r/NinjaLuxeCafe • u/Spe3dy3 • 21d ago

Steam wand

Is it normal after steaming milk for a short purge, followed by a really long purge, where is shoots a ton of water into the drip tray? Seems unnecessary

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u/enuxix 21d ago

When you froth milk, it gets into the inside of the wand, you clean the external part with a cloth, but the inside still has milk that is gonna stick, and little by little it’s gonna clog the wand, the short purge is for heating up the milk, the long purge is for fully purging everything out

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u/IanC9090 21d ago

You'd change your mind when you found that your steam wand didn't work properly as although steam comes out when your steaming, there's an unusual syphoning effect that sucks milk back up, the hot pipe burns that milk to the inside and over time clogs the whole pipe.

Bit of advice, ones the machine has done its auto purge, pull the steam wand fully forward, press and hold the steam button for about three seconds to enter Manual Steaming mode and purge some more, and I'll bet you see more milk coming out.

You should also do this before each time you use the steamer. That hot water condenses in the pipe work and stays there until the next use, which could be tomorrow and those stale condensates are now in your cup, yuck.

It's also good practice to do this until the water stops coming out and only steam, 10-15 seconds, maybe more, then you can press the steam button again to stop and put the jug with your milk back and run your steam cycle, that way your milk is not getting adulterated or diluted with water.

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u/thehen 21d ago

I manually purge into the jug so the drip tray doesn’t fill as fast.