I’ve been roasting for nearly two years on a V2 Bullet, purchased at Sweet Maria’s. Today, the power cord started smoking and the outer housing was too hot to touch. After safely shutting down the machine, I found the end connecting to the roaster was clearly damaged by melting. The outlet gang was not even warm to the touch, suggesting to me that the issue is at the roaster or power cable.
Any suggestions on ways to diagnose this problem?
Maybe try contacting SM?
What @blacklabs said.
Somewhere here on R.W is a caution from @jacob to minimize disconnecting the roaster at the power board end. I paid attention to that because it felt like the power cord connection at the power board was not a strong pressure contact at the power board end. So every time that female power cord connector was removed it reduces the contact pressure a tiny amount thru wear. I suspect that what you experienced may be related.
I use a power control block (4 outlets with a built-in breaker) which I bought from Grainger. That way I can disconnect at the power block end and leave the cord dangling from the Bullet’s power board end. I treat it as though the cord were a permanently wired pig tail like you see on a toaster or a hair dryer.
Another possibility is that the female power cord connection failed internally. One way that can happen is if the operator removes the cord by pulling on the cord instead of the connector (I don’t find that connector particularly easy to get hold of so it’s tempting to use the cord). Alternately it may have been a bad crimp joint internally at the female connector.
Your concern is probably whether or not there was consequential damage from the overheating. Replacing the power cord is a first step but that doesn’t tell you how to test for damage to the power board. I think I would contact Technical Support at Aillio and get their feedback. Abnd of course contacting Sweet Maria’s for support is probably preferred if you’re in the US since time differences won’t be huge.
Bruce
Maybe the cord plug was damaged if it has been plugged in many many times. If the resistance increases so will the temperature of the plug.
Please check that the socket on the bullet looks intact, and then get a similar replacement cable.
My power cable gets warm. I leave it plugged in unless I am doing maintenance. Feels like something is underspec’d there, or some resistance. There is a lot of hot/cold/hot/cold cycles so, there is potential for moisture to cause corrosion in the cable. but yeah, could just be a bad or damaged cable.
I’m considering replacing mine, as I don’t think a power cable should get warm. It’s not like it will get better, it will only get worse.