Hottop filter life

[phil]

Just an f y i, as this topic came up recently in a posting.

There seems to be some confusion about the likely life of a Hottop smoke filter. There was even a suggestion that maybe the manual had been updated in this respect since I bought my machine.

Not so.

The manufacturer's recommendation for the life of a Hottop filter is 30 - 40 roasts. I have compared my original manual from February 2003 with one from a machine shipped from Taiwan very recently. The manual has been updated slightly to emphasise certain things (mostly to do with safety) that have assumed importance over the machine's production life.

However, the recommendation re the life of the filter remains unchanged.

To recap

• The filter supposedly lasts 30 - 40 roasts
• From memory the best I have ever achieved is around 34 roasts, the worst 29 roasts
• If you don't replace the filter soon enough, the airflow through the machine will be impeded and you may trigger the over-heating protection. You will certainly mess up the profile
• The black part of the filter element can be washed (although the manufacturer does not recommend this). I have tried this with some small success. Apparently the white part of the filter cannot be washed. I haven't tried this to check - but washing the white part is of less importance as most of the particulate matter is stopped by the black layer.
• You should not run the machine without the filter, as this significantly alters the air flow in the drum and messes with the profile. Some people (Randy Glass IIRC) have tried alternative filter materials with some success - but if you do this you're on your own, and I would recommend carefully comparing the characteristics of a roast achieved with a standard filter to those with any alternative material if you're going to do this. I haven't tried it. Life's too short.

Hope this helps the rapidly growing number of people out there enjoying roasting with Hottops.

Phil

[pault]

I think I may have confused things by mis-remembering a life of 20 rather than 30+

sorry!!!!!!

[phil]

Hey not to worry old chap, you weren't alone.

CHeers

Phil

[tisri]

I got just under 20 roasts from my first filter. I know I like to roast things dark but I was a little surprised when it conked out so soon. We'll see how the second one copes.

[phil]

I got just under 20 roasts from my first filter. I know I like to roast things dark but I was a little surprised when it conked out so soon. We'll see how the second one copes.

I don't think Chang Yue had TMC's answer to Charbux in mind when they wrote the manual.

Well, actually Randy Glass and Jeroen Vriesendorp (where are you Jeroen?) wrote the manual, but hey who's checking.

When you say the filter conked out John, how did you know this had happened?

[tisri]

I figured the filter might have breathed its last when I hit the Plus button for the second time during a roast and the machine beeped and dumped the beans. The first time that happened I figured I must have hit the Eject button by mistake but the second time I knew I hadn't. I remembered something in your article here about overheating so posted a question to see if that was the problem I was seeing.

Following your suggestion I put a new filter in and the problem went away. I've since washed the black part (which was pretty manky) and reassembled the old filter and, just in case that doesn't work properly, I ordered another couple of filters for when my current one is spent.

I'm not sure exactly how many roasts it did - I had 15 listed in my roasting database but I probably did another 3-5 additional ones that I didn't enter for assorted reasons.

[phil]

OK well I would certainly concur with your analysis re the state of the filter. Beep + dump = clogged filter, for sure.

All I can say is you either lost count or (perhaps more likely) your tendency to roast incredibly dark is really creating loads of muck. Bearing in mind how much smoke you get when you roast really dark that would seem reasonable.

So the answer is: turn from the dark side!

[tisri]

I might have lost count and missed one or two but certainly no more than that - I keep notes of roasting times so I know whether I need to make them darker next time... I agree entirely with what you say about smoke and it seems reasonable that the filter doesn't last as long when it's hammered with roasts pushed well into second crack.

I recently took delivery of some Kenya AA from Steve - I've had Kenya AA from a different (unspecified) estate before so I know it's not supposed to be nuked. Perhaps I'll be gentle with this one...

I don't think I'll be turning from the dark side, but do sometimes experiment with roasting something lighter than normal. It seems only fair, given I encourage others to experiment with roasting darker than normal