Nespresso Vertuo Plus: what the lights mean
Vertuo line (big and small barcode capsules)
The Vertuo Plus has one button whose light shows GREEN or ORANGE — unlike the Vertuo Next and Pop, whose light is white or orange and means different things at each speed. Nespresso’s shared Vertuo manual gives the Vertuo Plus its own 8-line blinking table: green is normal use (ready, heating, brewing, a missing capsule or empty tank), orange is the Special Functions menu (cleaning, descaling, emptying, reset). The Vertuo Plus table has no descaling alert, so the light will not tell you when to descale; the same manual’s troubleshooting list for the Vertuo Plus says to descale ‘if necessary’ when coffee is not hot enough or leaks.
Every Nespresso Vertuo Plus light we could source
| What you see | What it means |
|---|---|
| Steady green light | Normal operation: Ready mode: the machine has heated and is waiting for you to brew. |
| Green light blinking regularly, once a second | Heating up: The machine is heating up. |
| Green light turning round fast (“fast rotation”) | Normal operation: Coffee is being prepared. |
| Light blinks twice, then goes back to steady green | Water: The water tank is empty or there is no capsule in the machine. |
| Steady orange light | Mode running: The machine is entering its Special Functions menu — the route into cleaning, descaling, emptying the system and factory reset. |
| Orange light blinking regularly, once a second | Mode running: A special function — cleaning, descaling or emptying the system — is running. |
| Orange light blinks three times in 3 seconds, then steady green | Setting confirmed: The reset to factory settings is complete. |
| No light on the button | Off or no power: The machine is off. |
When Nespresso says to get help
Call Nespresso (the manual’s wording: ‘call the Nespresso Club’).
Sources
Nespresso’s own documents only, read on the date shown.
- Nespresso: User manual of Vertuo Plus and Vertuo Next: Vertuo Plus blinking summary (8 patterns) and ‘Troubleshooting’ for Vertuo Next / Vertuo Pop / Vertuo Plus — Vertuo Plus (shared multi-language Vertuo manual, Vertuo Plus section). www.nespresso.com Checked 2026-09-29.