I recently picked up a second hand bullet for a great price and am very excited to get roasting. The person I bought it off told me he had cleaned it prior to me taking it so I took his word for it and didn’t look inside before making the sale. Turns out there’s two years of crud built up on the inside panel…
What’s the best way to clean this off? I attempted with a wire brush and some soap but didn’t really make any head way, would a puly caf solution work better? I’m a bit worried about scratching the plate by chiseling it off with tools.
I’d go with a damp, non-scratch scouring pad or even a microfiber cloth. I only use a damp microfiber cloth, but I clean regularly. Now, this will take its time and it will seem that you’re not making progress, but after some hours of hard work, it will eventually start to come off. You could maybe add a little baking soda, or some mild detergent, although I’d go with baking soda, but personally I wouldn’t use cafiza, pulycaff or whatever. Let me repeat that it will seem as if you’re not making progress and you never will, but with enough time, effort and elbow grease, you’ll get there.
Or completely disassemble the front panel (electronics and all, until it’s a bare flat panel) and give it a real good soaking in washing up liquid (not dishwasher soap, which does unpleasant things to aluminum).
I wouldn’t think some light scratching, like you might get using a narrow putty knife, would actually hurt anything, but I’ll let one of the Lillie boys chime in on that.
It will take awhile but it’s definitely salvageable. I use a citric acid cleaner like Simple Green- wipe it on very wet, let it sit a short while and see what you can wipe off. It’s going to take a lot of repetitions.
For loose parts (chaff basket, exhaust fan) I’ve used Cafiza (espresso machine cleaner)successfully but watch the time for the muffin fan impeller which is aluminum. Hopefully you received the tool kit with the necessary hex, Phillips & slot drivers plus spare spacers for the drum.
Take care with the eject door with the viewing glass. Use nothing abrasive there. It’s pretty hard glass but it will scratch without care.
Do nothing to clean the drum. From the looks of the face plate I would guess the drum is well seasoned!!
The IR sensor (that’s what’s inside the rubber view port) takes alcohol which is a poor solvent for roasting snot on the sensor window, but that’s what Aillio wants you to use. It’s going to take many repetitions and you won’t see anything on the cotton swabs (Q-Tips) but it will get clean even though you see ne results on the swabs. This is a really important step as it directly affects the IBTS reading.
Order some replacement fan filters for the cooling tray- my guess is you’ll need them. Sweet Maria’s is 1 US source but there are other dealers that may be more suitable for you.
Also search here for info for fan guards for the cooling tray fan- a worthwhile upgrade.
Hang in there. You can get some really good coffee from that roaster. And so far it sounds like it’s only cleaning that’s necessary.
I think I’ll grab myself some simple green and see how I go with a sponge and a good couple of hours of scrubbing! If all else fails I’ll disassemble and soak.
For the impeller/squirrle cage fan I have use a 1:1 Simple Green to H2O to soak and it works fine. I basically use that ratio of Simple Green for cleaning the Bullet in general (just not the drum as Bruce said).
