Greetings,

My HotTop seems to have developed an interesting problem. During the entire roast, a few beans are getting ejected every few seconds. By the end of the roast, I've got about 100 ~ 200 beans that have been dumped out prematurely. Has anyone else seen this problem? It almost seems like the trap door at the back isn't being held closed and some beans are pushing it open... I'm at a loss for how to fix it.

Thanks.

--ben

It could be that you have a bean lodged between the door and the bearing plate that surrounds it. If not, it is probably something behind the door (where the motor is) affecting either the eject solenoid or the hinge pin/spring that allows the door to pivot. I'd check the first option before anything else - Hottop's site has great pictorials and instructions on how to remove and replace just about everything inside the roaster. You will want to remove the front cover with the glass window by removing the gold knob, then the front bearing plate which holds the front end of the drum's axle. From there you should be able to remove the drum and see if something is holding the rear door open - I'd try pushing it a little to see if that's frees it up and allows the door to swing back to the fully closed position. If that doesn't work, maybe report back and go from there. Michael at Hottop is helpful with issues as well, and you can email him if necessary if you find out the Hottop is under warranty and one of the parts isn't functioning. Here you will find some pictorials on the Hottop site:

http://www.hottopusa.com/repair.html

My guess is that you just have a bean or two stuck in the door area that is preventing the door from closing the way it should. Hope that helps.

There is also a troubleshooting section on the Hottop site that mentions a similar issue to what you are noticing - see the mechanical problem near the bottom of the page that describes "When the machine signals I pour in the beans and they pour right out again":

http://www.hottopusa.com/trouble.html

edited to add spacing

Alright, I'm off to pull it apart (again). From my inspection before the last roast, it seemed like the door was swinging all the way closed, but I'll check it again. If that seems ok, looks like it's time to pull off the rear cover and inspect the ejection solenoid visually. Weeee...

OK, I pulled the whole thing apart. Took off the front cover and bearing plate, pulled the drum, blew the whole thing out. Nothing seemed obviously wrong.. The door seemed to be shut, but I pushed it all the way open and let it snap shut a few times.

Seeing nothing obvious, I pulled off the fan, back cover and top cover and gave the whole thing a good blast of air. I was surprised at how much chaff had accumulated in the rear chamber... There was a small bit on the ejection solenoid, which I blew off, and some around the electronics and up near the motor. I didn't feel like pulling the motor to get at the ejection chute, but I got a few good blasts of air in there, both with the door open and with it closed.

Just to make sure, the door is held closed with the spring, and opened using the solenoid, right? My understanding is that the solenoid does not provide any closing pressure, it just pulls the lever back and opens the door, right?

Anyway, the spring that does hold the door shut seems fairly weak. I was looking for some way to slip a bit of something in between the spring arm that touches the door and the door itself to give the spring a bit more leverage, but I'm not sure what might withstand the heat. Anyway, now that the whole thing was clean, I decided to put it back together and give it a go, just to see if I'd somehow fixed something...

After reassembling it, I fired it up and immediately dumped some beans in, just to see if they'd leak out. No leaks! Yay! I ejected them, set up program, and ran it again to actually roast. Again, no problems to be seen. The gremlin seems to have vanished...

So, I just gave the thing a good cleaning and the problem went away. I didn't see any obvious cause, other than discovering that the spring holding the ejection door closed seems a tad weak. If anyone else runs into this, I hope this helps, though I don't have a definitive cause as of yet.

blowery wrote:Just to make sure, the door is held closed with the spring, and opened using the solenoid, right? My understanding is that the solenoid does not provide any closing pressure, it just pulls the lever back and opens the door, right?

I believe that this is correct.

I have lost a few beans now and then, but these are usually with peaberry types, but never to the extent that you described— maybe three or four beans in a roast.

If it continues, you could pull the ejection mechanism out and re-tweak the spring to cause it to apply a bit more pressure against the door.

It is a good idea to pull the roaster apart, at least to the extent of removing the back cover and pulling out the drum and blowing the thing out once in a while. I try to do it at least twice a year. Once a year I disassemble the thing to get all the metal bits out (drum, top cover, roast chamber inner wall, etc.) and give them a good dip in TSP and a scrubbing. Also clean the back wall of the roast chamber and clean off the temperature sensor. Just take note of which screws go where, and don't over-tighten any screws that go into plastic parts and you should be OK. As SpressoBean mentioned earlier in this thread, all R+R procedures are on the Hottop USA website in step-by-step order.

If you find anything lacking in those instructions, please drop me a note by E-Mail and I will look into it and make modifications to them as necessary....

Just an update on this thing. The HotTop started leaking beans again about a month after my original post, so I pulled it apart and played with the spring that holds the door shut a bit more. There's a bit of slop in mine, so it's very easy to push the door open just a little bit, which seems to be enough to start the drop going. Once the door is cracked open, it seems some beans get wedged in it and hold it open.

Sadly, there's no easy way to pull the spring and adjust it. It's held in place on a rod that appears to have been crimped after installation, making it impossible to pull out without a lot of effort. Instead, I slipped a couple small washers over the legs of the spring, effectively pre-compressing it and forcing it to exert more pressure on the door. Seems to be working well as I have not had a problem since installation about two months ago, and the solenoid is still able to pull the door open.

Got some good news for you.

First, I just posted a totally re-written step-by-step procedure for removing the spring and eject door mechanism. it is in the "Repair Procedures" area on the Hottop USA website (http://www.hottopusa.com).
The page itself is at: http://www.hottopusa.com/eject.html

Second, there is an updated kit for the ejection mechanism that includes all the parts you need including the spring, door, and solenoid. You may be able to order the spring by itself. E-mail Michael at Hottop to see if it is available as a spare part.

The removal procedure involves straightening the bent end of the hinge pin (or cutting it off and replacing it with a new one).

OK, this is funny. I just re-found this thread to post an update, and lo-and-behold, Randy effectively beat me to it.

What I was going to say was: I finally fixed this problem. It turns out the replacement spring is quite a bit stiffer than the spring that shipped with my HotTop. I ordered a replacement door/spring/solenoid assembly from Michael and was surprised to see the beefier spring. I installed the components, and the ejection mechanism has been working wonderfully ever since. If anyone else is having the leaking beans problem, just order the replacement assembly and you should be all set.