Sorry to hear of Your predicament.

I own a duettoII and have found that at first the machine steamed beautiful microfoam,

but as time went on it seemed to get tempormental?

I thought it was Me, yet I knew I had the ability to produce decent foam.

Some prefer a nice thick 'paint' others 'clouds' of foam on top.

Whichever You prefer, the duettoII and I'm sure all other decent machines,

are capable of doing both.

I found to my surprise, that if You keep the steam tip squeeky clean, the machine

steams flawlessly!

I do mean clean.

I had always wiped the tip well after every use and blasted the steam to flush it

out well, I thought.

I still had to play around to finess a decent capp

I was shocked to find one day that after I cleaned out my four hole tip

with a safety pin and then soaked in soapy water,

that the machine steamed flawlessly, eveytime, with no fuss!

Just keep a safety pin handy, make sure it's not too big a size for Your holes.

Also remove tip and soak regularly, just for a few minutes, don't lose gasket.

Your problems will be solved!