Make a Great Shot AND Maintain Your Boiler

The Rancilio Silvia often gets a bad rap out in the world because a lot of people consider it to be finicky or temperamental. One of the biggest issues it has is its temperature inconsistency, but this is something that all single boiler espresso machines suffer from -- including the Ascaso Dream and even the high end Quick Mill Alexia, will all have some temperature issues simply because you're pulling water for two different processes from the same boiler. Additionally, you have to be cognizant of the fact that these single boilers don't have automatic boiler refills and you need to make sure you're keeping the boiler full of water in order to maintain its health. If you're not keeping it full, it will slowly burn out the heating element and you'll have a costly repair on your hands. One sign that you're not keeping enough water in the boiler is that you might be having steaming issues -- it's not steaming powerfully enough, or it starts out fine and then peters off, or it's just not getting hot enough. In this video, Gail talks to us about temperature surfing, demonstrates it on a Saeco Aroma and describes what can happen if you don't do this each time you make yourself a latte on your single boiler espresso machine.