Deep Clean. I make mistakes so you don't have to

Taking Care of the Bullet R1 Bullet R1 Cleaning
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I performed the second deep clean on the bullet as I have started roasting more for friends and family, and, well, it is just a good idea.

After finishing, I made my first mistake. I buttoned up the machine and put it away without turning it on and making sure everything was aligned correctly.

Today I got out the roaster and was ready to cook some nice Brazilian beans. But when I started the recipe, a horrible sound came from the drum, and an obviously oscillating drum made its discomfort known to me.

Looking closely in was obvious that I had not attached the front plate correctly, with the bearing smack dam in the middle. That was my second mistake.

So I took the little fellow apart, and realigned the drum and the faceplate. That is when I made my third mistake. I has actually MIS-aligned the drum to the face plate, and it wobbled once again.

I don’t mind taking the thing apart (it helps me practice patience, of which I have too little) and slows me down.

This time it looked good, and I reassembled the whole thing - the trier, the weighted handle the top cover, the micro-USB (which is installed upside down, but I can’t do anything about that) and turned on the recipe one more.

That is when I realized I made my FOURTH mistake. I had turned the set-screw of the weighted handle in TOO FAR into the drum, and oh my goodness, I hope you never have to hear that sound. It was terrible.

But I was able to stop the drum before any damage as done (or at least I hope there was no damage done) Re set the set screw so it doesn’t impede the drum, and finish my roast.

So here’s my tip: Double check alignment, and triple check that darned set screw!

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I would add one more to that list of things to look out for after a deep clean: don’t seat the squirrel cage too far back or forward - too far back it won’t spin freely, too far forward it will scrape against the gasket that holds the chaff filter. I use a regular BBQ bamboo skewer in the back and set it against the skewer before tightening the screw, the skewer provides the perfect spacer for this task.

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What can I say Dan- clearly there are evil forces at play here. And it’s not even Halloween! Are you sure you haven’t cut in front of someone in heavy traffic? Maybe someone with a chicken’s foot hanging from the rear view mirror?! :scream:

Me

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How often do you guys clean?

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The direct answer is that the front plate and rear fan areas get cleaned after about 15-20 lb of greens. The IBTS is a special case: I keep track of the greatest difference between I-Temp and B-Temp which for my 550 gm charge weight happens at about I-Temp = 240° to 260°F. When that difference drops to about 41F° (i.e. I-Temp - B-Temp =/< 41F°) I clean the IR sensor.

The thing is I roast pretty dark which produces more contaminants and requires more frequent cleaning. If you do lighter roasts (as most folks here do) you may be able to go longer since you don’t produce as much ‘stuff’.

Also on my roaster I-Temp is always greater than B-Temp though they draw closer together as the roast approaches 2C. Depending on the calibration and aging of the bean probe and the IR sensor you may see different spacing/difference between the 2 sensors than I see- the 41F° minimum difference may well be a different number.

The difference between I-Temp and B-Temp is very dependent upon charge weight- the lighter the charge the greater the difference between the 2 temperatures; conversely the larger the charge weight the less the difference between I-Temp and B-Temp.

Do you have fw 606 installed? If you don’t you may want to consider installing it. Fw 606 introduces a feature during Preheat intended to reduce the contamination of the IR sensor. That fw version sets the Fan speed to F1 during Preheat. All other versions of fw have Fan speed set to F0 during Preheat. From what I’ve seen I think that has allowed me to go longer between times I have to clean the IR sensor.

Bruce

Edit (19 Mar 2024)-
Since the mod to f/w (610?) which introduced a fan speed of F1 during Preheat, the cleaning interval for the IBTS has extended significantly. I’m guessing months between cleanings based upon the temp difference I described above.

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I typically like darker roasts too Bruce, so I’ll keep up on it. Thanks.

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Is squirrel cage official terminology? I’ve always called it the impeller, but I like squirrel cage a lot more :grin:

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We call the Impeller Impeller, but the stainless steel frame around it Squirrel Cage. Hope this helps!

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It does!

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:woman_shrugging:t3: don’t know… I just call the entire thing a squirrel cage as it’s more descriptive and I’m not a mechanical engineer so never really know the proper names of these parts. It could be a hamster wheel too right? :grin:

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It’s a misnomer, actually.
Before electric motors, fans like this were powered by rats, not squirrels.

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So that’s how dollar stores function. They get electricity cheap.

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And here I always thought it was dogs:

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