Gaggia Classic Steaming wand is pants. A couple of questions

[gregd]

I've got a Gaggia Classic, and I'm really pleased with it, its a nice little machine. However I have one problem with the steaming wand. Its quite small unless you attach the "Turbo Frothier" which is where my problems lie. A couple of times now I've been making some drinks and BOOM the Turbo frothier jumps off into the pitcher, causing a mess. It would appear for some reason its no longer able to grip onto the steaming wand irrelevant how tightly I screw it on. Additionally from the top its leaking water.

So my questions, has anyone had this problem? How did they fix it?

Also, I have seen a "Latté art" version of the turbo frothier which as far as I can tell just acts like an extension onto the wand (provided you remove the frothier sleeve) which is all I really want, however I haven't seen these for sale in the UK, only the US. Does any have any experience with these?

Another question, I've seen some people have replaced the Gaggia Classic wand with one off a Silvia, I like this idea but I am a bit worried it might be a lot of effort and there is the ever concern of breaking my machine. So has anyone had any experience with this mod?

Thank you,

Greg

[DrTom]

Hello Greg,

Do you still have both the black rubber washer/ring and the hard plastic ring that sits on it, both compressed then the black threaded cap (uppermost bit of the wand) is tightened down? If it's jumping off then the grip/seal that these two components offer may be diminished. If the wand is leaking from the top, it would seem that there is not a good seal there any more.

If you do have both the rubber and hard plastic ring, check for damage.

This happened to a machine of mine very recently - turns out I had lost the hard plastic ring!! I'm unsure where to get one from and I *think* one of the faces that pushes onto the rubber ring is shaped in a non-standard way in order to force the rubber ring to bulge out and create the seal.

Good luck!

[GMRK]

I followed this guide when I replaced mine but it looks like the images have been removed or links to them are broken:

http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1126833848

My machine's a Selecta which has the same case/body as a Classic. Swapping the original wand for a Silvia one was fairly trivial I didn't have to disassemble, the nut is reachable from outside the case as in this pic from the thread I just took the top lid off to hold the internal pipe while loosening and tightening the nut:

[GMRK]

Here's a cached version of the thread with pics, I don't remember it being as complicated as it looks here, I didn't have to detatch the internal pipe just undid the externally visible nut and swapped wands:

http://web.archive.org/web/20070921050741/http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1126833848

[davewood77]

Hi Greg

I have done the Gaggia Classic / Sylvia steam wand replacement and it was quite straightforward. Took about 30 minutes working carefully.

I used the article referred to by GMRK above as a guide.

The article refers to a Gaggia Carezza but the Classic is pretty much the same. I purchased my replacement steam arm from Happy Donkey http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/hdr0001.html and the only issue I had was that the connection to the machine was a little tight. Thinning down the fixed ring at the end of the Sylvia arm soon freed up the swivel action. I used a Dremel tool for this but emery cloth would work just as well.

I have been using the Gaggia with this mod for a year now and would not go back to the original, although I have kept the Gaggia bits just in case.

Dave

[CakeBoy]

Welcome to TMC Dave

[GreenBean]

Hi Dave, welcome to TMC.

[bruceb]

[RoloD]

Silvia steam wands a little cheaper from myespresso:

http://www.myespresso.co.uk/product.php ... ia-classic

Fitting to the Classic is very easy.

[RoloD]

Silvia steam wands a little cheaper from myespresso:

http://www.myespresso.co.uk/product.php ... ia-classic

Fitting to the Classic is very easy.

[gregd]

Thank you everyone for the responses! All been really helpful.

After some investigating and testing I found that the problem with the stupid plastic add-on to the steam wand is the small inner plastic ring appears to have grown in size and therefore no longer keeps a seal around the steaming arm. So it'll pop off under pressure and leak water from the top. I think I'll go for the Silvia mod, it a lot easier and cheaper than I thought and will probably procedure better results.

[gabriel]

Hi Greg,

I've also done this mod, and as the other posters have said it's really very straightforward. Bear in mind you'll probably need to snip the old pipe to get the retaining nut as the one that comes with the Silvia steam wand doesn't fit - at least it didn't on my Classic.

The main thing I noticed is that steaming technique becomes much more critical once you don't have the plastic gizmo to aid the frothing process. I'm finally getting there!

[gregd]

Hmm, what do you mean by snip? couldn't you take the retaining nut off with a spanner? What tools did you need to do the mod?

[gabriel]

Once you've undone the retaining nut and removed the old pipe, you need to get the nut off the old pipe - on mine here was a sort of soldered 'lump' that meant the nut wouldn't slide off, hence cutting the pipe to get it off.

Just needed an adjustable spanner and junior hacksaw. Very straightforward

Sorry for the slightly garbled explanation, but am in a rush and have just seen your question.

[gregd]

Thats absolutely fine, thank you for the explanation its really helpful!