My Huky had a seized ceramic front bearing that I replaced with a new one (not a fun task). Since that I am watching the the bearing and find the silicone heat resistant grease that Mr Li kindly also sent me is discoloring, likely from roasting 'gases'.

A while ago I bought some Isopropylalcohol (99 Vol%)which I thought would also work for this job but it does absolutley nothing to clean the SS cladding or previous bearing. Anyone with ideas, especially on the bearing (soaking is not an option, removing it is neither an option)?

The Urnex Tabz F61 is magic stuff. A chemist somewhere really figured out how to attack coffee residue. It even worked on my wife's tea cup. And it's relatively inexpensive.

thanks, yeah I indeed have triphosphate cleaner that works magic on espresso gunk and it may work on the roaster too, it's just that it's not real practical to use for that application...perhaps I need to just use it and roast afterwards to dry everything...was hoping for something that evaporates more quickly.

For years I've had good success in soaking my roaster parts in a solution of Simple Green and water and then scrubbing with a plastic brush to remove gunk. This also works for my ceramic bearing which fortunately comes out easily on my Huky. Given your bearings aren't easily removable, all I can think of would be to remove the front and rear plates and soak them in a solution.

sounds like a plan, AND I can now monitor soaking temp in three places of which with a precision of three decimals behind the comma

bradm wrote:The Urnex Tabz F61 is magic stuff. A chemist somewhere really figured out how to attack coffee residue. It even worked on my wife's tea cup. And it's relatively inexpensive.

I clean my Behmor Brazen coffee maker with Urnex Tabz and save the hot liquid to clean my Aillio Bullet roaster. The impeller fan and chaff filter basket get a quick soak (no more than 5 or 10 minutes to prevent dissolving the metal) and I use a paper towel or rag to wipe off coffee oils on the roaster with this liquid.

I used to clean my Behmor roaster with a 5:1 dilution of water to Simple Green which also worked well.

With the Behmor I would follow the cleaning with a short dry burn before roasting coffee but with the Bullet I'm relying on the long pre-heat to accomplish the same thing before roasting with coffee.

If you clean your bearing with either, you'll want to re-lube the bearing to replace the stripped grease.

I used to rebuild pan an tilt mechanisms for security cameras used in industrial applications which are often in continuous operation scanning a parking lot for break-ins and I would tear it down to the frame and soak all the parts and bearings in simple green to strip out the grime and old grease before re-lubing and reassembling the mechanism.

good info! Thanks guys, lacking simple green in my parts I'l try with my old TriPhosphate.

Marcel; I'll bring you some Simple Green in my suitcase the next time I travel to NL!