How to clean the steam wand on your espresso machine

The most overlooked part of any coffee machine has got to be the steam wand.  This little workhorse just keeps going and going, whipping up cup after cup of delightful, creamy milk hot and ready for any application.

Why is important to offer a proper clean to your steam wands?  

Over time, all those wands, valves, and tubes can start to get clogged up.  When that happens, they begin holding onto dirt and grime caused by milk proteins coagulating and building up.  

Milk and milk products are also notorious for their tiny particles of fat which can also build up and congeal around crucial parts, leading to a lower quality of milk froth, possible health and safety concerns, and eventually causing buildups in pressure within your machine that can lead to wear and tear inside the machine and ultimately result in pricey maintenance bills.

And let’s face it—if you know anything about coffee machines, you know that a dirty wand isn’t pleasant to look at or to think about where it’s been.  You wouldn’t serve coffee in a filthy cup, would you?  So why use milk that’s been steamed in a filthy pitcher or with a wand caked in a full day’s build-up and residue?

The answer is simple: you absolutely shouldn’t.

But, How can we properly clean it? 

Many people are aware of this and believe that regular disassembly, soaking, and wiping, will get rid of problems with buildup.  You can find many suggestions for different solutions to get their milk components clean: baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice, detergents, hot water, steel wool.  

Unfortunately, they often discover the hard way that not only is this approach often very labour-intensive, dismantling all components to soak and scrub them, but they also find that many of the “popular” methods aren’t all that effective, as their milk becomes spoiled with off or burnt flavours, or worse, tinged with the curdled notes of spoiled milk.

Why look around for solutions when we have one already that’s both simple and affordable?

The Puly Milk Frother Cleaner is the easy way to clean all parts that come in contact with milk: it works wonderfully on automatic milk frothers as well as on manual steam wands, milk carafes, cream dispensers, valves, tubes, and any other applications where you’re using milk and experiencing build-up over time of milk fat and proteins.

Puly Milk Frother Cleaner is simple to use  

Just submerge your steam wand in the solution for a few minutes while the machine is running, or run it through your milk frother followed by another cycle using clean water.

Always be sure to rinse any components that come in contact with this product to ensure that there’s no transfer of taste and that you start production with milk line components that are absolutely whistle-clean every time.  And that means fresh milk taste—with no unpleasant off flavours— every single time you use your steam wand or milk frother.  And they’ll be operating at full power for the best possible texture as well.

Of course, you’ll still need to clean your steam wand, purging it and wiping it down with a damp cloth after every single use, but cleaning the system out daily using the Puly Milk Frother Cleaner will ensure a marked improvement in milk delivery as well as a better texture and consistency every single time.  

It’s a versatile and effective solution for your cleaning needs.