Hi Dan,

Thanks for an informative review.

I purchased my S1 partly based on your finding.

I've developed a bit of a problem with my steaming capacity.

For the first couple of weeks the steam capacity was outstanding. It took a major adjustment in my technique to produce microfoam. 8 oz. actually took something less than the 20 sec you reported. With no changes on my end ( same bleed, clean tip etc. ) the steam times started to increase.
It now takes around 35 sec to reach 160 deg.

I was trouble shooting the problem with Roger at Chris's. He sent me a new temp probe which I changed out. No change in the steam times.

A couple of weeks into the trouble shooting the triac fails, so I send the S1 back to Chris's for repair. They have fixed the triac and fan, but it made no change in the steam times. They say all of their new machines going out have been tested and take 30 sec to steam 8 oz to 160 deg.

As this is contrary to my initial experience, your review and other S1 forum members steam times, I wonder if you could add your 2 cents.

Thanks for your help.

Robert

Dan

Thanks for the response.

Boiler water level seems to be correct.
Approx. 6oz from the hot tap kicks the pump on
Pressure seems right - 1.2 bar top with the heating element kicking in at .8 bar

I just got off the phone with Chris-
they are going to ck some additional things on Monday.

He stated that your test machine had a different steam wand and
that may be why your 20 sec times are different from my machine and the new ones
he is sending out now. (30 sec )
I don't think a different wand would make that much of a difference.

As to the pressure/velocity I usually steam 20oz of milk in a 36oz pitcher.
It made beautiful chrome when the S1 was new.
By the time I sent it back to Chris's for the triact problem, the quality of the milk was marginal and
took close to 3x as long to heat to 160 deg
Pressure drops to around .4 bar I don't know what it dropped to when the machine was functioning properly.
Chris says the new machines he is sending out drop to .4 - .5 bar when steaming for over a minute and a half.

Chris is going to send back my S1 after running a couple more tests. I'll see how she performs then.
He thinks it's possible my triact fan failed, causing the degraded steaming and finally
the over heated triact failed.

The mystery is still the difference in reported times?

Thanks again for your help

Never could get the S1 back to performing the way it did out of the box

Chris was kind enough to exchange it for an Elektra T1

now I have true steaming capacity