sticky steam lever

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richardcoffee
God Shot
Posts: 172
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 4:59 pm
Location: Michigan City, Indiana

sticky steam lever

Post by richardcoffee »

My steam lever suddenly seems a little sticky - reluctant to move from off position. Have any of you experienced this? If so, what did you do to correct it?
Thanks
Endo

Re: sticky steam lever

Post by Endo »

Never heard of that one. The Mini lever is directly from the commercial S5, so it's pretty robust.

I never took mine apart (actually, I'm not even sure how it works, though I assumed it was simply a springloaded ball valve mechanism).

I would start by removing the top front panel to expose the lever mechanism. You may be able to simply lubricate the external pivots with a food grade lubricant and solve the problem.
richardcoffee
God Shot
Posts: 172
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2010 4:59 pm
Location: Michigan City, Indiana

Re: sticky steam lever

Post by richardcoffee »

I finally lubricated this and I'm glad I did. This beast is so powerful with steaming that the first couple of seconds are crucial. Just the little bit of sticking was causing me to get large bubbles right at the start. Now it's nice and smooth and so much better.
Endo

Re: sticky steam lever

Post by Endo »

The Vivaldi is a real "bubble machine". Both milk AND espresso it seems. (One of my few complaints about this machine).

To reduce bubbles while steaming, sink the wand first, flip on the lever, then steady both hands on the pitcher. Steady your hands further by putting your left pinky finger on the corner of the tray while steaming. This allows you to very precisely lower the pitcher and get the tip "just" at the milk surface, so you hear the "tsssss" sounds for only a few seconds. If you lower the pitcher too quickly, you will get monster bubbles that can never be mixed in properly. It requires a steady hand to get it just right!

To reduce bubbles in the espresso, I find using the spouted PF rather than a naked PF improves things a bit. Even then, the crema is never as smooth as on my Cremina it seems. :-(
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