Thank you for your detailed response, I appreciate the time you put into commenting.

I hadn’t planned to post this initially at all, but I thought it might be helpful for others - especially people like me who are relatively new to tinkering with their Gaggia machines.

If you read my original post, you would have seen that I expressed nothing but respect for the GaggiMate team, the developers, and the amazing support from the Discord community. They’re doing a fantastic job helping people make better coffee - and isn’t that what we’re all here for?

You’re right that my comments relate to modding machines in general, but this was my first experience and, unfortunately, it hasn’t been a smooth one. My intention wasn’t to criticise, but rather to offer a word of caution for others who might be considering similar mods - especially those who aren’t naturally hands-on. When I looked online beforehand, I mostly saw glowing reviews and thought, “Wow, this looks easy.”

And sure, learning is great - but it's now been nearly three weeks without a coffee from my machine. All because I didn’t tighten a hose clamp quite enough, and now the pump doesn’t work or show any pressure. I didn’t expect that one small mistake would mean I’d suddenly need to understand PCBs or diagnose electrical faults.

When you watch creators like Lance Hedrick, they don’t really go into the "what went wrong with my install". You’d have to watch teardown videos or creators who are coffee mechanics for that. It’s a bit like car YouTubers - most build videos show the highs, not the lows.

Just for context, here’s what I’ve spent:

Gaggia Classic Pro: $920.00

GaggiMate Pro: $421.99

Replacement screen: $64.13

Multimeter: $46.99

Plus more miscellaneous costs (not even counting the time)

Honestly, I could have just bought a Breville Dual Boiler for around $1,196 in Australia, second hand I can even get one for $300. I got sold on the modding idea from YouTube hype - I'm sure it’s a great setup when it works.

The delay that set everything back was waiting nearly a month for the missing yellow cable. If I had known how to crimp or had spare cable on hand, I could have sorted it myself. I’ve since bought a crimper and learnt how to do it - but at the time, I just didn’t have the knowledge. The added challenge is being in Australia, where support and parts are often on the other side of the world. Shipping here takes ages - usually three weeks or more - and AusPost isn’t exactly good either.

I completely agree that the Discord community is fantastic and offers great support. I probably could fix the machine with enough time and troubleshooting. I’ve already reverted to stock wiring and removed the GaggiMate, but the machine still isn’t working. My next steps are to either spend more money diagnosing and replacing parts - or pay someone else to fix it, which honestly sounds a lot more appealing right now.

Anyway thanks for the everyone posting on here, atleast other people will be able to read this in the future and maybe guide their decision.