Hello, All. I have a Quick Mill Vetrano HX machine plumbed in with rotary pump. It may just be me, but the pressure gets weak after steaming for about 20 seconds. My pressure stat cycles between .9 and 1.3 bar. I typically wait for the pressure to peak at 1.3 before I begin to steam. After about 20 seconds, pressure drops down to about .5 bar and steam starts getting weak.

Is this normal or weak, in your opinion? If the latter, any suggestions to fix it?

Thanks!

That is, most definitely, not normal. How old is this Vetrano and how much milk are you trying to steam? When you start steaming, the heating element should come on and essentially stay on with very little, if any, drop in pressure.

I have a Quickmill Anita that is about 8 years old with a peak boiler pressure of around 1.20 bar. I can open the steam valve at any pressure and the heating element will EASILY not let the pressure diminish a bit. The steam tip is completely stock. I will fire her up now and edit this post in about an hour. Depending upon your mechanical skills, this sounds like it may require a small road trip to Chris' Coffee in Albany.

Thanks for your reply. I am only trying to steam a small pitcher (forget how many oz, but small just for one latte). I notice with no resistance (no milk, just releasing steam) the pressure is stable at 1bar. It's only after about 15-20 sec when steaming milk it drops.

The milk should have nothing to do with it as that is but a very minute change in "resistance". I just steamed some water and the machine can keep going and going and going.

So, how old is this machine and what is its maintenance history?

The machine is 3 years old. I took Chris Coffee's advise and never descale. I preemptively have a water softener plumbed in and have close to 0 hardness. Taken pristine care and back flush weekly.

Well, I would take a look at the mushroom assembly and post some pics. The inspection phase takes all of about 5 minutes when the machine is at room temperature.

Checking an E61 Espresso Machine for Scale

Some I am assuming that when you start steaming, your heating element comes on and STAYS ON.

I've had my Anita for 5 months now. It came from the factory with a setting of ~1.4 bar of boiler pressure. I've experimented with it as you can see in my latest post. A few things to remember:

When your steam valve is opened, there is always going to be a slight drop (0.1-0.2 bar). This should stabilize and it will slowly diminish as you keep steaming.

You will also notice that as you keep steaming, the auto refill on the boiler will cycle and introduce new water to replace the water lost from steaming. You are putting cool water into a boiler that sits around 260 F. Eventually, the steam pressure is going to drop. That's normal.

If you can only steam for 20 second I would think that's on the short side. I usually see a drop to 1.2 bar from 1.35 when I open the steam knob and then from 1.2 the machine steadily drops as the heater element is turned on and the boiler starts refilling.

Even a 1400 W heater is going to have trouble heating the boiler when it's losing steam through a 4 hole tip and losing water and trying to replace it and heat it.

FWIW, my boiler pressure sits at 1.35 bar now.

My Vibiemme Domobar Super HX came set @ 1.1 bar...but don't know if that was done at the VBM factory in Italy or here in the US at the importer/distributor before going out-the-door (I'm guessing Italy). Whichever, I've left it @ 1.1 bar as I've no complaints re: steaming (with the 2-hole OEM tip that came on the wand -- don't think I need a 3-4 hole tip).

When the boiler heater turns on, it DOES go up to maybe 1.3 bar, but then quickly back to 1.1. Boiler is 2.45L in size.

Heating element & power use (as per the given Product Specification info):

"•Power: 110 volts only, 1600 watts, 20 amp. 15-20 amp - uses 15 amp standard electrical plug and outlet."

For what's its worth, the Quick Mill Vetrano 2B has a 4-hole tip (IIRC) and Vetrano owners say it's a good steamer.

-- BR

Thanks, guys. Ok, so I think my machine is fine based on your behavior.

My 8 year old Anita has the same 2-hole steam tip that it was originally fitted with. Each hole is 1.5 mm in diameter and so the total area is ~3.54 square millimeters. What is the configuration of your steam tip (out of curiosity)?

I could steam for X seconds, Y minutes, or Z hours and the pressure will never drop below 1.00 bar. My MA-TER pstat has an operating band of 1.05 to 1.20 bar. Of course, the heating element comes on the moment I open the steam valve and essentially stays on. I just "steamed" a large glass of water for 90 seconds and the "steam" output was ~ 35 grams per minute. I did this three times and the 35 grams is the average. The boiler pressure never dropped below 1.00 bar but obviously if I had started steaming at the minimum pressure, it would have. The heating element would come on and the pressure would gradually rise to ~1.20 bar while steaming.

The heating element resistance in our machines is 8.95 ohms (as measured) so keep in mind that a change in line voltage from 110 volts to 120 volts results in a ~20% increase in power. What counts is the change in behavior of the machine over time and I stand by my original response that your machine's behavior is not normal.