I decided the ease-of-periodic maintenance improvements of the R2 combined with my roasting volume justified replacing my old R1. My new R2 just came, and now that it’s seasoned and roasting again, today was the time to clean up good old serial number 76 in preparation for a new home.
Four hours later, she’s looking great, more inside than out, but that’s where it matters. I completely disassembled the rear and used boiling water to soften the 5mm-thick baked on coffee oil that has accumulated over the last 1,000 or so roasts, and scraped it with a hard-plastic scraper (a “lil chizler”). Once I could see metal underneath, used a pretty strong espresso cleaner solution to get the rest off. I soaked the blower fan in hot water with espresso cleaner, then used a tooth brush on the blades, and got most of the gunk off. Delightfully, it all re-assembled and worked fine the first time, with no screws left over.
The only other thing I had to do to get it back to basically “as new” condition was to replace the IBTS cooling fan, which had started to fail about a year ago. It wouldn’t spin up when I plugged in the roaster, so I learned that I could get it going by pointing a hot air blower at the vents near it, and in about 20 seconds it would get going. As I was gathering parts, I saw that I somehow had a spare brand new fan.
This all took less than half a day - I should have done it sooner: it really does feel new again. (But I’m still super-excited about the R2 - it’s so easy to clean the IBTS, etc.)
For anyone curious about its history - I’ve had it since July 2016. I’m very thankful that Jonas and the folks at Aillio have made it possible for me to track the various updates to the R1 – I upgraded to the IBTS, a tryer and the v2 induction board. You can see from the photos, I’m thinking of swapping the dump-door handles - giving the R1 the R2’s handle and vice-versa. To give me something to remember the roaster that has taught me so much and given me so much great coffee.
Honestly, just love seeing a pretty machine all cleaned up.
At over a 1k roasts, yeah you could have cleaned it more, but the fact that you were able to get it back to this shape after all that use probably means you still treated it kindly.
I am also considering an upgrade to R2 (Pro). I started a business and my overhead is really low, but would be more so if I had the increased efficiency the R2 Pro gives. I just have to get to a point where I can justify the long-term gains vs. the one-time expense of upgrading. I would plan on keeping my R1 for either cycling out roasters or to “rent” to a local coffee shop and help them get their roasting game off the ground.
Would love to see local coffee shops use the Bullet to up their bottom line and quality. Could also impact overall interest in coffee roasting at an entry-level.
Aww, thanks! As for keeping it clean as I go, I have a shop-vac next to my roaster and after every roast vacuum the chaff from the bean chute and under the drum. It also probably helps that I don’t specialize in dark roasts, but even with lighter roasts, boy do those oils build up!
The utter ease of cleaning the IBTS window on the R2 is what sold me on it. The Pro’s 220v requirement made it inappropriate for my uses – I love to bring my Bullet on the road and do roasting demonstrations & discussions.
I like your plans - and if I find myself in central KY, I’ll send you a DM!
HI Dylan,
I chuckled as I read your post. I too have an R1 but a V2. I am just under 500 roasts after about 5 years. I recently did a deep cleaning and while I have cleaned the fan blades several times I am always amazed by the amount of oil buildup. Particularly hard to get at the back portion of each blade and on both sides. I scrape as much as possible then soak in Cafiza cleaner for 15 min or so then scrape+brush and go at the blades again, rinse and repeat as needed. The post drum air passage also gets pretty thick but it is harder to get to with cleaners so i just use couple of long brushes I’ve found over the years. Any suggestions to help that area?
I changed out my entire IBTS/Fan assy last year as I started to see a change in my FC temps from 198-201C to 202-204C. Ive gotten pretty good at cleaning the IR window over time and can open the front up do the basic IR maintenance, scrape some of the buildup on the back plate away and have everything back on in <5 min. The new IBTS+Fan didn’t actually resolve the discrepancy so I chalked it up to software.
One area I have never ventured into is the area around the drum. Does anyone have any insight there or other areas where they’ve found a pocket that needed cleaning after many hundreds of pounds going through the Bullet?
One more thing, has anyone heard of changing the #&^%* micro-usb connector out for a USB-C?
