HOW TO HACK THE GAGGIA CLASSIC PRO: 3 Tips to Enhance Your Experience 

Thanks for the shout-out on the steam pressure hack! ☕️

Just got a refurbed Gaggia Classic a month ago as my first espresso machine and learning new stuff every day - this video is another on the must see list for me, or anyone who has a Gaggia. Lots of info, clever ways of using the machine to the max. I've changed my basket for a VST (I'm in the UK) and things have improved a lot. Having to go quite fine for timings but it's a work in progress. Thanks for the video 👌👍

This video is one of the most helpful guides I’ve found for this machine. Excellent content!!!

I've been surfing temps without knowing what I'm doing. This really explained it to me, and I've almost been doing it like this without even knowing. I emptied the brew head a little bit (but not enough) and then I flicked the steam switch (way too much). My first shot doing it properly and I got some really nice citrusy notes with MUCH more body. What a difference it made. Now I can have some consistency at least until I pull the trigger on a full PID and dimmer system. Thank you!!

When I see your videos pop up I smile, then get that Christmas morning feeling and hit play as fast as possible! Keep being amazing.

I’ve been using my GCP for months and keep getting spotty results and never could figure out my issue. The temp surfing and tip to let the whole machine warm for a long time- absolute game changer. Thank you!

I don't have a GCP nor do I intend on buying one but I really appreciated this video. I love learning about all things related to coffee and you do such a great job of sharing your knowledge and have a wonderful sense of humor. Always ready to hit that like button, man. Cheers.

I just bought a Gaggia, these videos are super informative! Thankyou so much for your hard work!

Lance I have had my GCP for 6 months and I have done most of the mods! I pulled a shot using the temperature surfacing this morning. It tastes incredible this is a game changer! Cheers

Struggling for months now to get consistent Espresso with my Gaggia Classic Pro. With the temperature surfing hack it works now. Thank you a lot!!

Dude, I have learned more from this video than any other. I no longer need to install a PID to accomplish what you just demonstrated. Thank you so much for taking the time. Nice dog too.

I'm blown away by the difference this pre-infusion hack makes. I'm a bit of a noob to be honest but even I noticed how much better my espresso tastes.

Lance, I really appreciate that you show us your gears. Really love to see professionals in their element even though I make just 2 espresso drinks every day on a simple Breville machine. Stay awesome my friend.

Really cool, the gaggia classic pro was my first espresso machine and I still use it. I'm going to try the temp surfing right now ! Keep on doing such great content I never a miss a video.

Recently got a Gaggia Classic and while I am looking to mod it I want to get the most of it now while I wait for parts to arrive. Thank you for your helpful and informative video, this was just what I needed.

Really helpful intro to the machine and some useful tips. Awaiting delivery of ours in the next day or so. Thanks!

Really in depth, I love the detail you put into your videos. And while I haven't purchased an espresso machine yet, watching this makes me further cement my decision to buy manual machine when I do 😆 Flair 58 here I come!

Great video, i know it takes longer to do but I appreciate that show the techniques multiple times to help the viewer solidify the technique to memory 🙂

Thanks for posting this; looking forward to the rest of the series!

I’ve just bought a Niche grinder and waiting for my classic pro to arrive. I’d ordered these before I’d watched this video. Great video I’m looking forward to seeing the updates. Cheers from Scotland.

Thanks for doing this video. I have had a GCP for several months and have been trying to time when I started the brew after flushing the head. Wasn't sure if it was the best part of the temperature cycle for brewing, but I was prioritizing consistency. and it has been pretty consistent. Will be trying your method for sure

The GCP has a 3oz boiler, so if you want to save some water when temp surfing you can drain about that much to ensure the boiler is refilled with cold water from the tank. It takes a bit longer for the reheat cycle to begin, so I usually do it before I prep my shot, then boost the temperature with the steam switch right before I start pulling it.

Useful tips + great personality + cute dog + good coffee + perfect latte art = 10/10 video

Oh yes! I recently had bought one as my first espresso machine. I love this machine! Thanks for the amazing video, Lance! Keep up the good work. ;)

Excellent information. I appreciate the amount of content covered in this amount of time.

I appreciate the way you have presented this material. Thank you.

Lance,you are the most thorough and clear describer of things

Idk how I missed this one till now but this ep gets me all excited! :) Thank you!

Great vid, Lance!

Love this video! Not just because of the content but when your counting down at 22.40 mins I couldn't help but dance my head side to side 😅

That latte art at the end. So beautiful!

Great video Lance!. I have a Gaggia classic Evo 2023 and I followed what you have said about the temp surfing, what I discovered is that, after waiting for the first 10 second (for the medium roasted coffee) you need at least 7 to 10 second of boiler heating time before you pull the shot. maybe thats the new gaggia but after waiting 7 to 10 second of steam button time, you will be able to taste the fruity note. for the dark roast, I think that 5 second that you said is enough but most of the time shot is not hot enough, so I would recommend trying 6 to 7 second. By the way, I am your huge fan, keep it up!

Great video as always! Can’t wait for the modded version of the GCP

I have the same Gaggia at work. My hack to make better espresso is my entry level Rancilio Sylvia. It's by far a better machine for a little more money. The Rancilio pumps espresso better and the hot froth steam is much stronger. The Gaggia can make a drink for 1-3 people, but starts to choke thereafter. So the moral of the story is: if you plan to have a dinner party to make espresso for many people - get the Rancilio.

The pre-infusion hack is really bleeding off water pressure from the circuit. Brilliant. Lance is such a smart guy.

Awesome Lance, great tips! I'll see if I can use some of them in my Ascaso Dream

Hi Lance, you just popped up on my feed. Thoroughly enjoyed this video. I got a new Gaggia Classic Pro last January and been loving it a lot. Marc at WLL suggested that I go for the GCP. I've seen most of the videos on YT about this machine. Been using these hacks and I'm getting pretty good shots. I did the OPV mod and got a "tune up kit" with a brass shower plate a precision screen and a silicone group gasket. By the way, the silicone lets the portafilter click in a lot more easily. Looking forward to the next video.

Hi Lance, loved the video on the Classic pro. I'm sitting here in Melbourne , Australia having a brandy and pod coffee and waiting for the delivery of my Gaggia on the 22nd. all i need now is the grinder and about another few hundred bucks worth of accessories ! Thanks for the tips RustyB

Have Gaggia classic pro with: 1. PID for brewing (no steam PID) 2. 155 C steam thermostat upgrade for higher steam pressure. 3. Shorter brewing pressure spring for ~9 bars pressure (DIY). 4. Cafelat gasket and upgraded shower screen. 5. Bottomless portafilter. PID and 9 bars pressure springs are must have! All the other stuff is optional and it's completely fine without it. With baratza 270 grinder I'm able to get pretty decent shots, but I'm still so bad in latte art 😂

Thanks for the info on steaming, and how to time it. I’m still learning on this machine and have had patchy results from steaming the milk; I couldn’t understand why sometimes I could get excellent creamy milk but then next time get something flat.Now I’ve got a better understanding.❤

Great tips Lance! 👍 My single boiler machine has pressure gauge, so when I turn stream knob I can see pressure while pre-infusion, but it is too hard to make pressure profiling on it and so much waste of water. For pre-infusion I normally go with the full pressure for few seconds and turn the steam switch on the machine will cut the water to brew head and all water will go to OPV back to reservoir.

Thank you Lance. Love this video and so many others you’ve done. I’m pondering *strokesMingGoatie* of either messing about mor with my gagging classic (not even a pro) or bite the bullet and one of those sexy beasts in your vid, The Decent. After this video and the great links you posted it’s certainly a champagne problem. All the best from mizzly Belfast

Removing the drip tray is a G A M E changer. Thanks Lance

Thank you for the temp surfing trick. Water is perfect for making oatmeal as part of the morning workflow.

What a great video! Thank you

Lance! Thank you for the video! As a Classic owner I've tried timing how long it takes your Gaggia Classic PRO to cycle between the light being on & off since I had a feeling mine was doing it A LOT faster. Stopwatch says 12-13 seconds, when timing your video. I've got the 1st gen, some 15 year old machine, and I'm also in EU on 220V and I've read in some reviews and/or forum/reddit posts that older machine had a stronger heating element and/or that 220V version heats up faster. Might be one of those things. Might be both. Long story short (and my short versions are as short as yours, apparently), mine takes 5-6 seconds to turn the light back on once it goes off! Interesting.

this is amazing. hilarious too. thoroughly enjoyed it =D

Thats Boss! More steps to add t my process! Thanks!

The steam pressure drops off because of two things: the thermostat kicks in and switches the heat off and the 100ml boiler starts to run dry. Timing the start of the steam is a great hack to solve the first. Another hack is to pulse the pump (i.e. the brew switch) whilst steaming. With the right amount of water coming into the boiler, the thermostat will not kick in and the light will never come on. (Apologies if someone else has already said this - there are about 300 other comments before mine!)

THANK YOU!!! These first two tips are out there on the interwebs, but this perfectly compiled them into one easy-to-understand, well-explained video. I can't wait to try steaming with the tray out. I wish I'd seen this 9 months ago when I bought my Gaggia. Also, a tip, if I may be so bold: when I purge the group to force the boiler on, I save time and water by only doing a 9-count (instead of waiting for the light to go out). The light goes out a few seconds after I flip the brew switch back off (on mine). I definitely recommend the Whole Latte Love steam hack, also. Don't let the light come on before you start steaming.

Great video, thanks for your informative take on the GCP. I'm over here wondering what cups you're using for the espresso?

Just beautiful episode and informative yet I need the grey sweats back please.

Great job! Everything is clear and understandable. Thanks! Like and subscription.)

I don’t own a Gaggia, but I’m still going to watch how to hack it 😅

This guy has improved my espresso game a lot.

Thank you, Lance!

Incredible content as usual Lance! One thing I’m not quite clear on, does it matter when you flush (in terms of where the boiler is in the heat cycle)? For instance, should I start to flush as soon as the light comes on or does it matter?

This was the machine that I considered for my first espresso machine. So deep is the rabbit hole that is home espresso making that I ended up opting for an Expobar Office Leva mkIV Dual Boiler instead. Since replaced that with a Sage (Breville) Dual Boiler (as seen to the left of Lance’s setup) and a Niche Zero grinder (amongst multiple others!).

Thank you for giving the celsius conversion!!

I just got this machine. Using only those tricks from this video i got great shots. Amzing.

That was the best shot from this damn machine. I've been trying to get something palatable. This was good in fact. I didn't make a shot with old machine.

OMG , had to pause for some doggie love.. Freaking Beautiful !!!

Lance the real deal!!!!

Great video Lance. I just bought the GCP and looking to start modding it. I also have the niche grinder. What grind setting did you use in this example please? I'm still experimenting with the niche and my current light roasted beans.

Really I don’t know how to thanks you ❤. Just after this video love my gaggia and my espresso.

Lance. Good video. I have a gaggia classic pro and gaggia classic. I did the opv mods to 6.5 bar. I also did the pid mod. But one mod i did thats rarely discussed is the one that replaces the steam hack for preinfusion. Its only 20usd. Its PWM which connects to the pump. Its a simple install. It works very well to start at very low pressure right like you did with shot you did steam knob hack. If you want to know more let me know as i think it would really help video part 2 as few discuss this on forums though Peter Horvath will have boost box out soon with PWM and gauge. But this is even easier and simple.

'the machine's an idiot' - actually laughed out loud. Great video

Thanks from a new Gaggia Owner : )

Hey Lance you’re the first person on RU-vid that actually admitted that they never read their collection of books, but they’re just there to make you look smarter! Brilliant. 😆

Hi Lance, very good video. I don't want to have to do this whole procedure every day and I didn't feel confident doing the PID mod. So how do you rate a GCP espresso with just a 9 bar spring? An espresso far from decent?

Hey here a bit more less water wasting temp surfing (maybe it just works with newer maschines that auto shut off after a fixed amount of time) : I'll turn on my Maschine let it heat up until it shuts off automatically. I think thats about 20 minutes for convenience stop the time once. When it hast turned of I start grinding my coffe then fill the portafilter and insert it + set up scale and cup before turning on.Then turn the Maschine on. then it just takes a few Seconds until the light turns on. Another Bonus to that ist that the scale and cup are already set up. Before I've done it like that it always was a hassle to get the timing right especially if u got no bottomless portafilter + bulky scale The temp surfing is the same timing wise like here there is just no water waste like to get the light off.

Thank you for all of the great information and work flows for this machine. I’ve been using the GCP for about 5 months now. thank you for the temp surfing hack, it did wonders for the taste of the espresso. one question I have concerning the stream wand hack is when I remove the tray after pulling my shot, the portafilter drips onto my counter making a bit of a mess, is that normal for my puck to drip so much? or should I be removing the portafilter right after pulling the shot as you did? Thank you again for the wealth of information you’ve provided on this machine.

Man you are awesome, thanks

We’re the smart ones here! Preach Lance!

Little bit geeky; I’ll try these hacks. Thanks!

Completely new to this crazy stuff, but I wanna try something to simplify. I've got a stock GCP, and I'll have a 9 bar spring soon, and a bottomless portafilter as well, but not yet. the usual starting routine. 1) Start the machine. 2) grind, tamper, put the basket in. 2) Wait 5 mins, wait for light. machine is at high pressure, high temps. When ready : 3) open the steam wand a little, vent some hot water and high pressure, for 3-5 secs. 4) press brew button. 5) close steam wand gradually, until your shot is ready. Should start with slightly lower temp, and lower pressure. Then as the wand gets closed, the pressure increases and temperature equalises. Effectively, use the steam wand knob as a pressure and temp control lever. Think it will be interesting with the bottomless, see if I can make a shot without spurting coffee all over the place, by reducing the pressure at the start.

thanks for the video,very helpful. how many quarters do you rotate the steam valve for pre infusion?

Smart and generous to do GPC videos

I was excited and got a Gaggia Classics in the hope of being able to repair it took me a whole year lol had to then put my hands up

Just ordered one earlier for Christmas 🎄 gift to myself and my partner. 🤗

Thanks for the tips. Does water cool down a bit by the time it goes through the portafilter and into a pitcher? I could never get the temp to above 180F. I had a termometer in the pitcher as I was collecting water...And ive tried multiple thermometer and was getting the same reading. So, I wasn't sure if it just loses temp by the time its in the pitcher or if I just i'm not able to hit that 195+ temp.

A must video for every Gaggia owner

Hey! This is a cool channel I just discovered!

Love this , i have a classic and I feel self conscious about me not knowing the temperature of my shots.

The people’s champ 💪🏼

Dude love the content, but I would love for you to do a video on guidance for intro espresso machines. As of now I’m tossed up between this one, the breville infuser or the rancilo Silva.

Think I'd love this machine, but as a beginner, I'm not sure I'm interested in doing all these tricks to eek out performance. Thoughts on this vs the bambino plus for a newcomer? I'm planning on pairing it with a 1zpresso J-Max hand grinder.

Ooooh! You have a Husky! 💕

So I've done all these hacks! Thanks for compiling them all in one video. I've had this machine for about 2 years, and I can just say as a slight adjustment to your comment about pulling a full shot at pre-infusion, the boiler is so small, you really don't want to do that because it will run out of water that is hot enough. I typically do the poor man's pre-infusion for about 5 seconds and then pull the rest of my shot. I do heat up my boiler a bit more than you did (about 10 more seconds, so 20 seconds with the steam button pushed). I have noticed when i Go to about six or seven seconds of pre-infusion, the light turns off mid-shot. Which you don't want. I've noticed that the shot doesn't taste as great when that happens. I think it has something to do with the temperature consistency; But I haven't put a probe in there to check it out. Overall, it really is just guessing and playing. The Gaggia has been a great beginner machine for me for almost 2 years. I've also learned how to get some pretty bomb latte art on it doing a similar hack that you showed! I know this video will help someone. I'll definitely share it with all my GCP owner friends

Lance: “Can you speak? Speak!” Doggo: *yawn* 😂

Hi Lance - Thanks for this great video. I have a Gaggia coming in soon and looking forward to experimenting, before going full mod with your other video. Was the tamper you have the Decent? Do you have a naked portafilter upgrade recommendation? Just want to preemptively get a few accessories to set myself up for success. Thanks! PS - I saw you on Sunday at the Latte Art Comp in NYC. How did you fair overall?

this is a great channel! following this more accessible line of products, could you review the baratza sette 30?

hi there! lance! thanks for all the great videos with loads of trix! i have send your videos on latte art to the local caffe ,since i overheard the you girls behind the counter asking for instructions on steaming, and the instrucktions where so lame i had to interfear haha! i just gave them your videos.problem fixed haha! no to my question. on this temp surfing hack, you pull to shots, one with the stock portafilter and one with the bottomless! but you start counting your seconds on the first one from the light goes on again and on the socond you count from the light goes off...... is it a trap? i gues the first is the right one and the second is just a OPS!! or is it the other way around? btw this is not to pick on anything, im just a geek like everybody here and wanna know what im surpose to do ! thanks again for the best intructions on all this great corfee stuff. best regards sebastina. copenhagen, Denmark

Are these hacks exclusive to the GCP or do you think they would work on a different single boiler machine? I have one coming that isn't this machine, it's a bezzera new hobby, but i am really hoping the temperature surfing works on it as well. Thoughts?

I love the shake test!! 😂😂

Really great video! Unfortunately I do not have a Gaggia but a rancilio Silvia! Would those hacks be applicable to the Silvia too?

My hack for steam wands that don’t tilt is by raising the whole machine up by setting it up on a butchers block, or whatever stable platform you have that’s available, safe and raises it at least 2-4”. I prefer the wood block though. Then you’ll have a lot more room for deeper pitchers.

Really love the design on this one. Is it worth an upgrade if I atm run a Dedica with bottomless portafilter and Rancillio steam wand ? Really like the result from the Dedica, but this machine seems such more sturdy.

Thanks Lance, very informative for us newby GCP users. Would it be harder to steam 6 oz of milk on a 20 oz pitcher vs a 12 oz pitcher?

I bought a GCP because it's easy to mod, hack, and a low cost point for espresso. Now I know for sure i'll be doing espresso i'm planning on moving up to the Mara X, P300, or Elizabeth, though i'm not completely sure yet. A really nice thing is if you buy the Gaggia Classic or Pro used, you basically wont lose any money when sell it if you upgrade or decide espresso isn't for you.