin and realigned the control knobs. Now I am getting a great grind and a good creme. The water tank is cracked, so I can only fill the tank half way. Who has extra parts they wish to part with? I would like to know how bright the blue display screen should be? Mine is pretty dim and I can swear that it has been brighter on occasion.
I have a Starbuck Digital Italia and it is stuck on the Grinder Empty mode. I’ve cleaned the grinder from the top and also from the door above the coffee packing system. The grinder is turning but the beans are not feeding through? What would you suggest? Thanks.