Hey,

So, I haven't thought too much about this as I don't steam too often and it's never for more than 1 or 2 drinks. My boiler pressure is way down because I want the temperature recovery from the flush to be 'slow', @ .9 bar. I was doing a fairly large amount of milk, enough for 2 lattes, and since my boiler pressure is low it takes a longer to steam milk. At the end of that session my steam knob was pretty damn hot. It's a plastic knob on the La Valentina Auto model, it's a pretty damn big knob that measure probably about 2 inches out from the machine with about an inch in width.

I'm wondering if maybe steam is escaping right at the valve that I open with the knob. I don't hear anything weird or get the sense that steam is escaping along the 'line' though. Steam is strong, but maybe if a small leak exists it wouldn't impact the strength by that much.

The long and the short of it? Does everyone else's steam knob get really hot?