Recently, I've been transferred to a shop that hosts a refurbished Synesso Cyncra. Prior to that, I was being trained on a La Marzocco Strada.

The Cyncra worked great on the first day. Velvety microfoam. Great texture. Loved it.

Second day, issues started to arise. The steam boiler was building up too much water, so consequently when you turned on the steam wand, it was just spraying water everywhere. I was the first to notice this, and I brought it up to the owner, who took some convincing to finally acquiesce.

Third day, a technician came to the shop and apparently fixed it. Although water isn't blasting out of the steam wand anymore, I've noticed another problem. The milk texture is horrible. No matter how perfect your technique and form, there are always tiny visible bubbles in the milk.

It's okay if you're making mediocre rosettas and hearts, but if you want really sleek, glossy, detailed art work, it's almost impossible.

I've brought it up to the owner, but he's sort of just brushing it off. Personally I was seriously embarrassed with the milk texture we were serving to customers today.

Anybody have ideas as to why the machine is yielding fizzy microfoam? One of my theories is that the pressure might be set too low... I notice the pressure's not as strong, anymore. I don't necessarily ever crank the lever the entire way when I'm steaming, because I only get to steam about 5 ounces of milk, but I'm cranking the lever back about 3/4th of the way. Prior to the technician's visit, I only had to crank the lever about halfway for the milk to develop a dynamic roll.

Also, I noticed that the machine starts squealing towards the end of the steaming process. Now I don't really understand why steam boilers start squealing, but I generally associate it with the beginning of the steaming process, as opposed to the end... the only times the steam boiler on my Silvia has ever squealed towards the end, is when the steam pressure plummeted.

Any thoughts would be appreciated. I feel that if I can present a more specific theory to the owner, he may be inclined to have the technician take a look. Otherwise, I fear I'm gonna be stuck with a faulty steamer for the duration of my employment...

PS: Bubbles in my microfoam has never been a problem. On the LM Strada, the steamer produced consistently velvety microfoam. And at home, the microfoam from my Silvia is very smooth.

I hope someone with first hand knowledge chimes in on this. The Synesso wand is one I thought of converting to use for my CMA machine. It looks like a fine design.

Compared to my large boiler machine, I am still more consistent with microfoam using the pavoni and livietta. I can get better microfoam with the mig machine, but if the valve has any condensation or I fail to open that valve really quickly then I can get bubbles and it's time to start over.

Is there a manual for the machine? Is it possible to change the steam boiler pressure? I would bet that the problem lies in the valve mechanism.

Do you know how to adjust the steam boiler temperature? to me, it sounds like its a bit low now. I keep our hydras steam boiler temp between 250 and 255 degrees Fahrenheit. However i've never ever heard a steam boiler 'squeal' which raises some concerns.

Zaneus wrote:Do you know how to adjust the steam boiler temperature? to me, it sounds like its a bit low now. I keep our hydras steam boiler temp between 250 and 255 degrees Fahrenheit. However i've never ever heard a steam boiler 'squeal' which raises some concerns.

Yeah, I know how to change it, although I'm sorta new, so I don't touch the settings unless the owner says so. He prefers his steam boiler in the 250-260 range.

Yesterday, it was set to 260, but apparently the pressure was too high and milk was splattering everywhere, so they dropped the temp to 250.

I spoke to someone else, and he said that when he worked with the Cyncra, he set the temp to 267 and ran it just below 2 bars of pressure.

I don't really know how commercial machines work. Wondering if the temperature and pressure bar can be adjusted individually...

With home machines, the higher the temp, the higher the pressure. It's just common sense.

But when I spoke to the technician, it sounded like he had fixed the pressure to 1.5 for steaming.

Also, I'm not sure which steam tip we're using... high flow or low flow. Regardless, the milk was great on the first day, so there must be adjustments that can be made.

As for the "squealing," every steam boiler squeals to my knowledge. When you crank open the steam valve, it's not silent. You hear the steam boiler squealing, right before you start stretching the milk. Not sure why there's any squealing, but I attributed to low pressure. Once you open up the valve more, the squealing subsides.

That said, the steam boiler on the Cyncra is squealing at the end of the steaming process as well... almost like the pressure is too low.

Chert wrote:I hope someone with first hand knowledge chimes in on this. The Synesso wand is one I thought of converting to use for my CMA machine. It looks like a fine design.

Compared to my large boiler machine, I am still more consistent with microfoam using the pavoni and livietta. I can get better microfoam with the mig machine, but if the valve has any condensation or I fail to open that valve really quickly then I can get bubbles and it's time to start over.

Is there a manual for the machine? Is it possible to change the steam boiler pressure? I would bet that the problem lies in the valve mechanism.

I don't know how to change the steam boiler pressure... I think you need to open up the machine and turn some screws...

The technician told me that he had set the steam boiler pressure to 1.5 bar.

I'm not sure if it's fixed or what the deal is... I'm sure though, that if I raised the set steam boiler temp, the pressure will also rise.

Okay, according to your explanation, that squealing sound is the milk, not the boiler. also the steam tips look different according to high or low pressure. Low pressure will be a flat tip where as the high pressure will come to a point. Boiler pressure itself is fixed to steam temperature as far as i'm aware. I noticed a huge increase from 147 degrees to 155 degrees and the pressure reading on the dial went up about a third of a bar.

Try opening the steam valve all the way. After a few cm past the cut off the pressure is maxed. You don't get a linear pressure increase the more you open it up. At the moment it seems to me like you're just not opening up the valve all the way which would cause some of the steam to condense to water before it comes out, extend that 'squealing' sound you're referring too and causing your milk texture to be poor.

I don't know how the Synesso's work but the Linea's steam boiler has a fill probe that is user set. It is adjusted either higher or lower to raise or lower the water level. The lower the water level, the dryer the steam. Too low though and you risk damaging the boiler. I keep mine about 2/3 full.

Then again, I don't know if this applies to the Synesso.

Yeah, the Synesso also works similarly. There's a sightglass for it, although I haven't really checked to see how much water is in it. When the steam boiler was gushing out water, the sightglass was full.

To adjust the water level though, you have to take the thing apart.

But if the sight glass is full of water, the boiler is overfilled. Maybe the probe has scale preventing it from detecting the water level? Or the tech moved the probe. Either way, if the sight glass is full (no air in the top third), then it needs attention.

Zaneus wrote:Okay, according to your explanation, that squealing sound is the milk, not the boiler. also the steam tips look different according to high or low pressure. Low pressure will be a flat tip where as the high pressure will come to a point. Boiler pressure itself is fixed to steam temperature as far as i'm aware. I noticed a huge increase from 147 degrees to 155 degrees and the pressure reading on the dial went up about a third of a bar.

Try opening the steam valve all the way. After a few cm past the cut off the pressure is maxed. You don't get a linear pressure increase the more you open it up. At the moment it seems to me like you're just not opening up the valve all the way which would cause some of the steam to condense to water before it comes out, extend that 'squealing' sound you're referring too and causing your milk texture to be poor.

Wow, that's very helpful. Thanks for differentiating the visual differences between a high flow/low flow tip.

I scoped out the tip today, and it's pointy. I should've taken a better look though, 'cause I just saw a picture on the internet of a low flow tip, and it also seems kinda pointed... it just has a flat face.

I tried pitching the idea of changing the steam tip to a low flow however, and he actually told me to get it for him, and he'd reimburse me.

Today was really weird, because when I went in during the morning, the steamer was back to producing wonderfully textured milk again. I was back to doing fancy stuff with latte art... for about an hour and a half. After that though, the milk started getting fizzy again and I noticed the pressure increased.

In the morning, I was cranking the lever all the way. Once the milk started getting fizzy, I really couldn't crank the lever fully, without milk splashing everywhere.

I don't get why the steam boiler is so inconsistent. It should either work all the time or not work at all. It seems to be going through cycles, and I don't know what triggers one type of steam to the other. That's what bugs me.

I don't know if this is just the machine's inconsistency coming into play or what... 'cause what if I purchase the low flow tip, and it's still Jekyll and Hyde?