Too Much Coffee

to get approvals.. to ship into the EU/ UK with GS and CE approvals I had no choice

Joe - thanks for persevering! The roaster is going to be a lot of fun, I think.

And thanks for setting me right - I'll try holding C next time...

Yes! I tried my new Behmor today with a 1/4 pound Barahona. And: No more "green grass" taste in the cup. Even the missus seems to be pleased with my roast results .

What I do not understand is how to set the voltage properly. I've tried the procedure found in the manual but the display does not show anything. Can anyone give me a hint here?

Thanks Joe + Steve for my new toy

a change was made I was unaware of... here is the proper programming procedure..

instead of weights... use A, B or C...

Setting voltage program:

For 220v countries while pressing program button A insert the power cord’s plug into your power source. Your system display should show 220. Now press Start. The 220 will disappear from the display and you are now ready to perform your next steps.

For 230v countries while pressing program button B insert the power cord’s plug into your power source. Your system display should show 230. Now press Start. The 230 will disappear from the display and you are now ready to perform your next steps.

For 240v countries while pressing program button C insert the power cord’s plug into your power source. Your system display should show 240. Now press Start. The 240 will disappear from the display and you are now ready to perform your next steps.

Works Thanks, Joe.

Joe,

maybe it's written somewhere but: are there any problems in roasting without the chaff collector at all?

Thank you for your clever machine
alberto

Aha! Finally managed a decent roast. El Salvador - San Antonio Estate.

P1 cycle with 10oz on 1/2lb setting. Stopped on second crack at 11.50. Cooled down with door open and a vacuum running to catch chaff and speed up cooling. Lovely colour, just a hint of sheen. No smoke at all. Maybe another 10 sec will be even better.

I will wait until Monday to try it out.

Interesting fact: 11oz in the Gene Cafe gave 8oz roasted. 10oz in the Behmor gave 8.5oz roasted.

Methinks we have a winner!

Sorry Gene, you must remain in the box just in case.

Just got my Behmor. I've only seasoned it so far, I haven't done a roast yet (will try that tomorrow!) but already have a few questions for Joe or anyone else who's got one...

1) Presumably the voltage setting is remembered permanently, and only has to be done once, the first time you use the roaster?

2) There is a flap at the front top of the chaff collector (if you're looking down on it, with the bar at the front facing you). You seem to be able to lower it and push it past two raised metal 'pips' (one on each side), locking it down into place. What is this for, and what position should it be in? Permanently 'locked down', presumably? It wasn't locked down when I first got it, only resting against the 'pips', and there was no mention of this in the manual, it just said to slide it in, so when I did the first dry run to reason the roaster, the latch on the cyclinder rubbed against this panel on the chaff tray with every revolution, each time it rotated past it. I didn't stop it because I wasn't sure whether the slight grinding noise it made with each revolution was normal or not! I sincerely hope I haven't damaged the motor or shortened its life at all by letting it finsh the cycle with the cylinder latch grinding against this flap on the chaff collector with each revolution?

3) Can anyone recommend a suitable cleaner for the inside of the roaster? 'Simple Green' (as suggested in the manual) isn't that easy to find in the UK!

4) More just out of interest really - how come, during the seasoning on P1, the heating elements increased and decreased their temperature a few times during the cycle (alternating between glowing red, going off, glowing red, etc.)? According to the graph in the manual, P1 steadily rises in temperature, and then holds it until the end, doesn't it?

Thanks!

voice_of_reason wrote:1) Presumably the voltage setting is remembered permanently, and only has to be done once, the first time you use the roaster?

It seems to keep it in a non-volatile memory so the setting is saved (but let someone digs into it, I'm curious...)

voice_of_reason wrote:2) There is a flap at the front top...

IMO the flap should rest in the original position (down) to trap the chaff coming from belove and going above for the heat, and it must not be kept open wide up. When I tried it open, there was a terrible noise and immediately the revolution of the drum stopped for the impact with the collector.

voice_of_reason wrote:3) Can anyone recommend a suitable cleaner for the inside of the roaster? 'Simple Green' (as suggested in the manual) isn't that easy to find in the UK!

Now this is a good point, neither in Italy I can find this product, or maybe is named in a totally different way, so we should better know which active principle should we search for (and which to avoid, too) in a supermarket.

voice_of_reason wrote:4) More just out of interest really - how come, during the seasoning on P1, the heating elements increased and decreased their temperature a few times during the cycle (alternating between glowing red, going off, glowing red, etc.)? According to the graph in the manual, P1 steadily rises in temperature, and then holds it until the end, doesn't it?

In the manual it is written that the temperature on P1 is steady to the maximum of 250°, not that the heaters are steady on, unless I suppose the temps would raise well over 250° after a while and we would melt the coffee, at least.
Ciao

alberto_ita wrote:IMO the flap should rest in the original position (down) to trap the chaff coming from belove and going above for the heat, and it must not be kept open wide up. When I tried it open, there was a terrible noise and immediately the revolution of the drum stopped for the impact with the collector.

I think you're right - but the original position when I got it out of the box was resting in the down position - but not 'locked' into place by pushing it past the two 'pips' on each side. In any other position other than locked down, the cyclinder grinds against the chaff collector with each revolution. I think it should be made clear in the manual that you need to check this in case anyone damages the motor in their roaster.

alberto_ita wrote:In the manual it is written that the temperature on P1 is steady to the maximum of 250°, not that the heaters are steady on, unless I suppose the temps would raise well over 250° after a while and we would melt the coffee, at least.

I guess that's true, it only says it maintains a certain temperature until the end of the roast. If it's thermostatically controlled, I guess the heating elements *would* have to come on and off to maintain the correct temperature. That's fine then - just wanted to check I didn't have a faulty machine!

One more thing - was I supposed to get a brush in the box?! It says so in the manual, but I didn't get one in my box?! I can live without it - just curious really.

voice_of_reason wrote:I think it should be made clear in the manual that you need to check this in case anyone damages the motor in their roaster

I agree, the first time I lost 15 minutes to understand the way the chaff collector had to be set 'cause in the manual the picture seems wrong (I had to turn it 90°, for the longer side must go below the drum, not aside the glass as shown),

voice_of_reason wrote:[...]was I supposed to get a brush in the box?

Yes. Instead, it should better be a vacuum, IMO.

alberto_ita wrote:I agree, the first time I lost 15 minutes to understand the way the chaff collector had to be set 'cause in the manual the picture seems wrong (I had to turn it 90°, for the longer side must go below the drum, not aside the glass as shown)

I completely agree, the picture is the wrong way up and there's no explanation about which way round it goes in. To be fair though, if you put it in as shown in the manual it completely blocks the window and you can't see anything, so at that point you kind of know you've got it wrong. At least, that was the conclusion I quickly came to!

Although the manual is very thorough, with lots of useful information, I actually find it a bit muddled and confusing in places. It seems like someone has just sat in front of a Word document and typed everything in the order that it came to them. I think it would benefit from a re-write!

Really looking forward to my first proper roast tonight though. The roaster looks really promising!

If anyone has any good tips for doing a 250g roast, rather than a half pound (guidelines for time adjustments to make to the standard programmes), do let me know! Thanks!

voice_of_reason wrote:

alberto_ita wrote:I agree, the first time I lost 15 minutes to understand the way the chaff collector had to be set 'cause in the manual the picture seems wrong (I had to turn it 90°, for the longer side must go below the drum, not aside the glass as shown)

Well, when you look at the videos at youtube, the chaff collector was changed. In some of the videos it looks like in the manual. I received mine today and i am happy so far.
Regards, Axel

Although the Behmor has gone through a few incarnations in its short life the instruction diagrams never changed. The origional chaff collector was a bit of a dogs breakfast and required a hole cutting in the mesh in order to see the roast. Joe's mod required it to be fitted in the opposite way to the origional hence the confusion. It didn't take a huge leap of interlectual progress, even for me, to work it out.

Next week: how to plug it in.

motoman wrote:Next week: how to plug it in.

What? You mean I have to plug it in too? I thought my roasts tasted a little under-done.....