Towel on the Cupwarmer Question

[JohnB]

The last few days I've had a towel over my cups to better hold in the heat & get them hot. Each time I get near the machine I get a distinct whiff of hot plastic/rubber. I never get this without the towel over the top. My guess is that I'm smelling the wiring covers/ect on top of the steam boiler & I'm thinking that too much heat retained is not a good thing. I'm curious if those of you that have had the wiring covers melt also use a towel over the cups? I may opt for a half covered cup holder & see how that goes.

[RapidCoffee]

As a newbie S1 owner but longtime espresso fanatic, I'd suggest you stop blocking the air flow immediately. Uninsulated boilers radiate a lot of heat, which can reduce the life of various machine components. The smelling of burning rubber/plastic is a clear warning signal that bad things are happening. Does this occur all the time, or only when the steam boiler is on?

A quick flush from the brew group or hot water tap works very well for heating cups. IMHO cup warmers are nice but somewhat overrated. I would gladly accept a less efficient cup warmer in return for an insulated steam boiler.

[Endo]

No amount of internal temperature measurement will convince me to block the holes on top of my machine. I don't even put cups over the holes ( I place them behind the holes). I just heat them with a warming flush. Better safe then sorry. Just too much electronic stuff in there (including a cooling fan).

[JohnB]

I posted this because several people had mentioned that they do this & have been doing it for awhile. As I said I have only done it for the past couple days and quite frankly I find it gets the cups TOO hot & seems to overheat the inside. I wasn't smelling burning rubber or plastic but it certainly was hot enough to give off an odor. I'm back to just cups up there & there are plenty of holes exposed for the heat to get out.

I am still curious to find out if those that have experienced the melting rubber covers also use the towel to cover the cups.