Gene Cafe not going above 229c

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Gene Cafe not going above 229c

Postby Scoobs » Wed May 14, 2008 10:58 am

Hi Guys

Have a strange problem with my Gene Cafe and am looking for some advice/suggestions.
My Gene Cafe will not go above 229c.

I can set the temp for 240c but the system will switch of the element when it reaches 229c and then switch on again when it get to 227. There is an audible click of the solenoid switching the element off and if you look in the drum you can see that the element is no longer glowing red. It does not make any difference whether I have beans in the machine or not. I have done about 300 roasts on the machine and it used to heat up to 240c no problem. I am not sure when it stopped exactly but have my suspicion that it was recently when I had to open the machine up to sort out a problem with one of the gears and may have knocked something.

Anybody got any suggestions, is there another setting on the pcb or something that I am perhaps missing?

Regards

JohnB
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RE: Gene Cafe not going above 229c

Postby Mobak » Wed May 14, 2008 12:41 pm

Try to take apart the chaff collector. If the space between the two metal parts (strainers?) is filled up with small pieces of chaff it will affect the roasters ability warm up.
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RE: Gene Cafe not going above 229c

Postby espressomattic » Wed May 14, 2008 9:39 pm

Scoobs, do the above as I found this made a huge difference. Also underneath the fan is a filter. This can clog with dust and would need cleaning. If you haven't cleaned either of these after 300 roasts they will be everso slightly clogged up.

See this thread for Pics of a before and after....

http://www.toomuchcoffee.com/index.php? ... light=gene
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RE: Gene Cafe not going above 229c

Postby Sarion » Thu May 15, 2008 8:47 am

Wow, good tip guys. I looked at the old thread. Sweet peaberries; what a load of crud! I`ll clean mine too, I certainly want to avoid that!
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RE: Gene Cafe not going above 229c

Postby espressomattic » Thu May 15, 2008 9:27 am

I know it is shameful
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RE: Gene Cafe not going above 229c

Postby CakeBoy » Thu May 15, 2008 9:51 am

Hey Mitty, are the temps still holding steady on yours since the big clean up? We should take ours properly apart and have a peep too :)
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RE: Gene Cafe not going above 229c

Postby espressomattic » Fri May 16, 2008 6:54 am

Yeah, Ok they are a bit slow as per the Nov 2005 model issues, however if I roast at the right time of day, it gets up to 240 eventually ;) Mind you I do have to use smaller batches, say 200g's to get a good roast now.
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Postby Scoobs » Fri May 16, 2008 11:28 am

Thanks for the tips guys, I will dismantle and check it out. The thing that I find interesting is that the machine is actually switching the heating element of when it gets to 229c and then switching it on again at 227c. Doesn;t make any difference how large the batch size is.


I will dismantle and give it a clean in any case.

Regards

JohnB
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Postby Sarion » Fri May 16, 2008 12:32 pm

Cleaned mine, and even though I have only had it for 6 months (about 50 roasts) the outermost metal screen was 85% clogged up! Glad I saw this thread; that can't be good for the machine. Regular cleaning and total disassembly of the chaff box is a must!
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Postby daveyb » Fri May 16, 2008 5:39 pm

I though that the larger the roast size, then the more efficient the roast, along the principle of a fridge running more efficiently when it is full.
In other words the more beans there are in the cylinder, the greater the collective capacity to warm up.
Regards
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Postby espressomattic » Fri May 16, 2008 7:28 pm

Well for reasons I just don't understand (Or care to anymore as too many people have too many opinions for one room), mine runs better with 200g depending on beans used. I can get away with over 250 if it is say a Moon Bean, whereas Peaberries and smaller Kenyans struggle. Just my machines little quirk I guess.

Appaenrently depends on the year of MFT too. I think pre March 2007 there were issues with the Motherboard or something?

To be honest I try not to get too technical with it and just roast and enjoy, making sure I keep it clean.

BUT Davey, you are right, I just have an odd machine....
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Postby daveyb » Fri May 16, 2008 11:13 pm

There were issues with Pre march 2007 machines. What voltage do you sport over in NZ? The advice on cleaningthe filters is good as well. Do you suffer much from voltage fluctuations? In the UK we run 240 v and I find in the cooler m onths, if the voltage drops below 235 then I may as well give up and the roast stretches out too long and the achievable temp drops away a little.
Regards
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Postby espressomattic » Sat May 17, 2008 12:45 am

The voltage is certainly variable here, should be 240 though. Peak times I do not roast as it is a waste of time. Mon-Fri 09:30 - 1300 are the best times for me! I do miss semi stable UK voltage.
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Postby daveyb » Sat May 17, 2008 11:16 am

Is yours a 230 or 240 volt machine? A small drop in voltage does have a dramatic effect on roasting times. It may sound a boit anoraky, but I keep a roast lopg for every roast i do with things like ambient temp and voltage amongst the data. That helps me in deciding the overall heta and timing settings
Regards
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Postby Scoobs » Sat May 17, 2008 2:21 pm

You guys are so smart :D

I took apart the chaff collector and then dismantled the metal grid inside it, sure enough it was chock a block with chaff. I cleaned it all out, reassembled and fired up the roaster, back to working 100%.

Thank again for the great advise.

JohnB
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