Today is the day for deep cleaning my roaster. Time for everything to come apart and get a deep cleaning.

And I thought MY work area was an easy place to lose screws!

I use a 5:1 ratio of water to simple green with a microfiber cloth to clean out the inside of my Behmor, and the back vent which gets quite gunked up. I've played with running the drum and chaff tray through the dishwasher a few times and it seems to work pretty well.

Do you have any tips for deep cleaning your roaster?

Update: Photo from today's cleaning.

I just used a diluted Simple Green to clean the stainless mesh rear filter and the aluminum plate that restricts the air flow through it (my replacement for Hottop main filter). After untold number of roasts and some very thick buildup on both, some scrubbing with a toothbrush and they come out very clean.

Randy G. wrote:And I thought MY work area was an easy place to lose screws!

yeah, they go in pill bottles.
No longer use simple green, turns out it may not be as green as they claim.
Single edge razor blade chips the baked on oils in the ss pot right off. The TO top, brush off the heavy stuff then 90+% alcohol with some scraping, and assorted pads. Clean all contacts and if needed replace the connectors(about every other year) to the element. 8 years old and still going strong.

In the name of science I needed to know what happened if the drum stopped mid roast, trust me it was not a pretty sight. 1/2 kg beans.


The 5:1 ratio of water to simple green didn't quite do the trick here. I ended up putting the ventilation pipe in a industrial oven at 500C for 1 hour to burn it out.

The rest of the cleaning tok about 8 hours, fun!