Ask Gail: Troubleshooting Water Detection Sensors

It is early in the morning and you just filled up the water tank in your Nuovo Simonelli or Rocket machine in preparation for that first shot of espresso of the day. And then it happens. The lights start to blink and the machine won't run. Even though you are 100% sure you put water into the machine, the water detection sensors say otherwise. Why is this happening! And before I can even get my daily caffeine fix. Well it turns out that the water detection sensors on all the Rocket and Nuovo Simonelli machines use an electrical current to detect if any water is present. And it turns out pure water is actually a very weak conductor. So why then do they always say not to use the hair dryer in the bathtub? Well, the ions that are dissolved in the water (think salt) act as charge carriers and allows an electrical current to flow through the water. So if you are using distilled water or water that has gone through a reverse osmosis process you have water that is pretty close to pure. So the water detection sensors won't recognize the water that is actually in the tank. Gail has a pretty easy solution to this issue, watch the video below to find out what it is!