Pretty easy to install, maybe 2 hours. Just need little hands, as there's not much room to swing the Allen key even after moving the pump out of the way. There were a lot of little red gaskets in the package, Had 2 fat ones, 4 thin ones and 1 little one for the brass connector from the gauge. Decided to use the two fat ones for the adapter block. So far no leaks. I mounted the gauged with magnets to the side of the machine with a 3D printed case: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6612523

Excellent upgrade. I had a portafilter gauge and always struggled with getting a seal and accurate reading. This one looks great in the topbox and works perfectly.

Excellent mod with excellent installation instructions. It arrived quickly to the US. I ended up drilling into the front of my 2017 classic to mount this thing and I think it looks spectacular. Used it to dial in my OPV and am now sitting here at 8pm trying to convince myself not to pull a shot.

Well, here I am again. I got the PID kit and top box about a month ago, and I couldn't help myself. I had to get the pressure gauge kit as well. I have to say, this is just awesome. I had live feedback as I was brewing, and I also put in a dimmer along with this kit, and the pressure gauge allows me to do all kinds of weird pressure profiling. Another top-notch product. Very happy with my tricked out GCP

Excellent gauge. Stable, accurate and very legible. To mount it, I cut a hole in the front casing of a 2017 NA version Gaggia Classic to the left of the Gaggia logo. It looks very good there. No issues with the installation. Just followed instructions. With a dimmer, I can now do all sorts of pre-infusion and pressure profiling. Very pleased overall.

This kit made it easier to brew consistently, especially useful when dialing in new beans.

Best thing ever! Always a pleasure dealing with SOC :)

Like the analog look of this gauge. Really like the white numbers on black dial. Helps to play with pressure profiling. I release pressure with the steam valve to achieve this. Looks like it belongs on the GCP.

I purchased this pressure gauge kit a while ago but have delayed fitting it until I changed the old Gaggia Classic boiler for a new one, as I wanted to install it in the case rather than a Topbox unit. The components are all excellent quality and the instructions are very easy to follow, as with the Shades PID kit which I fitted about a year ago. If you’re using the Shades Topbox then most of my comments below won’t be relevant, but there are a few points I noted that may help whether Topbox or case-mounting is chosen. Because I opted to fit it into the front part of the case, between the left-hand edge and the Gaggia logo obviously a hole needed to be cut. This (and the actual fixing of the gauge) is why removing the boiler and group assembly is really essential - clearly, you don’t want to risk damaging the boiler, and fixing the gauge bracket in place is much easier with the boiler out. I found that a hole centre approx. 50mm up from the front lower edge of the case was right, as it ensured the 40mm diameter gauge does not touch the lower part of the boiler or the upper part of the group casting. Drilling the stainless steel is quite hard (especially on the older Classic’s which I believe use thicker steel). Ideally, a slow-running drill and good metal-drilling bits will help, together with some cutting oil to keep things lubricated and cool. I cut the 40mm hole with a Q-Max hole punch which needs a large (12mm) hole to take the bolt which forms part of the punch tool. The hole punch works surprisingly well, but it does need the leverage of a long-handled 10mm Allen key to turn the bolt. Also, note that you will still need a good round metal file to open the hole a little more, as the gauge seems to be slightly over 40mm diameter (or the hole punch is slightly under 40mm?). Once the ‘heavy’ work is over, fitting the gauge in place is easy, as is the brass adaptor and ‘O’ rings that go between the existing solenoid valve fitting and the group casting. I would note that fitting this is also easier with the boiler/group removed. Because the two stainless steel fittings need to be fixed very tightly to both the adaptor and the end of the capillary tube, in each case I held the brass parts in a small metal vice to ensure each steel fitting was very tight before fixing the gauge and adaptor in place. Once the gauge, brass adaptor and solenoid valve are all in place and the boiler refitted then connecting the end of the capillary tube to the solenoid valve unit is just a case of pushing the short length of plastic tube FULLY into each stainless push-fit unit. The tube is quite slippery and it is important to make sure it really is fully home in each unit - one end of my tube obviously wasn’t as I discovered a small leak when under pressure. Fortunately, this is covered in the manual - just trim off a small amount of tube with a very sharp blade (I used a new scalpel blade) and re-fit the tube. Pushing a small and slippery piece of tube into place can be tricky and I found that by gently gripping the centre part of the tube with a small pair of needle-point pliers helped push the tube fully in place - because of various wires and fittings it’s not that easy to get hands/fingers into a position to grip the tube. The finished result is excellent, installed in the Gaggia case it looks like it was a factory-fitted gauge, if such a thing were available. The size is just right, easy to read but not so big it dominates (and would makes fitting more difficult). Readings are absolutely steady, just a slow climb up to the set pressure (9 bar in my case) and if it is necessary to alter the pressure it only takes a few minutes to adjust.