I've used the Behmor 1600 for about 2 years and roasted about 175 times. At first, I could roast 12oz of green through to second crack by using the 1lb setting. Now my limit is about 8oz if I want to get the coffee even close to second crack. I've followed the maintenance regime (run a cleaning cycle every 5 roasts) but haven't tried to service it in any other way. What happens with these things? do the electric elements get too dirty to function at the same intensity? Is it servicable or disposable? I really dislike only being able to do 7 or 8 ounces (about two or three days worth of coffee for me). I'm thinking of going back to something home made, like maybe a breadmachine/heatgun this time.

I don't have a Behmor, but I've seen plenty of people mention cleaning a usually shiny metal plate inside with simple green; when it darkens due to build-up, it doesn't measure the temperature as accurately and causes this sort of problem.

Have you tried cleaning the fan? I think there is something about it on Sweet Maria's roasting forum. I just got a Behmor a couple of months ago and it's a huge improvement over the heatgun/dogbowl roasting I was doing before, I wouldn't want to go back.
http://www.sweetmariascoffee.com/forum/...f=26&t=171

There is a deep clean maintenance as well as internal sensors that may need replacing. Contact Behmor for parts, they ship very quickly.

Thanks. I found the manual update and printed it off. Hopefully this will do the trick.

caffeinatedjen wrote:Have you tried cleaning the fan? I think there is something about it on Sweet Maria's roasting forum. I just got a Behmor a couple of months ago and it's a huge improvement over the heatgun/dogbowl roasting I was doing before, I wouldn't want to go back.

Interesting! It's actually a breadmachine (not dog bowl) that I'm considering building. Mostly for the roasting capacity (hopefully 16-20oz of green). I've had other home made contraptions (crazy stir/hot top) but the modified bread machine looks hopeful.
But I'd be interested to hear why you like the Behomor so much more. Chaff collection? smoke? convenience? or does it actually relate to the finished roast?

Guess it's a little OT, but my original Hottop went this way, and I was never able to figure out what happened. I replaced the heating element, temp sensor, made sure there was no voltage drop on the line, etc. It just takes much longer than it should to complete a roast.

Contact Behmor Tech support via their web site. They will help you restore the ability to roast larger loads.

This page on their web site walks you through several steps to ask for help.

The evenness of the roast I guess would say is the biggest improvement I've seen. I was always picking out beans that were underroasted with the heat gun, and would have to be really careful not to get distracted by say a hummingbird outside the window and scorch a few beans. It's a lot more pleasant in the summer too-standing over a heat gun when it's already 90 degrees is not too great. I'm still learning on the Behmor though.

Wow. Just a quick follow up. Im not sure which I'm more impressed with, the Behemor or Simple Green (never used this stuff before). After about 175 roasts my Behmor was noticeably sluggish in it's roast times and I was roasting less and less grams per batch. I downloaded and printed the maintenance update posted in this thread from Behmor and followed all the instructions. The roaster came out sparkly clean and roasts with similar roast times as when new. Thanks for the help.