New Quickmill milk steamer acting up.

Equipment doesn't work? Troubleshooting? If you're handy, members can help.
Zybane
Posts: 46
Joined: 2 years ago

#1: Post by Zybane »

I purchased this pricey Quickmill milk steamer a few months ago and it's been working fine until recently. It used to make great "Dry steam" that would make the milk super smooth/microfilm. Now the milk is more thin/watery.

Now for some reason, it will sputter out a stream of water when I open the valve, and the whole thing will sputter between steam and water. So much so that the pressure gauge flicks with the sputtering. The instruction manual is useless.

There is one long water "feed" tube that has a screen on it that is in the bottom of the water tank. There is also a shorter "purge" tube. The instruction manual doesn't say if this shorter purge tube should be above or below the water level and what its purpose is. To relieve pressure I assume?

I use Zero water filtered water, so I don't think it is a calcium building issue already. I've cleaned the steam tip and that didn't do anything, the holes are open. Everything is wet/dirty in the video as the machine sputtering throws water and milk everywhere. Any thoughts are appreciated.

Video:

JRising
Team HB
Posts: 3665
Joined: 5 years ago

#2: Post by JRising »

I would give it a mild descale, just to see what difference it makes...
But as with any thermo-coil steamer type of thing, if the steam is wet:

1) The element isn't getting full power. Correct flow, not enough heat.

2) The pump is supplying too much water. Too much water for the amount of heat the coil can supply.

3) The heat isn't getting into the water during the water's travel time in the thermoblock. Possibly insulated by calcium.

4) There's a partial blockage somewhere before the steam arm. A significant pressure drop in the pipe will force the travelling steam to lose energy, some of the water will condense back to droplets before it makes it out the steam tip. The steam tip needs to be the only significant pressure drop after the thermoblock.

I hope that helps. Without seeing/listening to it, it's hard to guess. If it's new, see if the retailer will fix it.

Zybane (original poster)
Posts: 46
Joined: 2 years ago

#3: Post by Zybane (original poster) »

Thanks, but it's a boiler machine.

Giampiero
Posts: 840
Joined: 8 years ago

#4: Post by Giampiero »

Seems your boiler is overfilled.
Try this: take out the shorter tube from the water reservoir and put a jar / glass or whatever to collect the eventual water discharged from that tube.
Switch on the steamer and withdraws steam 5 time, every 10 minutes for about 15 secs, just remember after how many steam flush you hear the pump refilling the boiler.
If with this way you can't achieve dryer steam as before, maybe your water level probe has some incrustation.
If you can achieve dryer steam as before, just switch off the machine, let the shorter tube in the same condition as at the beginning of this test, once the machine has completely cooled off, switch it on again, and try to see what happen.
If the steam is ok, it's mean that for some reason the boiler is sucking back water from the shorter tube, but it's not a problem of the length of the tube, it's something else.

Zybane (original poster)
Posts: 46
Joined: 2 years ago

#5: Post by Zybane (original poster) replying to Giampiero »

Thank you, I was thinking along these lines too. I wonder if that shorter tube is never supposed to be submerged? But then I wonder why they made it so long.

Giampiero
Posts: 840
Joined: 8 years ago

#6: Post by Giampiero »

As i wrote is not the length of the tube the issue, usually are shorter than the pump tube, but always submerged, don't get stuck about the tube length :wink:

Zybane (original poster)
Posts: 46
Joined: 2 years ago

#7: Post by Zybane (original poster) »

So I kept the short return tube out of the water for two startup/heat cycles and it seems to have purged the access water from the boiler. It's working back to normal now. They really need to put that in the manual.

I'll probably get some sort of large clip to keep the return tube at the top of the water tank. :lol:

jgood
Posts: 891
Joined: 6 years ago

#8: Post by jgood »

Interesting -- I have the QM steamer and the short tube is short enough that it just stays in place under the handle (metal rod) in the plastic water reservoir. Unless I were to fill the tank to the brim it stays out of the water. If that's the issue perhaps trimming it possible.

edgndg
Supporter ♡
Posts: 78
Joined: 6 years ago

#9: Post by edgndg »

I don't have a quickmill steamer, but I do have a quickmill Silvano and the steam set up sounds the same as what you describe. My tube is also very short, seems like trimming might be the right answer.