Hello All,

Let me introduce myself, my name is Rebecca Tyler and I live in Canada. I work in a grocery store that has a coffee shop attachment. I work in the coffee shop maybe an hour per shift (covering breaks, etc.) So in no way am I a barista and still consider myself a newbie considering I work on a fully automatic machine with a steam wand that has a temperature gauge built in. This past monday I got back from my holiday on the Italian Rivera where my love affair with coffee all started... I may describe my experience, but that is destined for another post.

Ever since I have been nagging my mother and yesterday she bought me a Gaggia Classic!
Needless to say that I could hardly contain my excitement.

Anyways, to my problems... I am totally frustrated with the steam wand! It has the turbo frother attachment (black plastic) and I figure since I don't know I would leave it on. Well first try the attachment fell off in my milk! So then I figure I would try again with just the bare wand. Maybe it is just me, or is that wand maybe an inch or so too short? I couldn't really reach the milk in my jug. I have a 20 oz. pear shaped jug approx. 1/2 full with milk.

Could someone maybe point me to some pictures, maybe even video of people steaming milk on their classic?
Is there something that I am inherently doing wrong? Maybe it is the angle of the jug? Is it too little milk?

Thanks so much.

P.S. Could someone in Vancouver assist me in finding a good place to pick up a grinder and tamper? I broke the golden rule, and need to get one. For now the box of 20 pods should last a week or two.

Hello Rebecca,

Welcome to HB!

I can feel your pain with the steaming issues. I purchased a refurb Gaggia Coffee Deluxe that had the same steaming attachment. I took mine off and this does leave the wand a little on the short side. I too first had a 20oz pitcher and the humble Gaggia just couldn't do it.

Try a smaller (12oz) pitcher that will help a lot. I like to do about 6 or 7-ounces of milk at a time, anymore than that and the Gaggia struggles. Other than that I really like my Gaggia a lot. It's steaming ability matches it typical shot output. Or rather you can only make a shot (or two with a spouted portafilter) thus the Gaggia can only really steam enough for those two drinks. It does even better if steaming for just one drink.

Again, welcome it's great to have you here (and it's nice to meet yet another Gaggia owner), hope I could be of help. If not please feel free to ask away and I'll do my best to chime in. Others here too are very helpful.

I believe the Rancilio Silvia steam wand will fit the Gaggia's.

Get a grinder as fast as you can. You will get a 100% jump in shot quality once you get the basics down.

Yes it is incredibly frustrating using such a small wand. I had a Gaggia Espresso and went through the same headache you are. I upgraded to the Silvia wand a couple weeks ago and it is a lot better, I suggest you do the upgrade because its pretty cheap and easy to do. However it may be more beneficial for you to take that money you would spend on the wand and put it towards your grinder . For now though, take that long extension part off the turbo frother and just use that little nubby part and get a 12 Oz pitcher. You may not even need that nubby part depending how much milk you are using, but I found that extra inch or so that it allows makes it easier. The only problem now is sometimes it blows off and milk goes everywhere. You also have to experiment with starting your steam before your steam light comes on so you have enough steam. , again depending on how much milk you are steaming.
What I do is, pull my shot
then I open the stem wand and see how much steam ive got in there (I havent flipped the steam switch)
Close the steam wand and flip the switch
Now I wait for like 5 or 10 seconds and test the steam again
if its pretty good pressure I start steaming,
if you wait until the light comes on you will run out of steam.

At the moment I have a Gaggia Espresso on the counter; the Silvia listed to the left in my profile has a broken heating element and the Quick Mill Andreja is due to arrive tomorrow. When the Silvia broke I rummaged around in storage and retrieved the Gaggia.

Way back when, when I first got the Gaggia, I got rid of the black plastic extension thing and started using just the short metal wand by itself. I use a 12oz pitcher half full of milk and find that I can do as good a job with it as I can with the Silvia; the Silvia just allows me to steam more milk at once but it isn't "better" in the sense of getting better frothing per se.

On the Gaggia I clear the steam wand a couple of times to dry it out and then plunge the wand as deep as I can into the 6oz or so of milk in the the 12oz pitcher. I get a good whirlpool going this way (the wand is off-center) and when the milk temp comes up to warm (say around body temp or just below) I start dropping the pitcher to get the wand just under the surface...maintaining the whirlpool. As the foam rises I continuously drop the pitcher to maintain the wand tip position just under the surface doing its ch-ch-ch thing. I end up with the pitcher completely full when I'm done and it's got a nice texture.

I used to use a Gaggia Coffee.
You can get a Silvia steam wand from WLL and replace the stock wand.
It makes a difference, though not a huge one.

I wish to update you with my progress -

Today I have finally found a place that serves proper espresso, cappuccinos, etc. as well as have great knowledge. The also had 10oz steaming pitchers, thermometers, tampers, and other useful items.

And it was sitting right under my nose! It is great to find a gem coffee shop only 15 minutes from home.

Now off to make more cappuccino - the machine is warmed up and ready to go.

(I got the 10 oz. pitcher)

There are a few options with those darn Gaggia wands:

-Use the whole plastic wand/froth aid but move the rubber o-ring (red, shown below) down a notch toward the tip, which will prevent it from sucking air in.



-Use the plastic wand but only the short stumpy part with the pointy tip that attaches to the chrome tubing (shown in picture above).

-Use just the chrome wand without the plastic attachment.

Those seem to be the best ways to create a nice microfoam, although the Silvia wand is a great option if you don't mind spending an extra $30 or so. I did that mod to mine and wouldn't go back to the stock Gaggia wand.

Ive been using the setup that Spresso_Bean recommends in the pic, with good results.
The good thing about using top part of the froth aid is that you can get away with the 20oz
pitcher, if you put it low enough on the wand (but not too low or else it can fly off when steaming)
Im still gonna get a smaller pitcher, since im never steaming more than a cup of milk at a time.

With the Carezza, I start steaming 10-15 seconds after the steam light has gone off,
to make sure the boiler is on the whole time while steaming.

I totally agree that it's vital to steam only when the steam light is off (so that the heating element is on). Only by steaming with the heating element on can you keep steam coming. If you wait until the steam light goes on - meaning the heating element goes off - the steam blasts out, then quickly subsides until it's just a feeble jet of hot air. (Then the heating element kicks in, and eventually, after some sputtering, steam starts coming out again.)

It was a real eye-opener for me to steam into an empty pitcher. I couldn't figure out why the milk always seemed to "get stuck" at 140 degrees. Well, that's when the Gaggia literally ran out of steam. It was still making some noise and moving milk around, but that was just the hot air. Letting it run through a few cycles into the empty pitcher made clear what was happening.

If you still find that you can't get through the milk before the element goes off and you run out of steam, try flicking the brew switch on and off every 10-15 seconds. The "flick" will pump just a bit of fresh water into the boiler, which will keep the temp from rising so high that the element switches off. (Again, by experimenting with an empty pitcher you can get a feel of how often you need this little shot of fresh water to keep the steam coming. Just an occasional flick will do it; hitting the brew switch too often or for too long will either cause the steam to get too wet, or even cool things down so much that you kill the steam.)

You probably won't need the flick trick to steam 6 oz of milk, but if you're making a bigger latte or mocha or such, this method can keep the steam coming almost indefinitely.

-John