Hi all

I've been perusing a number of forums and websites to try and find help getting decent milk using the steam wand on the Oscar. I've been using the machine for around 7 months after a couple years on a Gaggia Evolution and immediately had to plug 3 of the 4 holes on the steam wand tip because the beastly power of the thing turned my milk into scorching hot bubble bath in moments. Using one hole I could get consistently silky milk but it took nearly as long as on the Gaggia (>1 min). After some practice I opened up a second hole and was able to get good milk but it still took longer than what I knew the machine was capable of, given my initial experience with the molten milk produced in a few seconds with four holes open. So I got braver and opened the third hole which only ever gave me sub par foam, often separated from the milk at the bottom of the pitcher. After about a week of thin tasting cappuccinos that were just milky coffee after the first two sips sucked the foam off, I returned to the forums for help. Eventually I stumbled onto a link to http://coffeetime.wikidot.com/foaming-milk-the-basics with the following specific tip:

"If you have a 2 ,3 or 4 hole tip, you don't want the wand at an angle, as your much more likely to periodically expose the uppermost hole and cause bubbles, so a more vertical orientation seems to work best"

This advice coupled with another comment on a different thread, advising users of four hole steam tips to rather keep the tip centered in the milk jug throughout steaming, has hugely improved my success on the Oscar.

But before I used the above advice on actual milk for an actual drink, I practiced using a technique that I would credit Dritan Alsela with (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heKdbO6H86U) , namely, filling your jug with the same amount of water in place of the milk you usually use and then adding about half an ounce of milk to colour it white. Then practice steaming with this mixture instead of wasting gallons of milk. I found this technique a lot better than the water and dishsoap method. After using this method to run about 20 practice jugs I proceeded to froth some of the best milk I've had in weeks, using all four holes open on the steam wand!

What I found helpful was to count the seconds it took to prepare the milk. For 9 oz (260ml) milk my Oscar takes 14 sec on full power. A lot of people advise to aerate the milk for a few seconds until the jug feels warm to the touch then sink the tip deeper into the milk. I found more success counting the seconds, so currently I stretch the milk for half the time and then sink the tip for the remainder of the count to swirl. It may help to just fiddle with the timing between stretching and swirling to find the right result for you.

I hope this excessively long post helps those like me who have been wading through forums trying to find a solution to the Oscar steam problem without having to replace the steam tip.

I don't think Oscar has a steam problem - it just has a lot of power, and the tip holes are at a bit different angle from many. Watch the steam leave Oscar's tip & you'll see that it exits each hole at about a 30 degree angle to the horizontal (& 60 to the axis of the wand). So holding the tip perpendicular to the surface of the milk gives the same steam angle to the milk as does angling a single-hole tip the same amount.

I've always foamed "by ear" - submerge the tip, open the steam valve, then lower the pitcher until the tip is at its best angle to the milk's surface (which, as you discovered, is 90 degrees for Oscar) & you hear only the quiet hiss of paper tearing. As the milk foams, slowly lower the pitcher to keep that sound going while the milk stretches. Once the milk stretches (ie the level rises in the pitcher) as much as you want, raise the pitcher & angle it slightly to get a strong swirl going, and stop when the pitcher is almost too hot to hold.

Tip holes vary in size, position & angulation from machine to machine. The big LMs and Synessos seem to pump steam from their multiple hole tips at a more acute angle to the wand axis than Oscar's, so each style seems to do best with its own approach.

It seems like every machine out there has very specific and different parameters for use in order to get the best out of the machine. Is this the Coffee Illuminati's way of making sure only true believers ever enjoy quality coffee drinks? Every time a friend gets more interested in coffee and ventures into the land of espresso I always tell them it's pretty simple to make good coffee. Then I start explaining how and I immediately have to recant that statement.