I haven't owned one myself, but a lot of our members here have them and as far as I can tell the Gene doesn't have any worse of a break-down rate than other appliances. One can always have bad luck, there's no guarantee against that. I just did my 250th roast in a HotTop and have never had a problem with it, but I know there are owners who have had to replace the heating element more than once.
I'm sure the community of Gene owners will soon come swooping down to rescue the reputation of their favourite roaster.
