Frothing problems

Dear reader(s) :-)

Well, the blog is called bikes and COFFEE for a reason :-) I like coffee!

I had recently a problem that drove me crazy for a while until I was given the simplest solution ever! So simple and so obvious that if you already know it you go "REALLY???"!!

I'll put some information in German also, so people searching in german can find it also. Actually the idea here is to registered the solution and make it available to as much people as possible, because I couldn't find this solution anywhere!!!

So! I had a small AEG/Electrolux Cremapresso EA 250. Which was having hiccups. Like in the morning it would not turn on (nicht einschalten). You needed to unplug it for 15-20 minutes and try again ... this is a known problem, according to the AEG/Electrolux technical assistance. I shipped it back to them for repair and got it replaced by a Cremapresso EA 260.

The new machine worked perfectly until a couple of weeks ago, when the milk frothing pipe (milk frothing stick, milk frothing tube, milchschäumer ...) stopped frothing! Loud, very loud vibration noise, but not froth!!

Cleaned to the bone, no effect. Tried to "fine tune" the position of the tube, and nothing would do. Testing the machine, everything was fine. Coffee was coming, hot water for tea also, the milk was getting heated while the frothing would fail, so nothing wrong with the machine itself, just no froth.

Called the local technical assistance (Trepesch in Nürnberg) and their technician called me back. Heard my problem and gave me the neatest solution. The frothing tube, has a small hole (which I have never EVER noticed before, see picture below) and it was probably blocked. Got home, found the hole, unblocked it and ... voila!! Froth was back to my milk!!!!

The coffee machine is not out of this world, but does the job and was a gift, so GREAT! :-)

I hope this helps someone else!!