jgood wrote:The good news on "no burn" steam wands is that you can easily replace with a SS non insulated wand -- which I prefer anyway -- as I believe the steam is drier -- YMMV!

Many folks say this, but it's not really true. As steam cools, the water vapor it contains condenses. The steam emitted from insulated wands leaves the tip at a higher temperature and closer to boiler temperature compared to steam emitted from uninsulated wands, due to the fact that an uninsulated wand allows more heat to be conducted away from the steam passing through it. "Drier steam" is steam that comes from boilers at higher temperatures and pressures. This has been discussed in several earlier HB threads.

My theory is that I run the wand for a bit so that the water is expelled and so the metal tube is quite hot -- I believe that nothing much condenses on that very hot tube in the little time that I'm steaming. But that's "my theory"!! Could be BS!!

Whether removing the plastic inner tube is positive or negative depends on the machine - the length of tubing from the boiler to the valve, the size/mass of the valve itself, how and to what the valve is mounted to, the length of the wand itself, the difference in inner diameter between the wand with and without plastic inner tube, and the material used for each component in the steam path, e.g., copper/brass vs. stainless steel vs. PFA/PTFE.

jgood wrote:My theory is that I run the wand for a bit so that the water is expelled and so the metal tube is quite hot -- I believe that nothing much condenses on that very hot tube in the little time that I'm steaming. But that's "my theory"!! Could be BS!!

Your theory makes sense and would allow the uninsulated wand to emit hotter "drier" steam at the cost of a lot of extra energy (which you'd save by using an insulated wand. And all the variables Craig mentioned do affect the magnitude of the advantage of insulated wands, but the fact is that from the point of view of emitting the hottest steam, insulation will always have a "positive" effect.

heytchap wrote:Copper has associations with dementia and Alzheimer's, so that should be a concern as well if you're worried about leeching.

Correction, copper excess. It's essential for healthy brain, immune and nervous system function, metabolism, energy production, joint health, iron absorption, etc. It is an essential mineral many people don't get enough of and in this day and age of zinc over-supplementation people can actually use more copper since the two are competing nutrients.