Life of a Jura coffee machine

[Rivendell]

My wife and I owned a Jura Impressa coffee machine for 6 and a half years. We brewed over 6500 cups of coffee and never had it serviced once. It eventually died of leaks, forgetting to brew the right amount of coffee and - finally - never allowing coffee to be made as it was locked in an "empty grounds" mode. A few phone calls revealed that it was not going to make economic sense to have it fixed. It cost about £700 new so it's annual cost was just over £100 (barring filters and the like).

We have just replaced it with a new Jura ENA 7 and are very happy with it. My question is - do we get it serviced regularly and if we do is it likely to last so much longer than the machine that was never serviced as to make financial sense? What are the experiences of others? My maxim has been "if it ain't broke don't fix it" and "don't take things apart to find out why they are still working" but this may have cost me more money in the long run.

 

[takeshi]

I'm not familiar with superautos but 6.5 years doesn't seem bad for something as complicated (more moving parts, greater odds of breakdown) as a superauto. It really shouldn't need any maintenance beyond what Jura recommends:
http://www.jura-coffee-machines.co.uk/service-and-support/tips-and-faq/ena-7-en.html

 

[Rivendell]

Thanks Takeshi .. I often wonder whether manufacturers overplay the maintenance requirements. Jura say every 2 years, which involves packing the machine and sending it to a registered dealer. This is hassle and, ultimately expense. I got over 6 years without it missing a beat, however, when it failed it was sudden and final. If, however, other forum members have followed the Jura guidance and got, say, 10+ years of use and 10,000 cups it would seem worth it.

 

[StillShaving]

The issue with your old machine may be different, but there are a couple of ideas for trying to troubleshoot the problem in this thread: Impressa z5 grounds empty will not reset... Also http://www.partsguru.com/JuraCapressoImpressa.html has some parts and info about repairing. Nice that you are back in service with another machine.

 

[nff]

when you say the "grinds empty" mode i'v heard of the problem. its usually a clogged sensor which is causing it to empty strait into the dregs box. but if it was leaking all over the place then yea it was pretty much dead.

 

[Rivendell]

Thanks for the replies ... I was unaware that the "empty grounds" issue could be a quick fix. However, that was the final straw, the old girl had been struggling with a number of issues for some time ... The ENA7 is a great machine.

 

[LFCRed]

Not familiar with any superautos, but with any espresso machine you need to run some type of cleaning solution through it every couple months. Rather than buy the expensive brand stuff, I just mix some sour salt (citric acid) crystals in a couple cups water, and run it through a cold machine a little at a time. Don't let the machine heat up to full temp, shut it off between cycles. Run twice as much plain water through afterwards to flush out the sour water. No scale build up and the coffee keeps tasting fantastic.

 

[MisterBill]

I have a Jura Z6 and for the first 4 years it was great, then it started having issues for the past 4 years. Nothing major, no big component failures, just problems with the operating system. Same problem 4 times now; the "Grounds Empty" message comes on, once you completed the process according to the owner's manual, the light stays on. The only fix is to send the machine into Jura and they will fix it for $400, EACH time. I've talked with customer service several times and they are useless, no help, no resolution, just send it in and for $400 we'll fix it, which I've done THREE TIMES. You get no diagnostic report, no explanation of what was done, nothing but a bill for $400. When paying $3,000.00 for a coffee machine you think the customer service would be stellar....it's NOT! I think it's time for me to move on to another brand of automatic coffee/espresso machine. POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE SUPPORT!!!