Seem to be having an issue with my fairly new Hottop KN-8828B-2K+. Three or four of my most recent roast sessions ended prematurely. All seemed to be going well then the machine started beeping and then ejected the beans after only 5 or 10 min. into the roast.The last time it did this I got a very quick glimpse of the control panel showing a bean temp of 600 degrees F while the environment temp was only showing 200 something degrees F . I think the bean thermocouple is going bad. Anybody out there have a similar problem with the their Hottop (specifically the new KN-8828B-2K+)? Do Hottops have a history of failing thermocouples?

Hottop has a "is the user present" safety function which requires you to press any button EXCEPT eject during the roast to make sure someone is standing near the roaster. Roaster beeps and you need to acknowledge by pressing a button otherwise it ejects the roast.

Make sure you are just not "following directions". If you are watching the roaster you should be able to view the BT/ET readings. You should never see anything much over 420 degrees without the roaster ejecting the roast.

600!? Might be a bad control panel. Could be a chaff fire from insufficient cleaning between roasts. Early eject (particularly early in the roast cycle) is most often caused by a bad main fan. Disconnect it and run a few roasts with no beans to test that. Post a copy of the graph from Artisan.

"Hottop has a "is the user present" safety function which requires you to press any button EXCEPT eject during the roast to make sure someone is standing near the roaster. Roaster beeps and you need to acknowledge by pressing a button otherwise it ejects the roast.

Make sure you are just not "following directions". If you are watching the roaster you should be able to view the BT/ET readings. You should never see anything much over 420 degrees without the roaster ejecting the roast."

Above is all clearly stated in instructions that came with machine. I am well aware of the safety functions. I pressed the "Enter/Save" button very shortly after the beeping started and it sell ejected the beans. As stated in my original post it seems very odd to me that the machine is reading in the low 200 degree F range for environment temp and at the same time reading 600 for the bean temp. I dont think this machine can even reach 600 degrees in 5-10 min time frame even with a chaff fire. Im positive it wasn't a fire. Im pretty sure a fire would be quite obvious when sitting directly in front of the machine. I clean the chaff before each batch just as suggested in the instructions I never leave the machine unattended.

"Might be a bad control panel. Could be a chaff fire from insufficient cleaning between roasts. Early eject (particularly early in the roast cycle) is most often caused by a bad main fan. Disconnect it and run a few roasts with no beans to test that. Post a copy of the graph from Artisan."

Had not considered the control panel. That's a real possibility. Wasn't a chaff fire. I clean the chaff before every roast with a shop vac. This was not an isolated incident. It has prematurely ejected 3 or 4 recent roast sessions. Pretty sure I would have noticed a fire (flames, smoke, heat, etc.) while sitting right in front of the machine. Cant be sure but fan seems to be running OK (can hear it and sounds normal). I like the "Disconnect it and run a few roasts with no beans to test" idea but think I will apply that idea to the bean thermocouple instead of the fan. Guess my first step will be to run a few beanless test roast while connected to Artisan in attempt to record the bean temp spike and see if there are any regular patterns involved then do the same with bean thermocouple disconnected. Thanks for the input. Much appreciated.

Contact Hottop customer service:

https://www.hottopusa.com/contact.html

Thanks for the suggestion Turtle. I have already done so. Been over a week and no response from them.

I ran 3 consecutive test without beans hooked up to Artisan. Worked perfectly. Also a ran a batch with beans which worked just fine. Guess I have one of those pesky intermittent electrical problems. Plan to record all profiles via Artisan for foreseeable future. Hope to catch one showing apparent bean temperature spike. Pretty sure its not getting anywhere close to the indicated 600 degrees. Im guessing its most likely a thermocouple or control panel problem. Will post pic of Artisan profile if/when I capture one that shows "bean temp spike".

llbaker2 wrote:Thanks for the suggestion Turtle. I have already done so. Been over a week and no response from them.

You e-mailed, I assume... hottop@hottopusa.com ?

Randy G. wrote:You e-mailed, I assume... hottop@hottopusa.com ?

Yep emailed them at same address about a week ago.