Steam Wand Question

Brian Masters

A couple of our baristas are experiencing the steam wand (on the left side) not wanting to turn off. I've asked them to show me, but I haven't been able to observe it yet. They are pushing the wooden lever up on the steam wand, steaming the milk, and then are trying to quickly bump it down with their hand once they have completed the process. They say that when they bump it to the middle, it sometimes doesn't turn off. Do you have any ideas?

Thanks,

Brian Masters
HOPE Coffee

Reiss Gunson

hi brian

the answer lies in the permanent file, here: https://londiniumespresso.com/forum?catid=27&defaultmenu=156&id=406&limitstart=0&view=topic

disassemble as shown in the permanent file, clean all the dirty grease out, and regrease with a very little amount of grease

if you use too much grease it will make the problem worse, not better

the plunger that the toggle works against is spring loaded

the spring is gentle to give a nice action to the toggle

if you apply too much silicone grease (or the grease has become dirty with use) the spring is unable to push the plunger back out along the valve body to the full extent

this results in the toggle handle slopping around as you report

it is a basic piece of maintenance and once you have done it once you will see how easy it is and have the confidence to do it very quickly the second time

the valves themselves will last for decades: they are expensive commercial valves and designed to be fully serviceable

in the unlikely event that the o-ring seals in the valve are damaged our full seal kit contains the replacement seals, but i don't know of one owner who has had to replace the o-ring seals in the valves yet

very happy to provide guidance via Skype, or better still FaceTime

kind regards

reiss.

Reiss Gunson

and this one: https://londiniumespresso.com/forum?catid=27&id=181&view=topic

Brian Masters

Thank you Reiss! This looks like a very simple fix. I'll try it out in a couple of weeks when I have some downtime in the shop. Thanks also for pointing me to the permanent file section. I hadn't seen that before so I'll try looking in there in the future.

Have a great week! - Brian