Hello,

I recently purchased a 10 year old Toper Cafemino. I don't think the heating element is strong enough. I purchased a backup heating element from Toper and the new one is slightly weaker than the one already installed. I measured the resistance of the element and I think it is only about 1400 watts.

Here is roast I did last night. I warmed the roaster up for two hours, just to make sure it was fully up to temperature. I dropped 800 grams of a Brazil and kept the heating element on the entire time. I left the air flap closed the first 4 minutes and then only opened it up to about 30%. The ET and BT never rebound after the TP. What gives? Any help is appreciated. I have completed a half dozen roasts at 800g on this machine and not been able to figure out why the temperature is staying so low.

Another note: I have added two PIDs with new RTD probes and control them through Artisan. However, with the stock temperature controller and probe, the ET wouldn't rebound either. So I don't think the issue is with Artisan or the PIDs.



Here is the wiring of the element. I believe they are wired in parallel.

This is the old old model, which unfortunately was quickly canned due to poor performance. They went to a perforated drum with the elements under the drum, and then to a solid drum with more current in the elements. But you have an issue still, I wonder if you have a bad contactor?

Any idea what wattage you have on yours? Did you measure the resistance of your element. I could easily bypass the contractor and see if takes as long to heat up.

I'm sorry about how long it's taking me to get out there, been super busy. Tomorrow I have set aside time to measure the elements, install new RTDs, etc. but I have the new style roaster, my drum is solid and the elements are below the drum. So my setup is going to be totally different from yours.

You could (carefully!) measure the voltages with the contactor engaged and under load. That would tell you if the contactor is bad. Other than that I'm all out of ideas.

Rush, when you are looking at your machine could you take a couple photos of the element location?

I have a solid drum and the element inside the drum.

Do you think the roaster would function well if I installed a second element outside the drum and used two elements? Anyone ever try to use a heat source inside the drum and outside?

-Craig

ontum wrote:Rush, when you are looking at your machine could you take a couple photos of the element location?

I have a solid drum and the element inside the drum.

Do you think the roaster would function well if I installed a second element outside the drum and used two elements? Anyone ever try to use a heat source inside the drum and outside?

-Craig

Just seeing this message. They are directly below the drum but I don't have a picture of them presently. I can if you need it, but that is about all a picture would tell you anyhow.

Adding elements below your drum would be full experimental status, complete with fire hazards! Have you asked Toper what changes they made when they went to external elements from your model?

Hope you are finding some positive results, or at least learning and growing knowledge since you last posted. With my 20A elements I am getting from 40°F to 400°F in about 15 minutes with some decent airflow. I had to reconfigure the hardware and software so it took me a while to get back running. I went to Phidgets TMP1200 (RTD) from 1048 thermocouples and had to reimplement damper and SSR control via my own software.

Hope to hear good news!