Galvanic Corrosion Gaggia Evo Pro 2024 : Boilergate 2

As someone mentioned in a previous post, Gaggia stopped using Teflon-coated boilers sometime between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024. The coating on those boilers would loosen over time, sometimes blocking the solenoid valve or getting through the steam wand. This became known as "Boilergate." Gaggia took some responsibility and replaced the coated boilers with plain aluminum ones, before eventually switching to brass toward the end of 2024. So throughout most of 2024, they mainly used aluminum boilers.

The problem is that aluminum and the brass group head react through galvanic corrosion, and aluminum oxide particles form inside the boiler as a result. These particles will inevitably end up blocking the solenoid valve. Descaling will not fix this — the only real solution is to fully disassemble the machine, clean out the boiler and solenoid valve, and remove the aluminum oxide buildup, a process that takes experienced folks about an hour.

I think a lot of Gaggia Evo Pro 2023–2024 owners aren't aware of this galvanic corrosion issue, and there are probably plenty of "unusable" machines sitting in basements right now because of it.

I want to raise awareness of this issue — please reach out to Whole Latte Love, the US representative for Gaggia, and ask for a free brass boiler replacement.

The only option so far to solve this issue is to either buy a brass boiler ($170) and install it yourself, or to ship it to Whole Latte Love, go through a warranty repair -although I am not sure at this point if they will even accept it as a warranty issue - and chose the option to replace the boiler with a brass boiler and pay the $170 to upgrade.

Again, Gaggia knew about this problem and sold those defective Evo's all through 2024.

So far it has been a difficult process communication with Whole Latte Love, they are not very helpfull at all.

Here is what AI say about Galvanic Corrosion:

• Brass is more noble (cathodic) — it has a more positive electrochemical potential.
• Aluminum is more active (anodic) — it has a more negative electrochemical potential.
• When the two metals are electrically connected and both are wetted by an electrolyte, aluminum acts as the sacrificial anode and corrodes preferentially, while the brass is protected.
• The rate of corrosion depends on the area ratio — a small aluminum boiler in contact with brass fittings (like a group head) is a particularly bad combination, because a small anode (aluminum) paired with a large cathode (brass) accelerates the corrosion of the aluminum significantly. This is actually one of the worse ratios you can have in galvanic corrosion terms.
• Aluminum corrosion typically produces aluminum oxide/hydroxide, which can appear as white or grayish particulate/scale.