Full steam ahead.......

Welcome to the year 2000. Hopefully all finds you well and that you had a prosperous holiday season. All those repairs and maintenance items that you meant to get to before the holidays are now haunting you and you know you need to fix them. So this month we will look at a few of the more common repair and maintenance items required to keep your espresso machine in good working order.

One of the most common repairs to espresso machines seems to be steam valve repair and steam wand replacement. After months of turning the steam knob or pulling the steam lever in order to steam volumes of milk, you start to notice that no matter how hard you try, the steam wonˇt stop leaking. Chances are that the seal within the steam valve is crushed, and will not seat properly anymore. Now at this point you have a couple of choices. First you need to decide if you want to rebuild your valve or have a technician do the work and also, do you rebuild the valve or just replace it? Steam valve replacement on most espresso equipment is relatively easy and can be accomplished in less than an hour depending on your mechanical abilities. Replacing the valve, rather than repairing it will ensure a leak free installation in a short time frame. Now depending on your ability you may wish to rebuild the valve, this involves a bit more time and in some cases specialized tools to complete the job correctly. One of the most important aspects to rebuilding a steam valve is to make sure that the valve seat is in good condition and free from imperfections. The seat is where the rubber seal sets to stop the flow of steam. If the seat has any imperfections the seal will not seat and will cause steam to leak past. The best way to remedy this problem is to either replace the seat or use a seat cutter to put a new surface on the seat. Once this part of the rebuilding process is complete you can now start to reassemble the valve. While you have the valve apart it is suggested that you also replace any stem packing as well as body gaskets that seal the valve and associated fittings. It is also a good time to look at the steam pipe wand.

The steam wand is an area of your machine that requires constant maintenance as well as replacement. The first thing I want to say here is that most health departments require the steam wand on your espresso machine to be clean at all times. The reason for this is to reduce bacterial contamination of the milk that you will be using in your finished product. Milk allowed to build on the outside of steam wands will create not only an unsightly mess but could also cause contamination. Chances are if I walk into a shop that has milk caked on the steam wands I also pass on the thought of purchasing a drink there. One of the most common service calls to our shop is with regard to plugged steam tips. The scenario goes like this: The barista says the machine has hot water and it makes coffee well, but there is no steam. They have tried every thing and they canˇt figure out what is wrong. Well, after many years of going out on this call I now try to resolve the problem on the telephone. Thus saving my customer a few bucks and also the embarrassment of completing a task that should be part of their daily routine. I often say to the Barista, O.K. go to the supply drawer and get your espresso machine steam wand fix it tool i.e.: a paper clip and then use the paper clip to poke the holes in the steam tip. Ninety nine percent of the time this resolves the problem and steam is now free to travel through the steam tips once more. This problem can be alleviated rather simply be purging the steam wand of excess milk at the end of each use. To reduce the amount of milk build up on the outside of the wand, simply wipe the wand with a soft cloth after each use. Combine both efforts in one sweeping motion at the end of each use and you should have a very sanitary steam wand in good repair. If for some strange reason milk is allowed to build up on the wands, it is not suggested that you use any sharp item, that will remove the chrome finish from the steam wand, a simple way to remove this milk scale is to wrap a towel around the wand and then crack open the steam valve allowing the steam to soften the milk. Once the milk build up is soft it should simply wipe off. A lot of baristas soak the steam wands in hot water overnight. This is not a recommended way of maintaining your wands, but many shops do this. My contention is that if properly maintained throughout the day, there should be no need to soak them in hot water.

If you find it necessary to replace the wand on your machine the process is fairly straight forward. Espresso machines use two types of steam wand mountings. The first and most prevalent is the ball and steam nut mount. If your steam wands rotate 360 degrees you have ball and steamnut style wands. The second style is the bayonet mount. If your steam wands move only forward and backward then you have bayonet mounts. to replace a bayonet mount wand you must remove a retaining nut and in somecases a circlip to remove the wand. Replacement is as simple as removing the old wand and replacing the bayonet gaskets then replacing the wand and retaining nut and circlip. The replacement procedure for the ball type wand is to simply loosen the steam nut from the steam valve and then remove the wand. Remember to replace the wand retention seat and spring as well as any associated o rings when doing this style of steam wand.

With a little bit of patience and care, you can keep your espresso machine in tip top shape and save a few bucks by doing it your self. It is really a good idea to have a understanding of how an espresso machine works, this hopefully will help with your overall understanding of the beverages it can create.

Terry Ziniewicz 1999