Taste from steam wand

Waitforme

I periodically taste the water from the service boiler to make sure it’s ok and after my descale the other week it is, no sour / citrus taste.

I thought I’d check the steam so i steamed some water from the service boiler for a bit and it smelled pretty bad, I then steamed some cold water from my kitchen tap and it was the same off taste. If I run the steam wand for a bit , may 30 secs or so then steam some water then the taste is ok.

Is it normal to run the steam for a 30 sec blast or so prior to steaming milk ?

I’m wondering if my descale has contributed to this, but given the water from the service boiler is ok then I’m thinking all is good, but the odd taste from the steam wand is baffling me.

MediumRoastSteam

Waitforme - thinking logically…

The water tap will give you water from near the bottom of the boiler.

The steam wand will give you vapour from the top of the boiler.

So the only reason for a “off” smell must be related to he water vapour going through the steam path.

What though? I can’t think of anything.

Is the smell there every time or did you manage to flush it away?

DavecUK

Waitforme I have a little habit when I am steaming, partly from the days of no burn (let’s call them, don’t get hot so fast) wands.

After a good purge, wand is hot…placed into milk, they would often suck up milk…unless they were steaming before they enter the milk.

When I finish steaming, clean wand, purge, close wand and stick into cold clean water…sucks water up, open wand…repeat that a few times and it cleans inside nicely…finish with a purge.

Waitforme

I thought I’d flushed it away, last time I used the steam wand prior to today was Thursday and after flushing it for 30 secs or so I thought I’d cleaned it out. But on trying it again today it was the same.

When the descaler was in the service boiler I opened the steam tap for a bit just to clean the pipes to the wand , I wonder if this has caused it.

It could have been there from day 1 though , I’ve just never tried to taste the steam 😳

MediumRoastSteam

Waitforme - maybe the condensed water sitting in the steam circuit is what’s causing it, given the fact you don’t use it daily?

Elcarajillo

Did you run steam through the wand after the descale to clear any residue ? If not you may have left descaler in the wand in that a concentrated form that requires a thorough flushing / rinsing.

Try removing the wand and soaking in plain water. ?

Waitforme

Yes, flushed the steam wand a fair bit after the de scaling .

Next time I’m using the steam then I’m going to try just heating a small jug of cold water and see what the taste is like. If it’s still off then I’ll purge the steam for 30 secs or so and try again.

It could be just the condensate lying in the steam circuit as @MediumRoastSteam suggested 🤔

I’ll remove the steam arm as a last resort and soak ……

MediumRoastSteam

Waitforme - so that I understand:

you warm up a glass of water originally at room temperature using the steam wand;
You find it doesn’t taste great;
Then flush the wand for 30 seconds;
You warm a glass of water again: it tastes fine.

Is that correct? I want to try it myself.

dutchy101

DavecUK After seeing your video on this with the Minima, I do this every time

LMSC

DavecUK When I finish steaming, clean wand, purge, close wand and stick into cold clean water…sucks water up, open wand…repeat that a few times and it cleans inside nicely…finish with a purge.

Dave, I saw this in one of your videos. I follow this practice after steaming. Thx for the little tip

DavecUK

dutchy101 Did I make a video…I forgot!🤔

Waitforme

Thanks @DavecUK , I’ll give that a try 👍

Yes @MediumRoastSteam , that’s the method and what has been happening, when I’d cleared the bad taste by purging for a fair bit I thought I’d sorted it until I tasted it again today.

MediumRoastSteam

Waitforme

Last question: before you do this, or steam milk, do you purge the wand until steam comes out, for about 3s or so?

Waitforme

Yes, always to get rid of any wet steam.

MediumRoastSteam

Waitforme tried this. To me, the water tastes roughly the same as if I draw water from the boiler. I tried it twice, one after the other. Both tasted the same. I drank the water too, so it didn’t taste bad.

If you are getting a “baby sick” smell or bacterial, fowl smell, then you might have milk trapped somewhere - I’d check the steam tip first and go from there.

NewBoyUK

Does the steam smell like baby sick?

Waitforme

The taste isn’t baby sick , it’s definitely metallic, it actually reminded me of the smell you’d get when cutting on a lathe of drilling with a big drill bit … Random I know 😂

Anyway … thought I’d take the steam tip off to check it , it appeared clean enough but the plastic pipe that lines the steam arm was blackish at the end. I took the arm off and stripped it / cleaned all the bits and pushed a bit of kitchen towel moistened with Puly Caf through it - see pic.

Reassembled and brought machine up to temp, I filled a container with some water from the HW tap and steamed it without purging, terrible taste again. I purged the wand for 30secs and re did the test, taste was fine, tried just steaming into a container and smell was ok.Steamed some tap water and taste was ok.

When the machine had almost cooled down I open the steam tap into a container and the bad metallic taste was there.

So looks like I can get around issue by a decent purge. I’ll keep an eye on it but seems strange.

Maybe it’s just my sense of taste , I can sniff a wine that’s corked from 20 paces but my wife would happily drink it.

I think it’s “ stale water / steam” on initial boiler heat up either lying in the pipe, or, when the boiler is heating there is enough time delay prior to steaming to affect the taste of the steam.

MediumRoastSteam

I think the black stains are residual from food safe silicone grease. I found something similar on mine ages ago - All I could think of was that the grease in the ball valve made its way down the silicone pipe eventually.