Cleaning roaster internals.

UNM

My hottop will shortly be in pieces. While I have it apart, I am wondering if I should clean the drum and internals. If so, any suggestions? I am thinking of a puro caff solution in a bucket and leave to soak.

Your thoughts?

mycuppa

Folks. I don't own a Hottop, so I can't comment specific to that device, however from a roaster's perspective here are my experiences. Anything that is in contact with the beans, such as a drum, etc. I believe should be left pretty much "as-is", e.g. seasoned. The exception of course is if some form of carbon or soot has built up as this will act as an insulator rather than a conductor of heat and should be removed. Where chaff or airways are concerned, yes, very thorough cleaning should be a regular routine. If you would like to remove seasoned coffee oils for appearances, then standard backflushing solution works a treat.......followed by the obligatory clean water wiping to remove residues.

beanflying

Mine gets a soak and a clean every 6 months in Cafetto. Followed by a very thorough rinse! Run a couple of cycles without beans and then with and normally this one is a bit ordinary (actually junked the last one). Thing that must be kept clean is the rear temp sensor on the Hottop after every dozen or so roasts. A bit of cafetto on a rag and a wipe is all it needs. Let this get to gunked up and the roaster doesn't know what it is doing. Also watch for chaff build up under the plastic top of the cooling tray and in and around the electronics.

Intense_Coffee

I strip and clean my Hottop every 70/80 roasts, including soaking the drum in caffetto, and scrubbing using a plastic style brush. I then put the basket and various bits through a cycle in the dishwasher, which generally works well to finish it up. I also clean up under the top cover which gets a massive buildup of oils etc, and blow out all the chaff as described already. As AM mentioned some of the artwork fades. The fan & housing also gets quite a buildup of oils and bean dust which I wipe clean with caffetto. The beanchute & it's cover and front glass etc I clean with caffeto with the residue from soaking my espresso baskets every week, mainly to keep the glass clean. Graham

UNM

Thanks for all the info. I wasn't sure about cleaning the drum, but suspected it might be best left alone. I'd never use anything other than water to clean my wok and thought it might be similar. As for artwork, if I hadn't seen AM's hottop, I wouldn't know what you guys are on about as mine no longer has any - gone long before I got it.

UNM

Mostly disassembled now, the drum is nicely seasoned so will leave it as is. Under the top cover was seriously filthy, especially on the side opposite the heating element. Should be nice and clean in a day or so and ready to be insulated and modded for manual heat control. I am currently leaning toward a triac circuit as I have some lying around and it seems easy to just disconnect the heater ac internally and bring the wires to an external controller.

Intense_Coffee

Interesting point re "Seasoning the drum". An article in the April Roast magazine called "10 things I wish I had known when I started Roasting". Item #4 is about Seasoning The Drum, suggesting that having to season the drum before you can roast properly roast coffee is a fallacy which continues to live as a myth? Graham

mycuppa

Intense Coffee wrote:

Interesting point re "Seasoning the drum". An article in the April Roast magazine called "10 things I wish I had known when I started Roasting". Item #4 is about Seasoning The Drum, suggesting that having to season the drum before you can roast properly roast coffee is a fallacy which continues to live as a myth? Graham

In relating to seasoning, I have'nt read the Roast article so I really dont know the scope of what they are referring to (some roasters may indeed not require seasoning), however, having owned a number of commercial drum roasters, I would say that some form of seasoning was vital to remove metallic taints and establish consistent flavor profiles. I have read quite exaggerated methods for seasoning that require ultra high (and dangerous) temperatures in order to effectively treat the metal. Not being a metallurgist, I certainly can't vouch for those theories and certainly did not undertake them in my seasoning tasks. One of my roasters, whilst having a mild-steel drum, came with a black coating on the surface not unlike teflon, but not has hard or durable as teflon. The coating was designed to wear over time according to the manufacturer. Another roaster with mild steel drum came with quite a rusty interior despite being new.......and took a handful of batches to get some metal notes away from the coffee. Different surface materials and methods, particularly in domestic roasters may be inert or impart nothing when it comes to roasting. For my mind, some form of seasoning is essential - whether this is a ritual that has science, or just some basic usage. Just like I train my cafe customers to run some shots through the espresso machine after they perform chemical backflush cleaning - remove taints and season I say !

Intense_Coffee

I suspect that as you alluded to mycuppa, it's a case of the type of drum that is relevant, and one rule does not apply across the board. I think in the case of the Hottop the drum is stainless or similar, so possibly less of an issue. In the article I read he describes how it was suggested the drum be seasoned with a large batch of popcorn which caused more trouble than it was worth, and involved the Fire Brigade etc ;D But I was interested to hear what others with different experience thought. Graham

UNM

Well, I changed my mind and cleaned the roaster drum in purocaff. Not such a good idea as it stripped almost all the black paint (or is it non-stick coating?) off the inside of the drum. I wouldn't mind if it got all of it off, so now have to wire brush out the remaining patches. Still all is now shiny and mostly back together.