Behmor and my stupidity

[barri]

I have been using this little wonderful roaster for over 2 years and the other night I did what the instructions said not to do. I left the room and then forgot about it. When the room filled of smoke I realised what I'd done. The beans were a clump of black mess and the room smelt awful. There was a horrible oily residue on everything and there was an error message on the screen. I scrubbed as best I could and did a few dry burns. The machine seemed to work OK during a dry burn. I tried a proper roast and it roasted fine except first crack took 3 minutes longer than normal and there was extra smoke at the start of the roast, then disappeared in the middle and came back at the end before cooling. The roast tasted fine. Subsequent roasts have seen an improvement in the amount of smoke and overall performance but it doesn't seem to work exactly the same as it did. The bottom line is that the coffee still tastes good.

Should I throw it out and buy a new one or persist? I'm sure this has happened to others. What is the correct recovery procedure when this happens? What's the best way to get rid of all that oily residue other than "Simple Green"?

[Mono]

Hi Barri, I use a KKTO so I can't help there but was going to suggest a email, not a PM to Andy. Fair chance he has had this issue arise with someone and he is always most helpful.

Steve.

[specialpants]

Definitely email Andy.

Here's some suggestions:

Have you vacuumed the exhaust area? You can do this by taking off the right hand side and rear exhaust cover. Part of the maintenance is to get rid of the dust build up near the fans. You'll need a special screw (torx) to get access.

There's also a sensor (the 3 screws near the element, on the right hand side) that has to be regularly cleaned.

[CafeLotta]

Go to the Behmor website customer support page - Coffee Roaster, Home Brew | Incline Village, NV | Customer Support and first register your machine if you haven't already.

Then go to the Tech Support / other issues page - Coffee Roaster, Home Brew | Incline Village, NV | Tech Support | Other - and fill in details as requested and describe your issue in the "Comments" box.

They are really helpful, easy to deal with and quick to get back to you. Emails even have step by step pictures if disassembly is required.

[Andy]

Yep... I agree with all the above.
* Email andy@coff... and I'm pretty quick to answer.
* Contact Behmor Technical Support and they will typically answer overnight (timezone differences).

I have already answered Barri's email but will echo some of it here to add to the discussion.

I would suggest giving it a good clean with a citrus based cleaner, one of those non abrasive orange oil cleaners from the supermarket work well and smell nice.

Update 3 is a good reference for inspecting and cleaning the fans and other likely points of failure after "bean ignition".
http://www.behmor.com/docs/Manual_Up...and_DC_Fan.pdf

In fact update 3 is a good reference for anyone who whats to do a regular "service" on the roaster.

[lemoo]

Between Andy and Behmor Tech Support, i'm sure you'll get it sorted in no time!

Recently having dealt with the both of them for some help with my behmor and couldn't be more amazed at the dedication to customer service by both parties.

[barri]

Thanks guys. Here's the reply from Tech Support

"John:

Sorry to hear of what has occurred with your roaster. We realize accidents do happen.
No I would not give up on the roaster at this point in time. Simple Green is still the
best way to clean to your unit, and instructions on how to do so are attached to this email.
I would also suggest going to our website Coffee Roaster, Home Brew | Incline Village, NV and the Customer Support area
for The Behmor 1600 and the Critical maintainence Updates.
In addition regarding the smoke, it is likely just burning off sediment from the bean ignition., It should subside over time
However you might want to check and see if your afterburners are functioning. Just open the door,
locate the afterburners(located on the interior ceiling centered, with a perforated metal housing over them.) and hit the cool button.
Look closely as the afterburners should start to glow a faint orange within 10 to 20 seconds into the cooling cycle.

Let us know
In regards gards to slower roasting times, its quite likely replacing the walls sensor will help It was likely damaged,, and
the ERROR message you saw was because of this. This is a part we can provide for you at no cost,
and email you the instructions on how to replace it.
Thanks

Bob Rodda

Behmor Inc."

An excellent response.

Any way I have done a few more dry burns, more scrubbing with a toothbrush, still using simple green and the bottom line is that it seems OK. The smoke has gone and the roasts are good but are still taking a little longer. 400gms of Peru beans from beanbay used to take about 15 min for FC and now takes 17 min but the taste after a few days is still good. So I'll persevere with it.

Thanks for everybody's support

[robsal]

Just did the same thing. I normally set a timer at the beginning of the roast to remind me around the time first crack should start. Forgot to set the timer and luckily my 5yo ran in to tell me about all the smoke. No fire, but what a lot of smoke.
Just running a cool cycle now. I've done over 200 roasts in the Behmor. Hopefully a good clean and it will live to do another 200.
D'oh.

[barri]

Just did the same thing. I normally set a timer at the beginning of the roast to remind me around the time first crack should start. Forgot to set the timer and luckily my 5yo ran in to tell me about all the smoke. No fire, but what a lot of smoke.
Just running a cool cycle now. I've done over 200 roasts in the Behmor. Hopefully a good clean and it will live to do another 200.
D'oh.

After the first dry roast, make sure you scrub with something like an old toothbrush and as Bob from behmor said use Simple green or equivalent. Then do another few dry burns and some more scrubbing before doing a roast. Also unscrew the side and clean and vacuum what you can near the fan.

In my case I saw a lot of smoke in my first few dry roasts which subsided over time. Andy (thanks a million) sent me the wall sensor part and Bob for Behmor sent me the instructions on how to replace the possibly damaged old one. It didn't look damaged but my roasts were taking 3 to 4 minutes longer to reach FC. After replacing that part my roasts are back to normal. Yippee!!!! I still can't completely get rid of the smell but it is improving. I should keep scrubbing a little more.

Anyway my roasts are now good and the coffee still tastes great. What a durable little bugger this roaster is.

[robsal]

Thanks for the tips.
Phew. Nothing broken, just char residue. Close one.
I gave it a pretty good scrub with Simple Green and removed about 60% of the residue. Then a dry burn & now running my first roast post immolation attempt. 400g harrar on P2C. Bit of a lacklustre 1C but reached 1st signs of 2C around 5m left which is normal.
Wanted to post a short vid of the smouldering bean mass, but couldn't figure out how. A bit hard from my phone. I still can't believe how much smoke - I thought my neighbours would call Fireman Sam.

[DavidW1960]

Behmor and my stupidity

What is the Aussie equivalent of clean green? I've been using diluted CLR cleaner and have also used some orange cleaner?

[CafeLotta]

What is the Aussie equivalent of clean green? I've been using diluted CLR cleaner and have also used some orange cleaner?

Simple Green is available at Bunnings stores. They carry a good range of their products.

[B00sting]

Simple Green is available at Bunnings stores. They carry a good range of their products.

I just bought some at bunnings. they had most of the simple green products.

[Andy]

Simple green works well but I don't like the smell much.
I prefer using the orange oil based cleaners.

[bennett]

Simple green works well but I don't like the smell much.
I prefer using the orange oil based cleaners.

I reckon!! The smell reminds me of those yellow tablets that float in urinals in public toilets!!!