Chaff not evacuating

Roasting on the Bullet R1
#1

Hey all,
Roasts getting a little better. Longer periods to yellow, shorter malliard’s, appropriate finishes. It takes a little hoop-jumping to make it happen as the machine really has some intrinsic behavior quirks.

I’ve noticed a lot of chaff around the beans say from near yellow to drop. Don’t have this same situation with other roaster.

I run fan from F2>F3>F4 during roast but it doesn’t seem to evacuate. Wondering if the amount of chaff burning around the beans early in the roast is leading to offputting flavors. I know that the chaff is getting pretty dark when the beans are just going to yellow.

Just wanted to see what level of chaff you all had around your beans at different phases of the roast.

TIA

#2

After my latest round of roasting I too found the chaff not sufficiently clearing, and this was using the same stepped (calibrated) fan settings as you, F2-F3-F4. When I would drop it into the cooling the tray, the white filter would quickly become completely covered by a thick layer of chaff essentially preventing my beans from cooling in a timely manner. I actually pulled the bowl out with the hot beans still in it and vacuumed the filter quickly to resume cooling. Not something I want to do every time!

Perhaps 10 seconds before dropping cranking the fan to F6 or F7 could help? Anyone else do this?

#3

I have stirred the beans with a spatula while holding a shop vac hose to suck the chaff out of the beans while they were in the cooling bowl.

I don’t think that’s how its supposed to be though.

As posted elsewhere, I’m going to try more fan earlier to get the chaff out quicker, maybe ending in the 6-7 range at drop.

1 Like
#4

There are 2 fans that affect chaff movement-

  • the exhaust fan and
  • the fan located down low and to the rear of the drum.

That 2nd fan provides air flow to the drum and to the power board. I would think if that rear fan were not working right you would be getting overheating errors, but it is part of the exhaust air flow.

Bruce

1 Like