Abstract We study the effect of the synthesis method on the structural and magnetic properties of La 0.7 Ca 0.2 Ba 0.1 Mn0 3 . The samples were synthesized by coprecipitation and solution combustion methods. X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy were performed to investigate the crystallographic structure, showing that both methods produced La 0.7 Ca 0.2 Ba 0.1 Mn0 3 monophasic samples. From magnetization measurements a second-order, ferromagnetic to paramagnetic, phase transition was observed. The Curie temperature is found to be 272 K for the sample obtained by coprecipitation and 283 K for the sample obtained by solution combustion. There is a small magnetic hysteresis for both samples. The magnetocaloric parameters were obtained using a phenomenological model; the magnetic entropy change and relative cooling power factor are higher in the sample synthesized by combustion.