My Hotpoint HCM15 built-in coffee machine is brilliant, but recently it keeps wanting me to "Ventilate" the system, which is done by pressing the hot water button. However, despite going through 2 whole tankfulls of water, it still has not fixed itself. Is this a known problem? Anyone know what causes the machine to need ventilating? This might help identify the problem...

Many thanks.

Jon R, February 2009

mine keeps asking me to press the tear shaped water button to rinse after descaling

simon, August 2015

ive the same machine its been replaced twice once with the same fault above the other a naff water pump I strongly reccomend the care plan i think its £6 a month as when they carnt fix it it gets replaced with a new one sharpish .. should you get the fill water tank constantly you will require a new magentic float switch that sits in the rear of the water tank & a simple swap.. The hotpint team that come here every single time have had no training on this machine most have never seen one as its not made by hotpoint but someone else .

wayneuk, March 2015

My machine done the same got engineer to replace water pump and for next 3 years was ok, untill last wk, used strong descaler 4 times and fiddled with menu and turned water filter one, so far so good

Mrs fitzy, January 2015

My machine when switching on won't move from warming up Ileave it for a few hours and try again but just the same, have descaled but no success.
Can you advise?

Helen, December 2013

Press the hot water button (shaped like a rain drop) until water comes out then it should be ok.

Robin L, November 2012

I've tried my previous repair methods several times now and it worked for different lengths of time but a couple of weeks ago no matter what I did after only 1 or 2coffees the machine kept asking to ventilate. I bit the bullet and dismantled the cabinet to have a look for myself to see why the machine thought it needed to ventilate and to my suprise the pipe feeding the pump had a clip at the pump end but no clip at the water container end. It was a bit of a fiddle to fit a cable tie up into the machine and over the pipe but so far it's worked, dozens of tankfuls of water and not one ventilate.
Is this a manufacturers fault? Save 1p by not fitting a clip but risk alienating there customer base because the product fails to deliver?
I'm not holding my breath on this but it would appear that the lack of a clip was allowing minute amounts of air into the system and causing the machine to fail.
I will be keeping a close eye on it and any signs of failure I will post ASAP.

bj, August 2011

my one is asking the same thing 3 time hotpint engineers have looked at it but it has still not been fixed if i play about with the hotwater button run maybe 2 tanks of water off leave it for a 1.2 hour then press the hotwater button it clears most times, i agree it makes great coffee and don't want to chuck it out

frank birse, January 2011

May have found a fix for the ventilate problem, it's a bit long winded but 3 weeks now and appears to be OK.
I tried descaling using a descaling solution and this worked for about 10 coffees but then back to the usual. I tried again descaling and again lasted for about 10 coffees. Biting the bullet I again descaled but used twice the recommended solution followed by rinsing through with warm water at least 4 times, as I said before machine appears to be working OK, but to be safe I don't let the water level drop to low.

bj, September 2009

Looks like a common fault as I'm having the same problem, about time Hotpoint did something about it and restore consumer confidence. My machine is only 18 months old but well used, hope ventilate doesn't mean used to much and time to buy a new one! At £800 for 2500 coffees I think I will be back to Gold Blend.

bj, August 2009

Hi my Hotpoint coffee machine was great until I experienced same problem. I called out Hotpoint engineers and they have attended to the machine on 4 ccasions, fitted several new parts and its still not working. they have said its beyond economic repair and its only coming up for 3 years old. did you have any luck fixing yours.

Helen Muir, April 2009