Repairing a Jura Nespresso Machine

Or: The Story of the Oval-Head Screw and Kindness of Strangers

27 June 2010, with updates

A few years ago my family bought me a basic Nespresso espresso machine, which is made by Jura in Switzerland.

It uses little sealed coffee capsules like this one: The upside to the capsules that that they yield a very nice espresso shot, with no skill required and no mess on the counter. The downside is that they are only available from Nespresso and as of this writing cost US$0.55 each plus shipping.

We used the machine for a couple of years, generating a recurring revenue stream for Nestlé while making our morning lattes. But over time the power button became recalcitrant. First it required two pushes to go on, then three pushes, then coaxing with a pencil eraser, and this got ever worse until I was standing there for the better part of a minute pushing, pushing, pushing while waiting for the DANGED (ahem) light to start blinking. Naturally it was out of warranty by then, and sending it away for repair was almost as expensive as a new one. I actually eyeballed a new machine in some mall store where I noticed that the latest Nespresso models have a simple toggle on-off switch, so I sorta suspect this power-button trouble happened on a lot of machines.

So off to the workbench, where I found that the machine's sides are held in place by four screws recessed about 1 inch. And the screws have oval heads. I'd never seen anything like that before, and the security-driver kits at Sears had nothing to offer. The deep recess meant a needle-nose plier would not work. I've never seen a consumer appliance protected this carefully.

A quick web search found a special tool on ebay for $40. Ouch! I didn't know if the machine's brain was bad or what, and $40 seemed like throwing good money after bad, so I let the machine sit on the bench.

A couple weeks (ok I admit it, it was months) later I found leftover capsules in the kitchen and posted a note to Craigslist for someone to take 'em for free. I grumbled in my note about the funky oval-head screws and offered to give away the machine along with the capsules.

Enter Dave H., a fellow New Jersey resident who responded to my post. His machine had mouse trouble (don't ask), but he made a socket out of an old bolt! Look at this:

Even better, he sent me the socket!! Complete kindness to total strangers, I love Craigslist. His remanufactured bolt loosened the screws on the very first try. The screws only go into plastic so they require very little force to remove. Here's the machine with the side panel removed for easy access to the power button. The heater is in front (below the drip tray), and the pump is buried in the middle.

Here's a close-up of the super secret special swiss oval-head screw (in the middle). I put calipers on it and by comparing it with drill bits estimate that the head is 1/8" at the narrowest and 5/32" at the widest. (Of course it's probably metric but I don't own metric drill bits.) Anyhow just 1/32 inch difference is enough. The plain slotted screw I chose as a replacement is on the right.

Well, back to the original problem, turning on the machine. The power switch assembly consists of a small circuit board and a molded silicon button. I loosened a bracket behind it (the screw required a Torx driver size T-10) and pulled out the circuit board with the button. Here's a shot of the board and button:

The inside of the button (showing) touches the circuit board when pressed, and springs back a few mm when released. There is no clicky or other moving part on the circuit board, it only has two copper areas exposed, an outer area and a circular inner area (a bit hard to see). Somehow the button completes a circuit when it touches the board. I'm not an EE at all (as has been made very clear to me at work :-) but silicon conducts power?? The end of the button is black as if it were coated in carbon, maybe that's the secret.

The board didn't look cracked, so I resorted to the obvious: clean everything. I windexed the board and the end of the rubber button, put them back in place .. and it worked again!! First touch turns on the machine. I was stunned. That's the happy ending.

If you have one of these machines with power button trouble, the hard part is getting the case open. In my machine the apparent trouble was schmutz blocking a connection. Here's a side view of the bolt so you can get a better sense for the dimensions, along with the wacky oval-head screw one more time.

Thanks again to Dave H. for making and sharing this little socket. He wouldn't even accept a pack of capsules for his trouble!

Please write me if you want to borrow the socket. As you'll see below, the socket has circled the globe! There no charge but a few strings attached: If there's a queue, please send it along within a few days. If there's no queue you might have to hang on to it for weeks until someone writes me. And you have to send me a picture of your machine's guts for this page. :) You will probably need a Torx driver size T-10 also.

Impatient? You can buy a tool to extract the oval-head screws on a Jura nespresso machine:

Unfortunately the oval pan-head security screw bit is not supplied in any tool sets that I've found. For example, these sets from Harbor Freight (links below) look promising, but Gregg L. checked them out in person and reports that the needed bit is not included.
http://www.harborfreight.com/32-piece-3-inch-long-reach-security-bit-set-95680.html
http://www.harborfreight.com/100-piece-security-bit-set-91310.html

Really impatient? If you already have your machine on the bench and don't feel like waiting, look below for some advice on building a tool to turn the oval-head screws. Reusing a part from Ikea seems to be the easiest option.

Need parts? Here are two resources.

Build your own oval-head socket! Below you'll see three different options for building your own socket to turn these oval-head screws.

In April 2009 Jakou posted details on reworking a part from Ikea into a socket to turn these pesky oval-head screws. He reused a fastener that Ikea ships with their furniture (see picture at right). This fastener is about 2.8cm (1 1/8 inches) long and consists of two parts: a hollow sleeve plus a matching M4 (metric 4mm diameter) screw. An Ikea store often will give these out on request but sorry I don't have a part number. The only required tool is a pair of pliers to squeeze the open end of the sleeve. The picture on the right is straight from his blog. Read the whole discussion (en français!) at the link below. If you don't understand French, a Google translation is pretty good. Many thanks to Elvire Serres for sending me this link.
http://www.tout-electromenager.fr/forum_lecture-4775-4-1.html

Also scroll down to see more details about Ikea bolts from Mr. Arenas of Barcelona.

Mico N. of The Netherlands offers this advice to build a metal socket:

What I did was look around for an aluminium object (which can be drilled easily) and would fit nicely in the recessed holes my machine has to get to the oval head screws. Some were recessed 30 millimetre deep. My eye caught this scalpel-like hobby knife holder and it is a perfect match! You can buy these knives in the hobby shop for a few Euros/Dollars. I measured the thinnest part of the oval head screw with a caliper and this turned out to be exactly 3.2 millimetres. Luckily I still had a 3.2mm metal drill in my toolbox so I placed the hobby knife holder in the vise and tried to drill a hole as much in the middle as I could. As you can see from the photo I need more practice to find the middle :-) After drilling a hole into the knife holder of about 5mm deep I moved the drill from left to right in a straight line to make the hole into an oval shape similar to the screw. After a while it was a perfect fit and I successfully used my "tool" and unscrewed the oval heads from my Nespresso machine.

Jacopo L. of Milano, Italy offers this advice to build a plastic socket:

Just take a pen (a Bic is perfect for this job). Pull out the bottom cap and the ink cartridge. Heat the tip of the casing a bit just to melt the plastic and make it soft. Then press the tip on the oval head and wait 30 seconds to let it cool down. Done. Now you have a perfect - tailor made - oval screw driver!

However, several people have written me to say that they had poor luck with making a plastic tool. They melted several Bic pens but still were not able to turn the screws. So your mileage may vary here.

In August 2011 Rolfje blogged with advice on opening a Krups XN2001 machine. He glued bits of metal with a slot to the oval screw heads. The picture on the right is straight from his blog.
http://rolfje.wordpress.com/2011/08/27/how-to-fix-a-krups-xn2001-nespresso-machine/

Update 30 July 2010: Dave's socket traveled to San Francisco, CA to help Thayne N. repair his Nespresso D90. Success!

Update 27 August 2010: The socket returned to SF, CA to help Jim C. fix a loose wire in his Jura Ultra. Success number two!

Update 29 September 2010: Third trip to California, this time to Jen L. in Encinitas. She opened her Essenza and convinced both sets of push-button switch contacts to work again! That's three successes and counting. Here's a movie of her machine doing its thing after the repair.

Update 11 October 2010: The socket flew over the pond to Bert van E. in Utrecht, The Netherlands. He got his Krupps Cube open just fine, but the problem preventing the machine from turning on was not obvious. Have to count this one as a miss, unfortunately.

Update 22 October 2010: The socket continued its European journey to Geneva, Switzerland. There it helped Tony T. open his machine and clean the contacts, the same repair that I did some months ago. Success number four! He sent me these before and after pictures of the contact circuit board.

Update 9 November 2010: Back to North America, the socket made its first stop in Canada, where Antoine N. in Montreal used it to open his D100 and re-clamp a leaking hose.

Update 19 November 2010: Fourth visit to California! Bill V. of Northridge used the socket to open his C100 and clean the power switch contacts. His machine's switch has three wires, a small LED in the middle of the board, and a translucent rubber push button. He reports that it works fine again, and shared this photo gallery of the repair process.

Update 10 December 2010: First visit to England. Tom Q. in Basildon, Essex, UK used the socket to open his Siemens machine. Unfortunately the fault was not in any obvious places like the switches and he was not able to repair it.

Update 18 December 2010: Back to the U.S., the socket visited Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, where Ivan B. used the socket to open his Jura F60.

Update 28 December 2010: Akos B. from Hungary wrote me that he found a simple tool to loosen these oval-head screws. It's called a spanner screw bit and Akos reports that size 10 worked for him. I bought a size 10 from Amazon. It fits but does not grip the head very well.

Update 3 January 2011: Lost.   :-(   The USPS ripped the envelope that Ivan used, and the original socket fell out somewhere on the way from Illinois to Philadelphia. Ivan very generously offered to buy one of the Ebay guy's sockets to keep this little community going.

Update 10 January 2011: Ivan replaced the home-brew socket that our beloved USPS dropped on the floor with this shiny new one and sent it on to Philadelphia.

Update 14 January 2011: Sam G. in Philadelphia opened his C100 and began searching for an elusive leak!

Update 23 January 2011: Visited Travis E. in Newton, MA. He cleaned his machine's buttons and they work again!

Update 13 February 2011: First time in Portugal! Paulo P. pried open his machine and polished away the poop that prevented his push buttons from working properly! (Forgive me, Paulo :-)

Update 28 February 2011: Second person in Portugal! Eduardo N. opened his machine and sent me this picture.

Update 7 March 2011: Next stop was Spain, where Manuel L. in Madrid reported finding some metal bits inside the socket that made it difficult to turn the oval-head screws. After some cleanup he was able to open his machine and diagnose a failed pump.

Update 6 April 2011: Third visit to Portugal, where Adão C. confirmed that the socket is a bit damaged but still functional. His machine had the same problem as mine, and after some cleanup it worked again!

Update 1 June 2011: After nearly two months with no requests, David R. of Chicago wrote me to ask for the socket. He sent me this picture and note: in about 10 minutes the machine was dis-assembled, cleaned, re-assembled!

Update 14 June 2011: Second stop in Chicagoland to help Gabe S. open and repair his D290 with excellent results. Gabe reports that he replaced the original screws with #6 x 1/2 inch stainless-steel sheet metal screws.

Update 11 July 2011: First visit to Asia! Melvin P. in Singapore finally convinced those pesky oval-head screws to turn with a little help from some aluminum foil stuffed into the socket. And he helped a friend too. He reports:
I also realized (rather belatedly, after earning a bruised thumb) that the tool works much much better when it is detached from the key ring and used with a screwdriver handle attachment (the blue object in the photo). While the key ring can provide the necessary torque leverage, you really need a handle to provide the needed pressure to keep the bit on the screw head.

Update 12 July 2011: The socket is significantly damaged. Melvin P. sent me this close-up picture. To be fair, the ebay guy does say this tool is for light use only. Melvin reports that he reworked it a little and it should still work.

Update 20 July 2011: Ralph ? wrote me from Cyberspace to say he successfully used a #8 spanner bit to remove the screws in his machine. He reports:
the space in between the prongs on the bit make a very tight fit at exactly the most narrow diameter of the oval. it takes several attempts, much slipping off the rounded head, a very good sense of the axial center of the screw, and a steady hand to get the sufficient friction to get the screw started.

Update 21 August 2011: Gregg L. of Hatfield, PA wrote me about his success with fixing his machine:
Appreciated your suggestions and pictures. Used the idea from Mico N. and drilled out an X-acto handle as described using a number 31 drill bit with no vise, since I don't have one. Worked perfectly. The Harbor-Freight security bit set did not have an oval head driver and the bi-slot bit did not work even with some filing. Did use the small Torx bit from the set however to remove the top shield to make getting to the buttons easier. Had a right hand button that would not activate. Took it apart cleaned everything with rubbing alcohol and cotton swabs. Reassembled it with 4x1/2 zinc pan head screws (they are a better fit than 6x1/2) from Lowes ($1.25), button now works and wife is happy again.

Update 28 August 2011: George X. in Shanghai, China opened his machine with the socket but had some trouble with the internal fasteners.

Update 24 September 2011: Lawrence Sheed of Shanghai sent me a link to detailed instructions on his blog for opening a Nespresso Cube (Krups XN5005). The oval security screws on that machine are not set deep, and he was able to turn them with pliers. Check out his pictures!
http://www.computersolutions.cn/blog/2011/09/repairing-a-nespresso-cube-krups-xn5005/

Update 9 October 2011: Giovanni R. in London, England used the socket to open his machine. He kindly repaired the socket before sending it along.

Update 19 October 2011: Niek V. of Arnhem, The Netherlands disassembled his Nespresso Cube after making further adjustments to the aluminum socket. He diagnosed two blown thermal fuses and replaced them successfully! He reports:
I fixed the Cube yesterday, it was so easy with the right tool! The 2 thermo fuses screwed to the heating element were defective, so I replaced them for €3,50! At Nespresso they asked €150,- for repairing it! To find the problem I started to measure voltage from the connector (230V 50Hz) to the printed circuit board to see if there is a strange value. From the connector it goes first to the on/off switch and from there to the 2 thermo fuses. The values were right (230V) until I measured after the fuse, there was no voltage, then I measured OVER the fuse with an Ohm meter (resistance). It should give a value greater than 0 but it was 0 or OL (infinite resistance), so then you know the fuse has done its work and is broken. So I took them out and read what was on them. My fuses are: Microtemp, Stabln, E5A00 167 C (degree), so I went to the electronics store and bought 2 thermo fuses (they are also available at Amazon). I replaced them, put it all back together, pushed the on button and it worked. The result was a fine cup of coffee!

Update 2 November 2011: Niek V. wrote me about a new socket!
I already told it, the socket is damaged and you need to fix it after a few screws. So I made a new one today and it just works fine. The next one who's going to need it gets them both so he can decide which one to use.

Update 4 November 2011: Bruce F. of Long Beach, California wrote me about his regular drip coffee machine:
Thanks to your blog, I've just been able to open up my Krups 12 Cup Coffee maker model 134A. The 3-max cups switch was broken. There are two oval head screws about 1 inch deep on the bottom that needed to be taken off. I was able to make a similar tool to those that were described, however the dimensions on the head of these screws were 5mm at the narrow side and 6mm on the wide side. Hope this helps someone else.

Update 21 November 2011: Manny C. in Princeton, TX opened his Capresso to fix a leaky hose.

Update 24 November 2011: Diana T. in Los Angeles writes:
Let the folks know that all the advice was great and it worked perfectly. Machine fixed in exactly 10 minutes. We replaced the funny screws with the ones suggested by the blog and now our cat Frankie can get her morning coffee (without it she's a MONSTER).

Update 6 December 2011: Julie P. in North Wales wrote that she used the brass tool made by Niek to remove the screws on the bottom of her machine. She cleaned the power switch and is now searching for the source of a leak.

Update 7 December 2011: Noel L. from Puerto Rico reports the following experience:
I also noticed that if you pinch the soft button from the outside, and pull it out at the same time, it starts working again. Somehow, accumulated dirt or sulfate is removed by pinching and pulling the button. This is really convenient especially if you are in a hurry and do not have time to uncover and repair the machine. I hope this helps some Nespresso coffee lovers out there.

Update 10 December 2011: Nick H. in London, England wrote me to say:
Unfortunately the aluminium one is pretty chewed up and won't work. The brass one will not fit either as there is a ridge around all of the screws on my machine and the brass tool is too wide.

Update 27 December 2011: Ricardo R. in Mafra, Portugal wrote me about trying to open his Nespresso xn2001:
Although i've already tried to open the Nespresso, but the alluminium socket is very damaged...and the other doesn't fit...
I told Ricardo to keep these sockets since they don't seem to be of any further use to anyone.

Update 5 January 2012: Dennis van D. in Utrecht, The Netherlands wrote me to report his success with using a #10 spanner bit:
Thanks to Rolfje and your blog, I managed to open and repair the dirty buttons on my Krupps Nespresso :) Since I'm rather impatient, waiting for an envelope with a tool while the machine's already on the table is not something I'd like to do. Thankfully I saw a tool come along that I had lying around (#10 spade bit), so I could start dismantlement right away. It was a bit finicky with the first two screws, but the 3rd and 4th came out as if the bit was made for it. Thank you for making my mornings a bit less annoying ;)

Update 16 January 2012: Todd S. from Cyberspace wrote me to report his experience with using a screw extractor on the oval-head screws:

Thanks for your article about the Nespresso machine repairs. I was ready to bust out the soldering wick and get geeky on that thing (it's the office machine). Alas, the oval screw heads were a surprise. I attempted to make a plastic "tool" using a pen (as someone suggested). Then, it dawned on me that the easiest and cheapest solution was to drill a small hole into the bolt head. Then, I simply used a bolt/screw extractor to remove the factory screws.

While drilling the hole into the top of the slightly-rounded screw-head isn't too terribly difficult, it does require a bit of patience and concentration. A very simple and durable "helper tool" would be a dowel. Determine the correct dowel size for the holes on the bottom of the case (these were paradoxically easier to drill than the top-mounted screws). Anyway, if you drill through the center of the dowel (which should extend just beyond the top of the holes), you have a jig/guide/etc. It would help the process. Anyway, I used a 1/16 drill bit (smaller is better... but needs to be a size that works with the screw extractor). Don't "go cheap" on the drill bit -- and be certain to use a metal bit (one of the "fancy" coated bits is appropriate, here, as it takes a while to start the hole).

Update 17 January 2012: I confess I still had a tool from Dave H. on my workbench. It was a short, drilled-out bolt with a 1/4" drive hex socket as its head. The large head prevented the bolt from reaching the deeply recessed screws in my machine, so I put it aside. Today I got motivated to try grinding down the bolt head to fit into the recess, and this is the result. It fits into my old machine!

Update 18 January 2012: Peter N. of Wilmington, NC, the Jura Capresso Doctor, wrote me a long note about the stuff he sells on eBay for repairing these machines.
I just read your log about Nespresso machines at ..

I'm the "flea-bay" guy you mention :)

Let me give you some more history/input on this, as there is a lot to say:

$40 cost: The aluminum oval head tool was originally imported by me from Germany. The German sellers charged close to $20 for the tool, and a whooping $30 for shipping (!) and to add insult to injury, they refuse to ship to USA, so I had to have the tools shipped to Finland first and have my friends ship to USA adding further shipping costs. At the time I ordered only 4 at a time (due to the cost, and since I did not know if I was going to be able to sell them). Hence, the $40 cost.

$20 cost. After selling a few of the German tools, I decided to see if I could have somebody make them for me. It was expensive to have them made in small quantities, but I eventually found a company that made me 200 of these for $6/each. This is when I dropped the price to $19.95. The markup may seem big, but this tool was originally intended for Jura-Capresso superautomatic owners that must pay Capresso a fixed price fee of $235-$350 to get their machine repaired, and from previous sales I found myself spending *a lot* of time helping people diagnose problems with their superautomatics.

Unfortunately the first batch of aluminum tools was not very strong (as you note in your blog). The first batch of 200 tools was made to my technical drawings, and the manufacturer apparently was not able to follow it perfectly. This resulted in the tool not sitting tightly enough around the screw head and I had to tweak each tool manually (what a chore!) to make them work. While it worked, it was tedious and the tool was admittedly not very strong. I was ready to give up on this, but last summer when I ran out of tools, I decided to contact the manufacturer and see if they could make the tool and guarantee a perfect tight match with the screw head.

Frankly, I never realized that there is another market for the tool, that does not involve the complicated and overly expensive super-automatics! Had I known that, I would have listed the tool for $9.95 a long time ago and I will definitely make sure to put up a specific Nespresso listing that I continuously will keep at a low price ($9.95 / free shipping or lower).

Peter was kind enough to send me a pair of sockets and screws. I'll send one to the next person who joins the queue.

Update 19 January 2012: Today an Irwin #8 spanner bit arrived in my mail. As you can see from the picture, the gap between the prongs is simply too small to fit around the oval-head screws that were in my old Nespresso machine. But the #8 has worked for some (see above) so your mileage may vary!

Update 31 January 2012: Mr. Arenas of Barcelona wrote me about his adventures at Ikea, adjusting the bolts and repairing his machine:

This morning I went to the Ikea Store, customer service area. I showed them the photo, asked me where it belonged to, I said I was not sure because I was doing a favour to a friend. They asked a guy from the warehouse to come over and see, he had a look at it and asked me, "how many do you need?" I said 4 units and in 3 minutes I had them for free, at no cost!

It's just perfect that these bolts have a Philips head, in one hand, you don't need to attach the bolt to another piece in order to make a handle. In the other hand, the Philips head allows you to use all the force/power you need to unscrew the limed stuck screws. And finally, this bolt perfectly fits the hole for the "Radio shaped" Nespresso type machines like Krups XN2001, etc.

Tuning was made with some robust pliers. I pressed each bolt following the way of the slot in the bolt. This way is easier for the user to know where the narrow part of the oval head is. I pressed each bolt half way in the plier, otherwise it can't be pressed, it's too hard (or I'm not strong enough!) Once each bolt has been given the desired shape, I used this other plier to lower the inner part of each bolt, otherwise it would not perfectly fit the oval-head screw. Also, I could have be used a Dremmel instead, but once again, I did not have that "so necessary" thin drill.

Philips screwdriver is a MUST, otherwise the head of the bolt will be damaged. If a short Philips screwdriver is used, then it's much better because it gives you a much better control. When using this bolt, you must press it very firmly against the oval screw with the screwdriver, and do slow wrist rotations, relaxed, just like if you were opening a safe, otherwise the oval-head in the screw may be damaged, and the whole thing would turn into a big problem.

Typical lime in the button board after 6 years of daily use. Needless to be said that I cleaned it with some cotton and alcohol. Yeah, I had an additional problem. The board was dirty, but the conductive part in the sillicon button was completely gone, so after cleaning it no way I could switch on my Nespresso! Ok, in order to bypass this situation, I used a piece of aluminum foil and glued it to the button. This is just temporary, but it works.

I changed all visible screws in my Nespresso machine (10 in total). I DO recommend everybody do it. This kind of oval-head (in the screws) will go on getting spoiled each time they're screwed-unscrewed. These type of screws were created as a protection for appliances, but as a screw in itself, they're not efficent, and when unscrewed, they should not be used again.

Mr. Arenas kindly made extras for others to use!!

Update 8 February 2012: One of Mr. Arenas' sockets went to Bruno T. in Lisbon, Portugal and he wrote me to report an easy victory:
Hello Chris
Just got the tools from Mr. Arena and in 5 minutes got my problem solve :). Please confirm that it's to send it back to you or you have someone new in queu.
Thanks a lot
Bruno
Bruno also pointed out that the circuit board can be removed without pulling out the rubber button.

Update 10 February 2012: Well, this is a first :) Lee A. of Brooklyn brought his Nespresso machine all the way to my place in New Jersey, and using one of Peter N.'s sockets we opened it quickly. The screws could be turned pretty easily with just the supplied key ring as shown in the picture, but we soon switched to turning the socket with a regular screwdriver-type tool holder for a bit better control. His machine is modern and has a regular toggle switch at the back to turn the power on and off, but still uses soft push buttons to start and stop the pump. Anyhow, the easy part is over; now Lee has to hunt down an elusive internal leak.

Update 14 February 2012: First repair in Africa! Patrick d'H. in sunny Cape Town, South Africa opened his machine using the old steel bolt that I ground down so it would fit into the plastic wells on the bottom. Maybe a reader can help him, because I do not know the answer to his question:
The issue I had was the following: it was starting normally (warming up). As I push the pour button, after one second it switches off completely the machine. Would the problem comes from the switch?

Update 25 February 2012: While goofing around at the workbench this afternoon I experimented with cutting a slot into the head of an oval-head screw. I used a dremel tool and a thin cut-off wheel, it was a bit of a challenge to hit the middle and keep my hand steady. I think the result is pretty good: a small screwdriver fits very well in the new slot. If you have to work on one of these machines, this can save you the hassle of running around to find replacement screws, and it will be easy to reopen the machine!

Update 28 February 2012: Robert S. in San Diego, CA sent me this report about repairing his Nespresso Model C machine.
Babka and Duka could not use their Nesspresso machine. The symptom was the power on and off button took more and more pressure to turn on the machine. The fix was to wipe both pieces of the switch with a clean Q-tip with 91% alcohol. I wiped both on/off and start/stop since I had it open. I replaced all 8 screws with stainless steel #5 Phillips Pan Head screws 1/2" long. They can be ordered from McMaster.com if they are not available locally.

Robert, Nesspresso cafe lover, Nesspresso security screw non-lover!

Update 10 March 2012: Wim B. in London, England dropped me a line about using the old steel bolt:
I did indeed receive it; opened the machine and only had to clean the sensor with a piece of cloth and it worked again. Changed the screws for normal ones and we're very happy with it.

Update 3 April 2012: Donnchadh M. in Hasselt, Belgium sent me this question about her machine:
I recieved the opening tools today and got my machine open, thanks a million. .. The machine itself has problems pumping water when theres a capsule inserted but flows freely when theres nothing inside. I cleaned everything and reseated all pipes but still seem to be a weak flow so i am not sure what the issue is?? But at least i have it open and we can see further if theres a fix.

Update 11 April 2012: Dave W. from Lake Worth, FL wrote me with some advice for using a screw extractor to remove oval-head screws:

After Nespresso told me it would be $125 to repair my C90 I started googling, and I found your blog. An hour's work with a drill and a screw extractor, and I had the machine open.

For the screws in the shallow holes I just used a pair of small pliers, and was able to grip the screw heads. I wasn't able to fit the pliers into the deeper holes, and had to use an extractor.

I used the smallest screw extractor I had. I believe I got it at Harbor Freight, but you can also buy them at Sears and most hardware stores. They come in sets. Normally you use a left-handed drill bit to drill the hole, and often the drill bit itself will bite and spin the screw out, but I had broken my 1/16" left-handed drill bit, so I used a regular right-handed one. Because these screws are in there with such low torque you only need a very shallow hole for the extractor to be able to get a bite and turn the screw out. In the attached photo you can see the drill bit, the extractor, and a screw with a very shallow hole in the head. I used a cordless drill and a steady hand.

I cleaned the switch, and the machine worked perfectly! Eight #4 panhead screws and it all went back together. Thanks so much for this resource.

Update 15 April 2012: Jorge S. from Lisbon, Portugal says:
Here are a few pictures of the stripped down Krups. Unfortunately I don't think I was able to solve its issue, as even after a full check-up and cleaning it still resists to warm-up, the leds keep blinking nervously when we turn it on... Maybe it's just time for a replacment.

Update 1 May 2012: Fausto P. a.k.a. MrWho from Coimbra, Portugal wrote me to report:
I'd like to thank you for sharing your tips on opening up a Jura (here it's a Krups) Nespresso Machine. I succeeded using the melted BIC pen trick - worked perfectly, cleaned the power button and closed it up again with normal philips screws. Not bad for a €10 machine I bought from a friend who replaced it with a new machine.

Update 7 May 2012: George C. in Honolulu, Hawaii wrote me this note:
Aloha. Received the magic socket from Jorge in Portugal on Saturday. Spent Saturday afternoon dismantling my machine and chasing down the leak, which appears to be coming from the extraction unit. I suspect the tiny little red washer, although it appears to be in fine shape. Note that as others have mentioned the original machined bolt no longer grips the sides of the oval screw heads, but the "keyring version" works perfectly.

Where in the world are the sockets? A remanufactured Ikea bolt and an aluminum socket are in Hawaii with George C. Write me for more details or to join the queue.

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