Real-life UX: What’s wrong with our coffee maker?

At Stack Exchange, we have a very expensive espresso machine - professional quality.

However, we are having a persistent, companywide problem with its use.

It seems that after using the wand to steam your milk, you have approximately 5 seconds to wipe the wand with a damp rag before the milk crystallizes on the wand - because the wand is extremely hot from the steam passing through it. And after this happens, it's very difficult to clean. In the picture, it appears the wand has been partially cleaned already.

It's such a problem that we have resorted to a regular announcement every two weeks at our town hall meetings to "Clean the wand!"

My position is that this is a UX fail, and the need to give extra instructions is a sign that you've failed with the design. Even though it's an extremely expensive piece of equipment, the designers just failed to think through the use cases. Why is it necessary to have to wipe the wand at all?

Most of my colleagues take the position that this is a professional grade machine and that we are using it incorrectly by not having professionals operate it. Essentially, the problem could be solved with more training.

Is this a UX problem, and how could the machine be altered to avoid this problem, if so?