Thanks guys...Anyone able to try the steam wand upgrade to the no burns and see if there is any difference in steaming? I know Venia mentioned there shouldn't be any...but I'm still curious!

Going from a burn me wand to a no burn wand is more likely to give you worse performance than better.

I have not tried changing the wand or tip, and I have also had some problems with consistency steaming with my Silvano. But overall it's minor and I have to say I have been extremely happy with my Silvano. BTW I do have one of the original machines purchased from Chris Coffee who I also highly recommend.

Great seeing this thread because I have been also trying to iron out inconsistencies in my milk foaming with the Silvano. I had an Oscar previously and while the espresso production has greatly improved, the microfoam production has been a struggle. I definitely only steam a small amount of milk which based on prior research was the only reason I loved forward with this machine (coupled with an amazing price at its class).

One note that may help some, I have always found that after my first failed attempt at steaming milk, the second subsequent attempt comes out quite nicely. This has lead me to a series of steam bleeding prior to my foaming....about 3 different bleeds to be precise. This seems to help me steam well out of the gate, but I'm still struggling with it. Frankly I'm not sure if a thermoblock PID would help here, and if anyone has any insight on that, I am all ears.

FWIW, I've had great steaming from my new Silvano and no problems with foam (this is the newer Silvano with the single hole steam wand).

While it's not blazingly fast (as Dan said) you can't ask much more from a machine -- I can generally start the shot, start the steam (4oz 40F milk), steam, stop the shot and then almost immediately stop the steam. Foam's good and tight.

That's a less-than 35 second cappuccino from a single boiler