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. 
a bump from a earlier post, but I got this machine and this seems like what I am getting. 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?
The grinder thing seems to be an epidemic. My grinder is also claiming empty. I too have adjusted the buttons back an forth. Now, nothing seems to work. Has anyone out there taken their machine apart and looked inside?
Need to Prime Message – Replaced pump on my own. Work(ed) awesome.
Grinder message – Totally cleaned out the path from the hopper to the brew group. There’s a chute from the hopper that had about 50% blocked from caked grounds. Also, remove the brew group and there’s a spring loaded hatch that you can hold open and clean from the bottom up.
The machine ran yesterday and ran out of water mid brew, but the pump kept running. Now the thing is vapor locked like crazy and I just get the NTP message. My guess that repeatedly running the pump dray to try to prime is going to burn the thing out . . . again. Wish I had another machine.
I just bought the espresso machine tonight for a really good deal. Everything seems to be functioning properly. What I am noticing though, is that the coffee isn’t quite as hot as I like it, and the heat setting is at maximum. After reading so many reviews about the machine breaking down, I’m a little scared now… i guess we’ll see how it works out.
Brew Unit Blocked message…. driving me crazy!!!
The machine worked relatively fine for some five years. Now, whenever one tries to make a cup, the machine will usually grind some beans and then stop functioning completely while displaying the message…. Brew Unit Blocked. Initially, a quick bump on the machine with your hand (or unplugging and replugging) would allow it to finish brewing a shot. However, now nothing seems to work.
I have removed the brew unit and cleaned it thoroughly, several times mind you, but nothing seems to correct the problem. Has anyone had the same problem or does anyone have any suggestions?