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Behmor Fire - Eeeek!

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  • Behmor Fire - Eeeek!

    Hey guys,

    I only got into the whole home roasting thing relatively recently. Bought the mighty Behmor in Jan this year and I've been slowly experimenting and honing my skills continuously since then. Loving the Behmor. My process is to set the roaster up outside, add a 1/2 lb of beans, preheat for 2.15 and then start the roast proper. I then set my phone alarm for 5 mins and go to my office (about 6 steps away) and generally do some computer work. Nothing happens for the first 5 minutes anyway (usually!). My alarm then goes off and I go out and monitor the roast going into first crack, second crack etc. All good. Yeah, I know the instructions clearly state to monitor the roast at all times. Familiarity breeds contempt...

    Well last night I hadn't hit the 5 minute mark and I heard some distinctive pops and cracks coming from the roaster. Hmmm. I leapt out of my seat and as I went outside I was greeted with a raging fire inside the roaster and a huge plume of smoke pouring out! Yikes!! I turned it off and instictively opened the door (despite a voice in the back of my head yelling from the manual "In case of fire do not open the door!"). Which made it flare up more, so I quickly closed it and realised at that point there wasn't a lot I could do besides wait for it to go out on its own. Not without destroying the roaster with a fire extinguisher/garden hose anyway. It's amazing how well coffee beans burn! The oil they produce really gets things going!

    So what went wrong? I didn't close the door on the end of the drum properly that's what. Slowly but surely as the drum rotated the beans fell out and gathered at the rear of the roaster. In a heap on the heating elements!

    I left it to cool and then emptied out 1/2 a lb of wasted Harrar. Sad face. The oily smoke has done a number on the roaster but I'm hoping that'll all clean off tonight. If the elements are still OK I'll then do a "dry roast" to try and remove any further traces of blackness from the rest of the machine. Poor thing - I always tried to keep it nice too...

    Hopefully others will learn from my mistakes. Close your roasting drum properly!

    Pete L

    <I have a photo but can't make it upload to the forum>

  • #2
    Thanks for the Tip Pete, hopefully the only damage is superficial

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by PLMS View Post
      <I have a photo but can't make it upload to the forum>
      The file size is probably too large. Make it smaller and it should upload fine.


      Java "Size does matter!" phile
      Toys! I must have new toys!!!

      Comment


      • #4
        Well I understand your plan. I think there is merit in throwing in the 'I told you so' statement. He he

        The Behmor document specifically mentions 2 things.

        Do not leave the roster unattended.
        Never open the door when there is a fire.

        Both of which you did.

        This thread is a great example do anyone out there that thinks the user manual is just being overly carefull.

        Good to hear that you came out alright though..

        Comment


        • #5
          Yeah "I told you so" is definitely warranted. Pete = doofus.

          OK, now for that photo. It was 280KB. Now savaged down to a mere 34KB.

          PL

          Click image for larger version

Name:	behmor fire.jpg
Views:	1
Size:	33.9 KB
ID:	734832
          Attached Files

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          • #6
            I think you might be lucky there Pete, unless the element is cooked.
            I was expecting a blackened mess.
            Matt

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            • #7
              It's pretty blackened and messy but I hope it'll scrub up OK.

              PL

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by emmatt99 View Post
                I was expecting a blackened mess.
                As was I Matt. From the first post I was expecting a lot worse. Hopefully it will clean up and burn in (Sorry I couldn't resist!) and you'll be back to happy roasting.


                Java "Luck to ya!" phile
                Toys! I must have new toys!!!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Never leave the roaster unattended when in use
                  ...is also printed on the top of every roaster!

                  The owner of the company would point out to you that what you had was
                  "an unattended bean ignition"
                  The roaster didn't catch fire, the beans did!

                  You are right about the next steps, give it a clean and then try a dry burn. I think you might be lucky judging from the pictures.

                  You might also want to remove the 5 screws in the exhaust cover and have a look inside to see if the fans look ok too.

                  Hopefully others will learn from my mistakes. Close your roasting drum properly!


                  Good tip!

                  Good luck and if you get stuck drop me an email and we'll see if we can help get you roasting again.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    An engineer would tell you that an intrinsically safer design (say by enclosing the elements in mesh smaller than the beans), is usually better than relying on an operator; especially when a single failure (to close the drum) will frequently result in such an event.



                    Damage doesn't look too bad though.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Good news everybody! Behmor has been dissasembled and cleaned up properly. All good. Did a dry burn and she's humming away happily again.

                      Hardest part to clean was actually the glass over the light. I haven't cleaned this properly before and I suspect given it's position at the top of the chamber it'd be in the hottest place. The blackness was well burnt on and nothing I could find would shift it. But it's just a flat piece of glass so I scraped it clean with a flat blade. Just like new now. Suddenly the interior is well lit again! If you've been running a Behmor for a while and never really checked the glass it might be worth a look some time. Chances are you're not going blind - you're just not getting as much light on your beans as you once did!

                      I took the opportunity to get to know the machine a little better while I was in there. Gotta say I'm impressed by the complexity of these machines. You surely get value for money. All too often I pull something apart and go "Is that all it is?!". Not this time. They've really gone to some effort to make them work as well as they do. I'm not sure how much is the toaster oven that it's based on and how much was added to make it into a coffee roaster but there's certainly some effort been put into it.

                      Anyway, I'll certainly be a lot more careful closing the drum from now on!

                      PL

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                      • #12
                        Scraping glass with flat blade = nail on blackboard, I hate the thought of the noise it made (shudder)

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                        • #13
                          It was actually quite silent. I'm sure I could have made some fun noises if I wanted. But I chose not to. I was on a mission to get the roaster back into action!!

                          My latest shipment from Andy arrived yesterday (MM Gold - Mmmmm...). Thanks Andy.

                          I look forward to making some more smoke tonight. Just a bit this time. No fire. Only smoke. Fire baaaad!

                          PL

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Must admit this incident and others like it concern me greatly.
                            The Behmor is obviously a popular and very good little roaster , however given the large number of often inexperienced people using them it's just a matter of time before the inevitable happens and a major fire occurs.
                            Surely safety devices can be incorporated to make it impossible to operate the machine until such time as all doors etc have been secured.
                            If an incident such as this occurred in an industrial setting all units would be immediately withdrawn and not put back into service until they had been made safe, if they could not be rectified an alternative would be found.
                            If a fire was attributed to one of these machines I can imagine the insurance investigation that would ensue, they wouldn't rest until blame had been laid squarely at someones feet.
                            Food for thought.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              they wouldn't rest until blame had been laid squarely at someones feet.
                              Pretty obvious whose feet.

                              Originally posted by Andy View Post
                              Never leave the roaster unattended when in use
                              ...is also printed on the top of every roaster!
                              PLMS certainly knew where the problem was and didn't try to point the blame anywhere else (kudos to you PLMS!).
                              Had he been watching the roast would have hit stop or cool and per the manual left the door closed.

                              There are 10's of thousands of these roasters all over the world and mostly they never see "bean ignition" and I doubt there is ever a drastic problem if the instruction manual is followed.

                              Bench-top chip fryers and unattended pots on the stove are far more dangerous, have far fewer safety features and many many more fire brigade callouts.

                              Use as directed and noone gets hurt!

                              I look forward to making some more smoke tonight. Just a bit this time. No fire. Only smoke. Fire baaaad!
                              Enjoy the journey to better and safer roasting.
                              I'm glad you shared this experience here and I'm sure you have saved someone else the grief of a cleanup or worse.

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