# My new Gaggia Cubika Plus



## SlowRoast (Sep 24, 2010)

Ok, so today on the way home from work, I'm on my days off tomorrow and I've just been paid. Ended up sitting on the bus with a Gaggia Cubika plus!

It seems to be very well made, but I discovered the filter basket is pressurised and does not require tamping, soon did away with that and turned it into a regular group handle.

But the steam arm is something I need advice on, how do I change it to a traditional one which I'm used to? I've attempted to steam milk with the pannarello and got a bunch of soap suds. I was using semi-skimmed though, I'll switch to whole tomorrow.

I haven't tried the coffee yet, no tamper or coffee. Off to a local barista supply shop tomorrow to get all my stuff.


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## jimbow (Oct 13, 2011)

Pannarello wand attachments are formed of two pieces: an inner piece attached to the steam arm and an outer sleeve that fits over the inner with a hole (or holes) near the top. If you remove the outer sleeve, the wand (with just the inner piece of pannarello still attached) will behave like a regular steaming wand with a single hole.

The problem with doing this using the stock Gaggia pannarello is that the inner piece of the pannarello is only very short (about a third the length of the whole attachment when the outer sleeve is fitted). There are however other pannarello wands available that are compatible with Gaggia machines that have full length inner pieces. These are sold by a number of suppliers including the following:

http://www.gaggia.uk.com

Alternatively, if you don't mind opening up your machine then you could try replacing the entire wand arm for a regular wand. I believe some people have fitted old Rancillio Silvia wands to their Gaggia Classics.


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