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  • popper questions - mods & temperature.

    Suspecting too-cool (and too slow roasts) during the winter, I pulled apart my B&D popper and short-circuited the thermostat today. (got some pics if you want)

    I dont know how much difference it made though, I still seem to struggle to get hot enough - I dont think I could make it burn the beans if I left it on forver... I remembered that I had the temperature probe for the weekend (see Sunbeam EM5800 thread), so I stuck it in for a batch - 150g of PNG peaberry.

    1st crack ~4:30-5:00 at ~195-205 degrees. I waited til about 10 minutes, heard a couple of 2nd crack pops in the meantime, but the temp reading only got to ~217 before flatlining and the beans never got really black...

    I guess we could be talking probe error here, but I was hoping to see it get hotter than that. What temps should I be seeing in a popper? I was expecting (hoping) up around 240...

    Where to from here? fan mods? more beans? upgrade to a different method?

  • #2
    Re: popper questions - mods & temperature.

    Gday Matt,
    A simple method to retain the heat is to stick the popper into a cardboard box. This way the popper heats the air around the popper inside the box, and feeds warm air into the popper. This should alleviate your problems with roasting in cold temperatures.
    Hope this helps.

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: popper questions - mods & temperature.

      yeah, its a bit cold out in the garage where I roast...

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: popper questions - mods & temperature.

        Originally posted by Matt King link=1151217104/0#0 date=1151217103
        1st crack ~4:30-5:00 at ~195-205 degrees. I waited til about 10 minutes, heard a couple of 2nd crack pops in the meantime, but the temp reading only got to ~217 before flatlining and the beans never got really black...
        Gday Matt,

        How mobile was the fluid bed with the 150g batch size? If it was still plenty active, then you can probably up the batch size, say 10g at a time, until you reach 2nd Crack reliably or the fluid bed collapses, which ever is first.

        Mal.

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        • #5
          Re: popper questions - mods & temperature.

          Mal, Ive run up to 200g in this baby, typically I do ~180g though. Takes a bit of stirring to get started at that load (about a minute), but its flying by the end...

          still, it just seems to be weather related that I cant get up to the expected temps, or ever reach burning point of the beans.

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          • #6
            Re: popper questions - mods & temperature.

            Wow!

            You must have to bolt this baby to the bench once she gets going . Have you tried various means of restricting the air-flow? Maybe just use something roughnready to prove the principle then knock up something more professional looking later on. Thats all I did with my old Mistral (still going strong).... works great in Summer but in Winter, like yours, doesnt quite get hot enough.

            Once youve got the restrictor cross-sectional area worked out, you can then make up a simple cap that fits tightly over the top of your chimney of choice and then youre cooking with..... err your popper ,

            Cheers,
            Mal.

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            • #7
              Re: popper questions - mods & temperature.

              Hi Matt,

              Funny how we hear that poppes are really fast and get hot easily, then find out it isnt necessarily so...
              IF any of the other suggestions arent working for you...
              YES you can play with the fan and heater coils and get more heat,
              Firstly, IF you are not an electrician, please get one to assist/advise you.
              Then you can get a multitap transformer from most hobby electronics stores for around $10.00 or maybe $20, which gives you 240V down to 30-12V output or something like that.
              You can use this to power your fan and have say 4 speeds, I use 24/20/17/15Volts and towards the end of a roast, running the fan on 17 volts usually will enable plenty of extra heat into the beans (although I dont do batches much over 110g)
              Note also this requires some sort of rectifier arrangement beyween the transformer and the motor to convert the output to DC.
              It may be possible to get transformer with DC output for reasonable cost, but I have not checked this.
              ALSO, once this is done, you can switch the heat coils separately, and if you disconnect the inner coil and only use the outer coil (cos the inner coil is mainly the resister for the motor to get it to run at right speed), outer coil only will also give you more heat into the beans than if you run both coils (seems back to front but I have tried it and while difference is not great, it does work)
              Hope this is of some help,
              Bullitt

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              • #8
                Re: popper questions - mods & temperature.

                Gday Matt,
                Just on from Bullitts suggestion about the multi tap transformer.
                In my popper mod I incorporated a 240V-30V stepdown transformer and put a fan speed controller on the primary ie 240V side. This was passed on to me by the wise one, Mal .
                This gives me seamless speed control, rather than stepped speeds, which you would get with the multi tap jobbie. However a fan speed controller with a transformer will cost more $$$.
                You wont need to get a rectified output transformer or power pack as the circuit board for poppers already contains a rectifier set up which can be hooked up to the transformer, provided you know what youre doing.
                I cant think of an easy way of boosting the poppers heater output, only reducing it. A popper is at the mercy of the ambient temperature youre roasting in.
                I second Bullitts advice, if youre unsure about playing with electricity, dont do it, you only get one shot at it.
                I hope this helps.

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                • #9
                  Re: popper questions - mods & temperature.

                  I know that electric circuits are made of smoke, and that if the smoke gets out they dont work any more...

                  seriously, Im probably capable of doing it, but Id hate to die for the sake of a cuppa. The tip to roast in a box might be a starting point.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: popper questions - mods & temperature.

                    Hi Popper roasters,
                    Ive been using a pair of B&Ds for a few years now with a custom sheet metal top (the plastic one has long since melted). About 6 weeks ago I burnt one out so I went looking for another and couldnt find them anywhere - I dont think they are being made by B&D any more.......However, last Thursday, doing my weekly treasure hunt in Aldi what should I discover but what appears on the outside to be the same popper but now called a Maitrde. Mechanically/electrically it must be a little different however. It seems to not blow as hard and must run hotter. It roasts more than twice as fast as the B&D running alongside. The speeds good for winter, and the results seem OK, though I dont know how itll go in summer??

                    Cheers

                    Brian

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: popper questions - mods & temperature.

                      Gday Brian,
                      Yeah, the old Maitre d popper is a wild bit of gear for sure.
                      I found mine too fast to use in winter, but I was in Bourke at the time and winter didnt get below 15 on most days :-?, I wouldnt dream of using it un-modified during summer.
                      Ive done a few mods to mine to get it to play nicely, and its given some impressive results, if I say so myself  .
                      These links show what I did to my popper to tame it, and some of the results.

                      http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1126003378
                      http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1132286143

                      All the best.

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