Agree with lots of venting before steaming, let it almost reach the over-release pressure stage, and leave on heat while streaming.

how long do you purge for? I almost always end up with over foamed milk that doesnt mix with the espresso

@@clintpeterson7740 I fill the cup I'm going to use for my coffee with cold water, then steam the water until it boils, then I tip the water out of the cup leaving me with a nice hot cup to make my drink and the Belman is sufficiently purged.

@@AdventureCampingAustralia I will definitely be trying this! Thank you

Wet steam vs dry steam yep it sounds stupid though a higher temp steam is called dry and will make a much more stiff peaks version of milk vs wet that makes more liquidy version. It has to do with hihher heat and how it breaks protiens of the milk.

I had mine on high heat. Never saw an issue. I have only done what I showed in the video and have gotten excellent milk every time. But thanks for the comment, regardless!

@@LanceHedrick You are awesome and thank you for all of your videos. Patreon supporter here 🤙

Hi @Elmusico, when you say "tearing less at the beginning", what do you mean by that?

@@paulioricco That’s the sound you hear when incorporating air. It sounds “tsssss tss tsss.” It’s small spurts of air, lance has another video where he explains it perfectly. I believe it’s the shorter video regarding milk steaming. He is awesome

He says steam is supposed to come out of the handle area, but i left mine for a few minutes (after adding boiling water) and it doesn’t come out from there, I just here the unit clank a little from the pressure and I get scared it would explode so I release from the valve a little

Do you have a link? I tried searching but couldn't find it.

Link please

Search R.E.D Systems Steamer

RED steamer is mokapot mod

Thanks for this comment, Peter! Hope the camping trips are filled with tasty tasty capps

Great vibes right here ☕

Nice. For one cup? Have you tried 2 or 3 cups?

Do you use induction stove or gas for heating?

The reason it comes out extra bubbly at first is because there is air inside the steamer. Until all the air is purged out, there will be air coming out into the milk along with steam which adds unnecessary aeration.

@@gray_gogy yh and i do the standard purging you see them all do. (i didnt feel the need to write that cos i thought it was obvious but i see now its not) my point is that it either needs to purge for literally 15 or so seconds but even then i think doing it in liquid for some reason is even better still

@@yoshireincarnate1649 This video changed my bellman experience kzfaq.info/get/bejne/ncuKbLx2nK2ZpZc.html

@@mielieu1513 i'll try this thanks for the ... tip :)

Question! Would you consider steaming while the bellman is on the stove to prevent it from losing pressure as bad?

This is quite interesting, because induction will just heat the surface area that comes to contact with the burner instead the whole underside! I wish there's a small induction that can fit just this....and temp control is a great point too. Thank you!

there are three versions of the bellman, check out the cx-25p

Haha! Funny. I didn't get nervous at all since there is the pressure release valve.

@@LanceHedrick Not at all? And you said the spring is rated for 4 bars aka 290 degree water? A 4 bar (54 psi) metal pressure device sitting in front of you loosely with possibly 290 degree water on top of a unregulated heat source, and you are not nervous at all? You are banking a lot on a spring and gasket to work correctly. Best of luck to you.

Haha yep! I, too, have had my time as an espresso tech. So, I'm quite familiar with how pressure works lol. And there is always some trust needing given when working with these things. That and I've never, in the time this has been released, have seen anyone have any issues. But to each their own!

@@LanceHedrick There are quite a few stories on the forums of tops being blown off when the release failed, quite dangerous, haven't heard of any injuries though and never had a problem with mine.

Haha! Hope it is somewhat helpful.

@@LanceHedrick it was a huge help thank you so much

Link to what you use?

Why didn't he give it a good review? I have not seen that. If something gives me silky milky, it's solid.

Actually, he does not make a "bad" review, he says that it works relatively well, but he has objections, and wouldn't recommend it. He says something like this: 1.- It is a pressure machine that scares. Even the moka pot are scary and must be handled with extreme care. 2.- There is no information about the heat and pressure it generates, so you go a little blind. 3.- It has a learning curve, it is not comfortable to use at first use.

Thanks for the recap. I'd disagree heartily with the third. If you have good milk steaming technique, it is a seamless transition. If you don't, well, I've got a video for that lol. I've found that even seasoned coffee people have a lacking steam style which causes them to have opinions on different steam wands. I've yet to find one I can't copy paste my halfway and quarter on. Not implying James can't, because I haven't seen his video, but I am saying I disagree with that specific synopsis.

Also, there is info on pressure. The spring is rated to 4 bar

@@LanceHedrick I think he's talking to the general public, cause if you have experience with using steamers, you're not going to have any kind of problems, but if you're at home, and you go from filter coffee to a moka pot and you buy this, the results might not promising at first. And he should make more research work, obviously. This it really catches my attention and I've been wanting to get one of these for a long time, but I have to deal with imports to my country. If more awesome coffee people like you makes reviews, maybe this could become mainstream and available all around the world.

eventually you might want to replace gasket on the mokka pot but does anyone do that ? also orings are easily available online

@@claritean Bialetti recommends replacing their gaskets every 3 months but I've found it's more like 8-12 months (if your primary brew method). They'd probably last longer if they used silicone. Not all of us watching are in the EU/US regions so availability of replacement parts is a legitimate concern, and while you may be able to find replacement o rings, you may end up having to buy in bulk to be able to get them, or rolling the dice with international shipping/customs. So these things really depend on what needs replacing and how frequently, and I don't think anyone really covers this.

@@stingrae789 fair point, I'm in EU and tend to forget about other regions of don't know how the availability might be there. I personally find, all products like this should come with replacement parts (O rings and gaskets mostly) in the packaging. But the rabbit hole is so deep..

Steaming is the same on both. Follow the same cues outlined in my milk steaming video and you'll always get silky milky.

Advertising on someone else’s channel is not cool.

@@Andrew-wp1bz it's just two of my favorite youtubers

I haven't had issues losing steam. Of course, continuing to make steam would keep the pressure up lol!

Ditto. I have one of these and would like to hear more about using it. Mine doesn’t have the pressure gauge.

1. for some reason i feel like 2 bar but i could be way wrong 2. the wands gonna be disgusting, its gonna suck cleaning

Update : I was a bit inattentive and it turns out that the safety valve in the handle triggers at 4 bars; for whoever else who might be wondering.

Two years in :: I've found it best to immediately set aside the pitcher and wipe/purge the steam wand with a wet dishcloth. The released purge steam caught in the cloth helps with the quick clean. Then I'll set the Bellman on the edge of the sink and open the valve to let the remaining steam dump. Sometimes the milk does scald onto the tube or tip and I'll do a real quick twist/scrub with a plastic scouring sponge (Dobie) - that takes any scalded milk off quickly without fusing with it. Every so often I'll unscrew the tip to get the build-up under the edge of the tip where the wand threads are and run a wire through the tip holes.

I'm two years into my Bellman. I add boiling water to the Bellman on my gas range's smallest burner at medium-high and it's right around 5 minutes to get almost to the max pressure where the safety valve releases (between 5 and 6 minutes). If the burner isn't too large and/or turned up too high, most of the burner's output hits the bottom of the Bellman and isn't lost up the sides and also the handle likely won't be too hot to use...

what is the name of the espresso machine ?

Supposedly 4 bar. Not sure i believe that, but that's what I've read the spring is rated to. Could always replace with a different spring.

i had the same question :)

It worked on mine. If I put a fridge magnet against the base I feel a magnetic force. But apparently not all induction stovetops are compatible.

As someone who owns both I have to say the bellman outclasses the nanofoamer in ALMOST every way. When you foam latte-art worthy milk on the nanofoamer it looks perfect on top, but you’re left with this thin layer of foam that almost has a sort of “dryness” to it, very hard to describe. If you want foam that’s going to last you more than 1-2 sips you have to go overboard on the foam and you no longer have microfoam. The other thing is the milk cools down quite a bit while foaming with the nanofoamer, and I often had to burn my milk before foaming to end up with a cup that wouldn’t just be cool as soon as I was done. The last and most important part is that the milk would just obscure the taste of the coffee whenever I used my nanofoamer. I have no idea why, but the moment I started using my bellman I was actually able to taste my coffee and the way the flavor interacted with the milk a lot more. Very interesting. I also just find it easier to be consistent with the bellman, and the turnaround time between drinks for multiple people is a lot faster because you don’t have to reheat a small quantity of milk before the foaming is done each time. The only two areas the nanofoamer is better is portability (obviously) and the time it takes to heat up in the first place. Even if you’re just microwaving your milk it is way faster than the bellman takes to heat itself up enough to build pressure.

@@benf340 thank you for your thorough answer! Very helpful info!!

i had the same problem so started using a thermometer as I think the pitcher gets hotter than the milk itself. I try to get the milk to at least 130

Cool! Good thing in the time I've used one and the thousands who have also used this method haven't had an explosion yet. Phew! Almost like manufacturers are overly cautious with their products to abstain from a law suit. 🤔

Just going from their website - “Do NOT let the pressure build too high otherwise the safety valve will vent which is a loud pop and by no means should be used as a pressure indicator.” I agree with you that it’s unlikely to happen as they will have over-engineered it, but safety features shouldn’t be used as regular features, especially when you effectively have something as dangerous as a pressure bomb in your kitchen. Just because the safety’s on doesn’t mean it’s ok to point a gun at someone and pull the trigger!

Really depends. Nanofoamer will be more limiting with latte art because how dry the foam is, and workflow can be a bit odd. But it doesn't add water, so likely marginally sweeter milk

@@LanceHedrick This is interesting. I've got the option of a cheap enough bellman cx-25 and it'd be good for me to try using a proper steam wand instead of the nano and microwave. What do you think "wet" foam adds and do you think it's easy to do back to back coffees with the bellman? I'd normally be two max. Cheers!

yo

yo

🥰🥰🥰

Perhaps you just aren't skilled enough. Sorry about that!

You mean extra crema? Use fresh roasted beans perhaps less than a week but not same day too much co2 released in same day. Also its heat and pressure if you have a quality machine that makes 8 bar at least and is sufficiently hot and your distribution of the grinds are good and youve used a decent burr grinder to an apropriate grind size not too fine not too coarse. You should get loads. Not all coffee beans are the same either. I suggest medium or light roast if you actually like coffee. It helps to have a scale with a timer and know the ratios for water vs bean and extraction time this will help you dial it in. Besides crema is just super gassy coffee oils and i always suggest to stir your shot even for a latte. Most important if you know all the basics is just using the freshest roasted beans possible but i dont suggest same day 24rs at least.