My HotTop arrived

[cannonfodder]

The FedEx man brought me a present today


So off to the garage I go. A quick read through the manual and off I go. The first roast was charcoal. It came with a batch of Sumatra so I used that as my first test roast and seasoned the drum. The second and third roasts were spot on. My wife walked out into the garage, the first thing she said was 'wow, that is quiet'. My home made drum roaster squeaks something terrible. The rotisserie squeaks as it rotates in the holder.


happiness is a new roaster, an almost complete two group rebuild and a garage full of smoke.

[k7qz]

Congrats on the new roaster!

Mine is a couple of years old now and I forgot how pretty she was all shiny and new until I saw your pics. I'm envious of your new model with the digital readout! I'm secretly hoping mine will die so I can have a reason to upgrade the panel... Problem is, the HotTop has been a tank. I've roasted 3 or so batches a week for a couple of years now and like the Energizer bunny...

Although I clean mine faithfully I've never cleaned the drum. It's a beautifully "aged" golden bronze now. I'd bet after yours "ages" a bit (e.g. gets "oiled") the squeak of the rotisserie will lessen. In the mean time if the squeak bugs you, try loosening the gold knob on the face plate a little to provide more "slack" for the spindle.

Typically what I do is to use a shop vac to suck up the chaff from the catch tray (with machine cool) and then remove the face plate and turn the HotTop on end and gently tap the front end on my counter. This seems to get 99% of the internal chaff out which I can then vac up. This way I only have to "tear it down" for thorough cleaning every 6 or 8 roasts. I also ended up taking the wire guards off mine as I kept knocking them off when removing/replacing the cooling tray.

Enjoy!

[cannonfodder]

Once I got the first roast through it, it appears to have settled in. My only complaint is that I still end up with a lot of chaff in a dry processed bean. I just give the cooling tray a slight jiggle while blowing over the surface. On my home roaster, I used an air compressor to blow air up through a colander. The chaff would blow up and out as the beans cooled.

I hope this lasts for several years. I roasted one of my common blends, it will be interesting to see if I notice a difference in the flavor profile. Not having a temperature control is something I will have to adjust to. With my home made roaster, I could monitor the chamber temp and make fine adjustments to the heat. With this you just set it and go. While you can get the temp on the digital model, you can not make any adjustments.

[KarlSchneider]

Once I got the first roast through it, it appears to have settled in. My only complaint is that I still end up with a lot of chaff in a dry processed bean. I just give the cooling tray a slight jiggle while blowing over the surface. On my home roaster, I used an air compressor to blow air up through a colander. The chaff would blow up and out as the beans cooled.

I hope this lasts for several years. I roasted one of my common blends, it will be interesting to see if I notice a difference in the flavor profile. Not having a temperature control is something I will have to adjust to. With my home made roaster, I could monitor the chamber temp and make fine adjustments to the heat. With this you just set it and go. While you can get the temp on the digital model, you can not make any adjustments.

Hey Dave,

Espresso and Home Roasting here on the eastern edge of the great prairie moves forward! I am sure you will love the Hottop. I got mine in July 03. In April 04 it developed a problem of not dumping beans when I hit the "eject" button. The Hottop people were good to their warranty and replaced that early model in July 04. I have been using the same since for 3 batches weekly.

Because I like darker roasts I always start with 225 g as opposed to the 250 max. I use a timer, starting at the end of the 30th beep telling me to add the beans after warmup. I watch and record times to first crack / second crack and dump. I decide when to dump almost entirely based on time relative to 2nd crack. Since I weigh the beans before and after roasts I can calculate % weight loss as a measure of roast level.

I find that dry-processed beans do indeed produce lots of chaff and like k7qz also use a ShopVac after each roast. Also like him I never clean my drum so it is a golden color. Once a month I remove the drum and clean inside more thoroughly. I also wash out my filter once a month.

k7qz, I read somewhere that one can buy the new digital panel and replace our old ones. I think Sweet Maria's even had a scratched one on sale. They had instructions for the replacement. I am not really tempted but might try it if mine fails.

I find I get really consistent results from this machine in its stock form

KS

[cannonfodder]

I have always roasted using physical indicators. Volume of smoke, smell of the smoke, sound of the beans (not just the crack, as the beans roast their density changes and the pitch of the beans tumbling in the drum changes) and the bean color and crack.

I actually find the smoke (both visual amount and pungency) to be a very good and reliable indicator. I have been setting the timer long and dumping the roast manually. I actually need to run another batch tonight. I typically group my roasts. Like beans get pre-roast blended. I take my Brazil to city+ (5oz green) then take my Harar and Yemen (5oz combined) to full city+. The denser Yemen is at city+/full city when the Harar hits full city+. I get more blueberries out of the Harar at a darker roast. That gets me just over 8oz of roasted bean from 10oz of green.

My first roast went into the grinder yesterday, initial thoughts are positive.