# Silvia for Gran Gaggia Prestige/Style



## steveg (Jun 30, 2013)

Hi guys,

Can anyone tell me the advantages of retro fitting one of these items? If so can you also advise on the correct unit to buy?

I apologise for what may be perceived as a "newbie" question, this is due tonthe fact that I am well.... a newbie!

Thanks all


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## Neill (Jun 26, 2013)

Hey, pretty new to this myself but I have added this to my gaggia classic. The advantage is that the pannarrello or auto frother that comes on gaggia home machines is great at making it easy to create foam with very little technique but the result is a dry foam with lots of large bubbles and it tends to separate from the milk and float on top. What a lot of people are aiming for is microfoam which has a lovely smooth texture with small bubbles incorporated in to all the milk. Have a look at the free pour Fridays thread and you'll see what's possible with this. It's doesn't just allow for nice patterns but, in my opinion, the texture is much nicer too. It is much easier to obtain this quality of foam with the silvia wand but you will have to learn the technique of stretching and folding the milk. Hope that helps.


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## steveg (Jun 30, 2013)

Excellent, that is what I am wanting to achieve, but is there a specific type to buy or is it a "one size fits all"?

Cheers

Steve


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## HDAV (Dec 28, 2012)

You need the earlier silvia wand as sold by myespresso and happy donkey for the classic, I have a feeling the style might be more like the cubika only way to know is open her up and have a look, compare to the others


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## steveg (Jun 30, 2013)

HDAV said:


> You need the earlier silvia wand as sold by myespresso and happy donkey for the classic, I have a feeling the style might be more like the cubika only way to know is open her up and have a look, compare to the others


Hmmmm we've only had the machine for 6 days now and I cannot conceive of any possibility where my wife would agree to my opening it up to have a look... maybe this will have to be filed for later investigation.


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## Neill (Jun 26, 2013)

I don't know your machine but I know my brother just takes the plastic part off the wand on his cubika and can get much better milk just using the metal tube, it's not very long though.


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## HDAV (Dec 28, 2012)

If you can get the paranello off and take some pics it should be possible to tell, is it held in by a 12mm nut?


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## steveg (Jun 30, 2013)

Neill said:


> I don't know your machine but I know my brother just takes the plastic part off the wand on his cubika and can get much better milk just using the metal tube, it's not very long though.


Thats a good idea, I'll likely try that as I have some experience at getting reasonable results with something that's not very long. ?...


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## steveg (Jun 30, 2013)

HDAV said:


> If you can get the paranello off and take some pics it should be possible to tell, is it held in by a 12mm nut?


I'll give it try when I can. I'm not very mobile at the moment having just come out of hospital post surgery - hence my wife buying the machine to help me feel better sooner....


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## Charliej (Feb 25, 2012)

If the Silvia wand doesn't fit the machine Gaggia/Phillips also do a longer version of the panarello that can have the outer sleeve removed leaving you with a longish single hole tip and this needs no major surgery, you just have to remove the standard one as you would for proper cleaning and put the piece on instead.


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