Milk burns on steaming wand

[johnnyboy5]

Hello all. First, still loving my Mini Vivaldi, although its turned me into a complete coffee snob. My brother made me an espresso on the weekend using his old delonghi and some pre-ground coffee, and I almost gagged!

Anyway, does anyone else have a problem cleaning the steam wand? I use it almost nightly for steaming milk for hot chocolates for my wife and kids (syrup goes in after the milk is steamed) and since after the first 1 or 2 uses, a baked on burnt milk stain is on the wand and is proving very difficult to get off. Does anyone else have this problem and if not, how do you keep it clean? Cafiza? BTW, its the original wand that came with the machine. Many thx.

[cruiten]

I am assuming that you do not wipe off your steam wand with a wet towel after steaming...

I wipe off my steam wand right after every time that I use and it still looks as good as it did when I first bought the Vivaldi II.

Here is my steaming routine:

• Pour milk in pitcher.
• Purge steam wand. (1-3 second blast to clear condensation)
• Steam milk.
• Wipe steam wand with wet towel.
• Purge steam wand. (1 second blast to clear any milk from inside wand)
• Pour milk into drink...

Some people like to put their steam wand into ice water right after steaming. The bottom line is that if you wipe it down with something wet right after steaming it should wipe clean without any real effort. In your case however you might consider first using something like JoeGlo, Cafiza or Rinza to get rid of your baked on burnt milk.

Check out http://www.home-barista.com/tips/keepin ... t9739.html

Take care,

[johnnyboy5]

Thx for the response. My routine is exactly the same as yours, as I purge and wipe it down every single time. Hmmmm. Maybe i'll try some Cafiza and see if that helps.

[MDL]

Are you using a wet cloth to wipe the wand after steaming? My VII is over 2 years old, I steam milk at least once/day and the wand looks like new. I wipe it off with a damp/wet cloth after steaming and everything comes off with almost no effort.
Mark

[cruiten]

I wonder if I misread your original post. I automatically assumed that "milk burns" were the same as "caked on layers of dried milk". Am I correct in my interpretation that your "milk burns" are actually some sort of light stain/discoloration and not dried milk? Can you post a pic?

I should mention that I do not have the "standard" wand on my Vivaldi II. When I purchased my Vivaldi from Chris Coffee I purchased the optional longer steam arm which was installed by them prior to shipping. However, I do not believe that this difference is important for the purpose of this discussion.

Thanks,

[johnnyboy5]

After reading the replies yesterday, I went home and scraped of the burnt milk. it took some doing, but it did come off. I do use a damp cloth, but clearly I wasn't being thorough enough. Anyway, situation solved. Thx for the help.

[JohnB]

After reading the replies yesterday, I went home and scraped of the burnt milk. it took some doing, but it did come off. I do use a damp cloth, but clearly I wasn't being thorough enough. Anyway, situation solved. Thx for the help.

Hopefully the inside is cleaner as you don't want milk getting back into your boiler. Anytime you get something burnt on like that just toss the part into a hot Cafiza bath & it will clean up quickly.

[zoey]

I just wrap a wet towel around the arm and let it sit overnight. In the morning it wipes off rather easily. However, as mentioned by others, wiping after each use with a wet towel keeps it clean.