BTW - don't judge the Gaggia's steaming until you've done something with the self-priming-valve. It's been known to steal all of a Gaggia's already limited steam capacity.
I had more than enough steam with the stock wand and the Silvia wand seems to deliver more focused steam/faster response so capacity is not a problem.
But this SPV thing is a problem. I tried to cap off the line and it only caused pressure to develop at the barb fitting and leak up top. I could not find anything at Lowes that would thread in to plug it off because the best fit was 5/16 X24 tpi but all they stocked was 18 tpi
I am thinking of filling up the hole in the barb fitting with JB weld and reinstalling it.
For now I had to make a temporary solution because I cut the silicone return hose, now it's too short to get back into the tank. So I took some 1/4" tube and extended this line way outside of the machine. What is interesting is seeing what happens with this valve. The big problem is during steaming...this thing pretty much bleeds steam directly into the water tank for as long as steam is activated.
The tube gets HOT and there is no doubt that it's heating the fill water (just as you said). If somebody doesn't want to do this mod they really should get that return tube out of the water however they can figure to do it.
