Bullet temps going crazy

[rjavitukan]

Hello everyone.

I’ve been having a problem that has been quite pissing me off, since it prevents me from having repeatable roasts.

Around 20kg after deep clean (I clean as per manual after 30 kg), the temps reading that I get are a lot higher than my most decent roasts. The roast in the background is my standard roast for a classic Brazilian flavor. Yellowing at around 5 min, first crack around 9:30 and drop the beans at 11:30.
The roast in the foreground is one of the recent roasts. Even though I lowered the preheat temp, the ROR skyrockets, and even though I often lower the temp during roast it barely seems to have effect. The ROR seems to want to climb again, even though I lower the temp more than usual.

Why are my roasts of the same bean so different? Both beans were roasted in November, so more or less similar ambient temperature.
If you think it’s because of cleaning, how often do you deep clean it? Still, it seems the difference shouldn’t be this big.

[braca19452f9m]

I’ve checked your roasts, and the ones from yesterday seem pretty normal. Those from today, on the other hand, indicate that the IBTS should be cleaned or that the chaff filter is clogged. Also check your exhaust, the one that goes from the charge hole to the chaff collector, for dirt buildup. Most probably it’s the dirty IBTS that doesn’t read well and preheats to 290, which in reality could be 300. I don’t know what you mean by deep clean, but I thoroughly clean my machine after every session. I mean vacuum and a damp microfiber cloth. I soak my chaff filter and impeller in baking soda once I feel I should, and that’s usually much sooner than 20kg. Same goes for IBTS. Also, I do clean my bean probe once in a while, but not as often. I might have done it once or twice. If you haven’t already, consider switching to the latest beta 610 firmware.

[zacateller]

I had exactly the same problem. (By deep clean, I believe rjavitukan means that which is recommended by Aillio/Bullet) So, I surmise that, unless RJ did not even attempt to clean the IBTS (unlikely) he may have over cleaned it, and it may be out of alignment, which is what I though I may have done. Is this a possibility? Asking for a friend.

[rjavitukan]

@braca19452f9m how do you clean your bean probe to make it so spotless? I tried rubbing but it doesn’t work.

It turns out it was actually the fault of chaff collector basket like you said, braca. I always, and I mean always, clean the basket after every session. THis was now the first time that I didn’t clean it, I probably forgot, and the temp readings went crazy.

So yeah, clean your chaff filter basket, people!

[zacateller]

I clean mine thoroughly before each roasting session, in fact I put a “new” basket in each session (my baskets NEVER get as compacted/oily as shown in the Aillio maintenance video so just hot water usually cleans them efficiently), and thoroughly vacuum out the the entire Chaff Collector. You asked about cleaning the bean probe, I use a low % isopropyl alcohol, or rubbing alcohol, works perfectly. Still worried about my IBTS, though.

[braca19452f9m]

I’ve used this one, although I did buy it from Amazon and I’m not in the UK. It’s just the first link that came handy.
Scotch-Brite® Bath Scrub Sponge, 16 pieces in pack | 3M United Kingdom
Really, anything that’s gentle and non scratch should do the job. This one says it’s specifically designed for delicate chrome parts of bathroom so that’s very specific and safe. I just dampen it and put a sprinkle of baking soda. Once I remove everything, I just pass it with a damp microfiber cloth for eventual residue from baking soda.

However, this came to me after losing a lot of time and thoughts on troubleshooting my espresso machine. It’s a Bezzera, so when I saw Bezzera himself on the stand back at WOC 2022, I explained my problem, which was that the heating element is turning on too often and the water seems a bit hotter than the PID says. He told me that it must be the heating element and that I should clean it. So, I ordered the gasket, removed the heating element, which was clean, but I soaked it just in case. Put everything back in place, same problem. I did not know how the water probe should look like, so when I checked it before it seemed normal. I removed it again, but this time I went online to see how it’s supposed to look like. It was discontinued, but I was shocked to learn that it shouldn’t be black. By the way, who makes a probe that spends all of its time under water out of brass or copper? Fortunately they make stainless steel ones now. I tried some methods but no progress. Then I took that same sponge, poured vinegar and salt on it, and after a couple of hours, and several pours, I began to see metal behind oxydation. Of course, that was the culprit. The moral, clean everything that measures temperature.

@zacateller
Tell your friend that there’s no such thing as overcleaning. Well, actually there is, but then you wouldn’t be using the machine, just cleaning it to remove the nothing. On the other hand, there is gentle cleaning and forceful cleaning. The only way you could do something like that to the IBTS is by pushing too hard. I see that you’ve started… Sorry. I see that your friend started having problems about a week ago. I would first thoroughly check everything listed above and also read a couple of other threads.
Long brush for cleaning the air transfer tube and bean chute - Taking Care of the Bullet R1 - Roast World Community

Deep and Deeper Cleaning - Taking Care of the Bullet R1 - Roast World Community

Roaster is dropping green beans into cooling tray - Taking Care of the Bullet R1 / Bullet R1 Cleaning - Roast World Community

Also, check your IBTS fan speeds. If after going through all of this your friend doesn’t find a solution, then, and only then, he might start thinking about alignment

[blacklabs]

Aillio admins can we get additional tags to use like “cleaning” so posts about cleaning can be tagged properly… seems there’s a lot of Q&A about that should be specifically tagged so it’s easier for people to find. The forum is a treasure trove of knowledge but not well organized.

[jacob]

Is you chaff filter clean? I see many customers who bring in the bullet for service and the chaff filter is completely clogged = no air flow = higher temps, difficult to control the roast + the electronics can get damaged.
Brushing the filter off is not enough, it needs to be soaked in the right chemical.

[jacob]

I spent a bit of time trying to figure this out about the tags. From what I can see, a user with trust level 3 or higher should be able to create tags. And you @blacklabs has even higher trust level, so you should be able to create tags. Can you try?

[rjavitukan]

Hey, sorry for late reply. Everything works the way it should now that I clean the filter basket. I don’t know what got into my head to not clean it, since I always do it.

And thanks for that tip about a sponge and sprinkling a bit of bakign soda on it. It helped me clean my probes both in Bullet and Ikawa.

[blacklabs]

Took a little figuring out that I have to edit the topic title to add the new “cleaning” tag. Didn’t even know I have such a high “trust level” to do this!