La Specialista not grinding, what's the usual culprit?

[Thomas Martinez]

Saw a few posts about the grinder on the Delonghi La Specialista model. Figured I'd toss this out there for people who are trying to diagnose the issues. From what I've seen on the forums, there are four possible cause of this issue before one has to assume that the machine is defective.
The first being that the beans or ground coffee is creating a blockage within the grinder itself. Secondly, the grinder may become dislodged from the machine, in which case you should reattach the top cover properly. Thirdly, a glitch within the machine may occur that can be cleared through resetting the machine. Finally, if none of the above three fixes the issue, then it may be the grinder motor or control board that is creating the problem. The control board being the part that most people dont want to hear about.
Out of the four causes, how often is it the control board versus the grinder becoming dislodged? It seems like most people jump to the conclusion that it's the motor failure instead of the grinder becoming dislodged after brewing their coffee. The reset procedure seems to be overlooked as well. Has anyone here had to replace the grinder motor or control board on one of these coffee machines?

 

[Exci]

9 times out of 10 its the beans in the grinder burrs. People just dont realize how much residue builds up over time

 

[Stormy Stag]

had mine do this twice. Both times it was the top burr assembly not properly seated. Should click when its properly inserted in place

 

[Tired Teira]

Replaced the control board on one last year for a customer. It does happen but its rare. Roughly 1 in 15 calls about grinder issues is the control board.

 

[Funny Fowl]

wait what reset are you talking about? is there some button combination or do you just unplug it?

 

[Exci]

wait what reset are you talking about? is there some button combination or do you just unplug it?

Unplug for a couple minutes. Hold the power button while plugging back in on some model machines. Its in the manual but its very vague about the details.

 

[Aero Sumo Fortress]

delonghi grinders are garbage anyway. Mine broke after 14 months of ownership and 3 weeks out of warranty.

 

[Funny Fowl]

Unplug for a couple minutes. Hold the power button while plugging back in on some model machines. Its in the manual but its very vague about the details.

so just plugging it back in again clears something stored in the machine’s memory or does it just clear the capacitors?

 

[Inquisitive Iguana]

You hit the main points but I'd also add a fifth one which is the bean hopper sensor. There's a small magnet within the bean hopper lid that if not properly seated can cause the machine to think the bean hopper is not in place which will lead to the grinder to refuse to grind the beans. Just saw this on one of my friends coffee machines. He thought the grinder motor was failing but it turned out to be the bean hopper lid that wasnt properly seated in place.
Cleaned the lid area, reseated the hopper, worked first try. Delonghi machines do not give any feedback whatsoever for this issue. They could of made a decent error message for it though.

 

[Tired Teira]

You hit the main points but I'd also add a fifth one which is the bean hopper sensor. There's a small magnet within the bean hopper lid that if not properly seated can cause the machine to think the bean hopper is not in place which will lead to the grinder to refuse to grind the…

the hopper magnet thing is huge, forgot to mention it. Seen that one more than i'd like to admit