Minimum Ambient Temperature

Roasting on the Bullet R1
1

Hi,

Is there a minimum ambient temperature under which the Bullet should not be used? I keep the Bullet in the garage which is not heated. It is currently about 33F (just barely above freezing in the garage). The last couple of nights the outside temp was 0 degrees F (-17 C). I would imagine my garage temp was not a lot warmer.

I started a roast today and puttered around the garage while it was preheating, fixed a rake handle, plugged in the rechargeable drill, etc. Kept an eye on the bullet to make sure nothing was burning up. And after 10 or 15 minutes, I realized it was doing nothing that could be called preheating. Roastime app showed it at a flat line. She’s dead Jim. There was an IGBT 1 “code” 248 and some errors in the log. Searching the interwebs turned up nothing for me. I sent the information in a message to Aillio. They can likely let me know what the issue is.

However, I took the roaster inside the house, snuggled with it under a blanket, gave it a sip of good Scotch, and let it relax by the fireside for a while. (Just kidding about most of that … not sharing my good Scotch). After letting it warm for a while, I plugged it in and it seemed to work fine. I’m back in the garage now and it is nearly at temperature. And it just told me “Chaaage” in its nice Aussie accent. And, “Roasting has started”. Woooot!!

Really - the question is: Should I not leave the roaster in the cold garage?

Thanks,
Mark

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Aw shucks! You didn’t share your good Scotch with it? :laughing: Winter is for a good single malt :wink:

I would venture to guess based on your experience that maybe store your Bullet in your “warm” basement (if you have one) or inside your house between sessions :slight_smile: I am in MA and I don’t roast in my garage…too cold for me personally (and it’s too dusty and grimy) so I roast in my kitchen.

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It might be that the grease in the fan motors is solidifying, or at least getting too thick to allow the fans to get up to speed. Or as Mr. Blacklabs suggested, bring it inside until you are ready to roast. You might try getting an infrared heater and finding an optimal distance to place it to warm the Bullet without wasting any of your precious “AntiFreeze”.

I live in southern California and even at 55 degrees in the garage, it takes a while for the Infrared cooling unit fan to get up to 16k It hovered at ~14k for a while until the PreHeat had warmed the machine. I didn’t get an alarm.

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I mentioned this to one of the Aillio devs and he said he’s had the same issue in his garage when it gets this cold. He said there was likely a minimum temperature but couldn’t recall it. I didn’t see a minimum listed in the technical specs, maybe @jacob has a better memory?

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Thanks for the replies. It does make sense to either keep it stored in the house/warmth or at least bring it in for some time prior to roasting. If nothing else, that should reduce stress due to the lubrication being extra cold.

One thing that is interesting to me (and is very nice) is that the low temperature seems to have almost no affect on the length of the roast or the internal temperatures (once I did get the machine warmed up). This is a big contrast from my previous roaster (Gene Cafe) which rather struggled if the temp was very cold.

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That’s probably due to the thermal mass storing energy and it’s ability to keep up with the heating procedure.

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Not sure it is due to the thermal mass. It just never started heating. The fan and the drum were running. The heater just never started heating. But maybe I am not following what you mean or what I should do wit that information! :joy:

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Was commenting on the second part of the last post, about low temperatures not impacting once you get it going :slight_smile:

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Ah! I am following now. Yes, that makes sense.

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I’d be a little concerned about condensation on my electronics causing corrosion or any other issues. I keep mine in the house and roast in a spare bedroom mostly to keep the environment in a relatively constant state.

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I have absolutely the same problem. No answer from the Aillio support.

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Min temperature is 10C. It might work down to 5C if you are lucky, but best that it is not too cold. Some electronics like the electrolytic caps do not like being powered up when cold, puts more stress on them. Storage wise you could go a lot lower.

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Thanks for the information. I will plan on making sure it is warmer then before I start using it. I have been using it when it is around 2C and it has operated seemingly normally. But it sounds like that might be causing undue wear and tear.