The S1 Cafe - Helping Your Espresso Dreams Become Reality

I have noticed recently that the steam power is nowhere near what it was when I first got the machine, which is several weeks ago. The pressure looks fine, and doesn't drop much with the steam valve open. But the actual steam coming out of the wand is weaker. FYI there is also a fair bit of free play in the steam wheel, and when I close it after steaming, it takes a few seconds for the steam to gradually stop. Though this is also a recent symptom, it may be unrelated to the low steam power problem.

PS It's a new machine!

Is the tip clean - that is, have you unscrewed it and put it in the cleanser you use for back flushing?

The steam valve should shut off immediately so it does sound as if you have a valve issue which may, or may not be related to your steam pressure. If the machine is new I would call your dealer.

Just opened the wand and the tip and found little pieces of black rubber jammed into the tip! (see pic attached). What the heck is that from??

o-ring come apart?

richardcoffee wrote:o-ring come apart?

Where would it have been? Ball joint on the wand?

If the o-ring in the ball joint failed to the point that pieces were sucked into the steam wand, I would think that the steam arm would completely flop around. You didn't mention that so it may be the "hidden" o-ring. If you look at the exploded diagram in the Parts List on the VII/VII Mini Site linked at the top of this page, there is one o-ring they don't even show on the diagram. You can actually unscrew the steam wand just below the ball joint and there is an o-ring there as shown and discussed in the thread below. I'd start there, since it is the most likely culprit and also very easy to get at - assuming of course that it wasn't the o-ring right at the steam tip itself.

Hidden O-Ring Thread

The photo in the thread I linked to in the previous post shows the steam arm already removed. I found this picture I took many moons ago with a arrow showing where you unscrew the steam arm. You can see that the very top of the wand, it has two flattened sides so you can get a wrench around them. The photo shows the left side panel removed. However, you can pretty easily get a wrench on that joint without removing the side panel unless all you have it a huge adjustable wrench.