Hey Team.
I’ve been using my R1 for about 10 months now, just surpassed 250 roasts. It’s all going well and I’m feeling pretty confident with it.
However, I have noticed that I can hear the drum turning during warm up now. It’s not grinding or making any concerning noises. It’s just audibly noticeable that it’s wearing.
I do a deep clean every 30kgs. Is there any specific part of this machine that I should be oiling/ greasing when I perform the deep clean?
Hi @clc,
Could you take off the Front Plate and check the Front Bearing? You can hold the inner ring with one hand and spin the outer ring with another. If it feels grainy or stuck, you’ll need to replace the Bearing.
We don’t recommend greasing or oiling the Drum to avoid tainting your roasted beans. For your information, our Bearing uses food-grade lubricant.
Best regards,
Kevin
The smallest drop of cooking oil helped get rid of bearing squeak for me. Use a tiny amount, so as not to promote any odors.
But go with that in a pinch. Obviously if you can get the recommended food grade lubricant, by all means.
In addition to all this, you might find something interesting in this thread. I’m not saying it’s the solution, just worth looking into.
Deep and Deeper Cleaning - Taking Care of the Bullet R1 - Roast World Community
As da_kevin said, just food grade lubricants for the front bearing, but I do also put some on the back of the shaft, which is to say under the pulley. Once I was hearing a little bit of discomfort after lubricating the bearing, put some in the back and it was gone. No other place should be lubricated, and a very, very, very small amount will suffice. Personally, I use food safe silicone grease for this.
Just a note on cooking oil: While it can save the day when in a pinch, If you use that for lubrication, it will oxidise and harden over time (accelerating with temperature).
Is the molykote grease I use on the internal working of my espresso machine an option? It’s high temp and food grade.