Time to steam 8 oz. to 160 degrees?

[wave]

I wonder if a few of you wouldn't mind posting your times
to steam 8 oz milk ( or 40 deg water ) to 160 degrees.

My S1 ia currently back at Chris's
It originally took approx 15 sec to steam 8 oz
but now takes 35 to 40 sec.
Dan Kehn's reviews showed 20 sec. times
http://www.home-barista.com/s1-buyers-g ... mance.html

They haved checked it out and say everything is within specs.
with regard to steam boiler temps and pressures.
They seem to be saying there is no problem!

I normally steam 21 oz of milk at a time.
It now takes 3x as long and with this degraded
performance it's almost impossible to get proper microfoam
(pressure drops to .4 or .5 bar )

Thanks for your help

[wgaggl]

Mine takes 21 secs to steam 8oz of 40degF water to 160degF in a 12oz steam pitcher.

However: About a year ago I just opened the steam valve and steamed away, without looking at the pressure or the filling level, and the steam boiler reheated every 5 to 8 minutes (didn't pay too much attention back then). Now, I have to drain the water tap so it refills the boier to the top level, purge the steam until it reheats (starts at 1bar stops at 1.3bar) and steam immediately after it's done reheating, which it will do idle every 3 minutes now.

So, something changed on mine too, Chris's tech says, that everything is within specs, but it takes more effort now to get proper microfoam, without the machine dropping to 0.5bar halfway; I hope it doesn't get any worse than that...

I am worrying about scaling, since one time I had the filter change way overdue when I realized it, but somehow aren't ready to take the steam boiler apart (like Chas for his heater repair).

Good luck,
Wolfgang

[wave]

Thanks Wolfgang,

My machines started acting up when it was
2 wks old and I use bottled water, so scaling is not an issue.

My cycle times are around 2 min 20 sec then reheats for 40 sec
and repeats. I don't know if this is a change from the first 2 wks or not as
I really didn't play much attention since all was well then.

[zak42]

I wonder if a few of you wouldn't mind posting your times
to steam 8 oz milk ( or 40 deg water ) to 160 degrees.

Steaming performance on my machine seems to be the same as it was when it was new (its now 3-4 months old), i just steamed 8oz of 40 deg water to 160 deg in 20 seconds.

[admin]

I am right at two years of service on my S1 now. As far as I can tell it steams the same as ever. The way I normally use my S1 it always has enough steam pressure. However, on rare occasions such as when my son was home over Christmas and I sometimes steamed enough milk at once for 1 latte and 2 hot chocolates, the S1 just barely made it and was definitely out of "gas" just about the time I was finished.

The other thing about my S1 - which it has done since day one - occurs when I pull a lot of hot water at once. I can get about 2 cups (16 oz) and while the pump will then run for quite a while to fill up, it does so and all is well. However, if I pull just slightly more than this amount, the pump will run for a fair amount of time, then the S1 shuts off. I have to unplug it, plug it back it, turn it back on and then everything is fine.

Has anyone else noticed anything like this? I'm not sure if this is a protective mechanism when the pump runs too long or what.

[padillatim]

Yeah, mine does that (shuts off whe you pull a lot of hot water). I think it is protective...

[wave]

My S1 is being shipped back to me from Chris's today.
They replaced the triac and fan, which had failed.
Ran a bunch of tests.

Still not sure if this has fixed the problem,
but Chris says it's running the same as the new machines he is sending out.

I'll test it out in a wk when it arrives.

It been murder living without my S1,
guess I've been spoiled. lol