Help With Jura Impress f50 Error Codes

There is a Jura f50 on my ship, left by the last Ukrainian crew before the ship was reflagged American. When I turn it on, it throws an "Error 8" message and won't make coffee, grind, make steam or hot water, etc. Because we are tramping, returning it to the factory for service is not a viable option. If I just knew what that code means I might have a more clear idea of how best to proceed. I hate to toss such a nice machine and then get a DeLonghi but I need my cappuccino and I can't drink that cat pee that everybody else calls coffee.

I have zero clue what this is or what it does. But near as I can tell after some interwebzing, you have a brew group error. Replace piston seals and thoroughly lubricate.

http://juracapressoparts.com/JuraErrorCodes.html

Here's a link to a 30 minute how-to video.

https://youtu.be/Fmqm59UeiAA

As stated, I'm not at all sure about this. If I didn't help at all, you can come up to Geismar and I'll buy you a beer.

Thanks. Our internet is really dodgy sometimes, coming over InMarSat. I could barely get this site. Couldnt load my yahoo electric boat group at all, and sometimes... nothing. Only today has it got better, so thanks for the link. I was figuring the thermoblock was okay because once I was able to get a puff of steam and a tbsp of hot water out of the steam wand thingie. It makes the clicking and wheezing sound so yeah brew group probably needs replaced, and maybe I will rebuild the old one for a spare. Still investigating and final decision isn't mine anyway.

UPDATE:

We will be in Houston in a week. I have ordered a whole new brew group and also a maintenance kit that includes the special key for the oval head screws, from parts guru, and the package is waiting for me at the terminal. Due to bandwidth issues I am not able to download any youtube videos until I am in cell coverage, but I have managed to find a few PDF files and web pages, and I will get the vids when we are in range of a cell tower.

Meanwhile, I managed to shake things up by turning the machine on and off repeatedly, and performing back to back rinse cycles. The machine was set to NOT do a rinse automatically at power-up. I changed that, and did literally hundreds of manual initiated rinses, after I managed to change the language from Ukrainian or maybe Russian, to English. Working the dispenser unit up and down during rinse cycles dislodged large amounts of debris, and eventually I managed to get good flow out of both coffee dispenser tubes. The ship is nearly out of coffee, and on the bridge we are down to leftover dregs and dribs in old bags and cans, and some horrible stuff we picked up in Turkey, and I found a few ounces of stale old beans in a bag of some easily forgettable brand, and I made several shots while adjusting settings in the menu. Toward the end, I had it producing a tolerable espresso shot. The pucks are coming out very loose, wet and sloppy, and there is a lot of dirty water in the drip pan when I empty it. The brew group is still slightly gummed up, apparently, but as I said, new parts are waiting in Houston, and I will acquire a private stock of my favorite bean, as well, since the company is going to buy something totally unsuitable. That's what shipping companies do.

The moral of this story is, with any superautomatic machine, RINSE, RINSE, RINSE. These machines, whether Jura, or any other brand, thrive on rinsing, and it should be done multiple times a day, even if you deep clean the machine weekly. Also, the only thing worse than letting a clueless person operate a superauto machine is letting a whole crew of clueless persons operate it. In making them simple to use, they have actually been made much more complex. You pay for pushbutton coffee with complicated maintenance, and Jura is the most complicated machine to work on that I have ever seen. I like how customizable the menu is, but I will never buy one of these beasts because simply cleaning the brew group is an epic task not for the faint of heart.

I wonder how many superauto espresso machines have ended up in dumpsters prematurely, simply because the owner or person in charge was ignorant of the need to service it regularly. This one apparently was never touched until now, except to use and abuse it making coffee and tea in every imaginable way. Yes I even got tea leaves among the debris that came out the dispenser tubes during rinse cycles!

Wow! That's quite a story--just about scares the bejeebers out of me for ever considering such a machine.

TexLaw said:

Wow! That's quite a story--just about scares the bejeebers out of me for ever considering such a machine.

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Well, the Jura is NOT user serviceability friendly. You are supposed to send it to the factory every 6 months or whatever to have them do the stuff that Gaggia, DeLonghi, and Saeco users do themselves, and then pay them umpty hundreds of dollars for the service. I would NEVER buy one of these. It was just here on the ship and I am going with what I got to work with. On my floating home I have a DeLonghi Magnifica superautomatic, and it is fairly trouble free and easy to service, and costs half as much, too. Don't let my (and others') experiences with Jura sour you on superautomatics in general. They are incredibly convenient ways to enjoy a nice espresso or cappuccino or whatever. You have more hands on control with a regular manual machine, but a well set up super makes just as good a coffee, IMHO, at least to my uneducated palate. I don't have time or patience to fiddle with grinding "just right", dosing and tamping "perfectly", ensuring the water temperature is "absolutely optimum", within 0.2 deg fahrenheit, and pulling the shot with practiced precision in speed and pressure yada yada yada. I make sure the hopper has beans, the tank has water, the puck bin is not overflowing, press a button and bobs yer uncle I get espresso; or I steam some milk for that and get cappuccino. I usually can't tell the difference between my cappa and one made artisan style, all by hand, by a true sho nuff whacko purist coffee geek. When there is a difference, I generally like mine better, and I like it way better than Starbucks, etc.

But yeah, don't buy a Jura. If you do, you will need a backup while it is being shipped back and forth for service, and a coffee budget adjusted for servicing.

Slash McCoy said:

But yeah, don't buy a Jura. If you do, you will need a backup while it is being shipped back and forth for service, and a coffee budget adjusted for servicing.

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Got it. It's like an old Jaguar that you would go visit at the garage every now and then.

UPDATE

We arrived in Houston and all my parts were indeed waiting for me. I was very busy for the first couple of days though, so there was some delay in servicing the machine. Meanwhile an IT guy from the company worked a couple of nights up on the bridge and totally clogged up the machine that a whole bunch of sailors was unable to disable. I had in the meanwhile picked up about 50lbs of my trusty 8 o'clock Columbian beans courtesy of Walmart dot com, and downloaded a bunch of YouTube videos on this thing. So, I pulled my socks up tight, screwed my intricate machinery hacking hat down low, and set to work.

First of all the innards had only a passing resemblance to the videos. So I just kinda winged it. The back is held on with four special oval head screws but the maintenance kit I ordered from parts guru dot com had a tool for backing them out. The Ukrainians had already lost one and mangled another, attempting to open up the machine. Forewarned, I had bought myself a torx set with ratcheting screwdriver handle but it would not reach into some of the little secret places where the screws lurk. Had to cab it to Home Depot for a proper torx screwdriver set. Only the T15 and T10 are needed. Removal of the brew group was a most punishing and frustrationalizing task but I did it and replaced it with the new one. The old one appears to be in good order and should be okay for a spare once I clean it and replace all the o rings and stuff. The troublesome coffee spout assembly seems to be the root cause of much problemization and so to absolutely prevent future blockage, I dug/broke out the little cross shaped strainer dealybob from each spout. I had ordered some descaler from partsguru as well, and I descaler first with a half gallon of straight white vinegar and then with the descaler mixed as per directions. Didn't bother with replacing the $40 filter, just tossed it and we will simply descaler momthly. I tossed the stupid milk sucky tube thingamabob and replaced it with a conventional bullet tipped frothing wand.

End result is a fairly well behaved machine that makes almost as good a cappuccino as my DeLonghi Magnifica on my boat. It should function flawlessly for as long as I care to remain onboard but just in case I picked up a backup manual machine and cheapo electric burr grinder. The grinder I had to hack a bit to make it do a proper espresso grind but this is pretty common with low budget electric grinders, and after a few lousy espressos I got everything working fairly well. Walmart had a nice glass pourover rig but I passed in favor of the Mr Coffee 15 bar equipment for my personal backup.

So, now I can have my espressos and cappuccinos, and the Black and Decker cat pee drip machine has been placed in retirement now that everybody who matters had mastered the fine art of button pushery and can individually brew their favorite Americano or espresso fix.

So. A happy ending, all considered. But I will say again, working on a Jura sucks. Two thumbs down, do not buy. Get a DeLonghi or a Gaggia for half the price and 1/10 the headaches.