Gene Cafe meltdown

[shadow1117]

So , after several good years of my GeneCafe, I had a major issue this morning.  I set up a roast as I normally do, and let it do its thing.  I have several hundred roasts on this achine, and have never had any issue with walking away from the unit.  Today was a different story.  We could smell the distinct scent of an electrical metdown in the house.  We had no idea what it could be until I went into a garage completely filled with toxic smoke.  See the pic for the end result.  Total meltdown. 

I want to send this info to Gene, but it appears that they are in Korea???  Does anyone know of a domestic contact for Gene?  The unit is out of warranty, but this is something that should not happen...

Thoughts??

[Ascholten]

Your fan died, and it overheated and melted down. or something totally plugged the airflow.   Im thinking a thermal switch for over heat did not kick in if there is one in those things.

Not to be preachy, as Ive burnt enough shit to start my own junkyard, but..

Ladies and Gentlemen

THIS

Is why we NEVER walk away from a roasting coffee.

Melting / on fire plastic dripping down or a flaming wad of chaff hitting a curtain or cardboard box or.... or....   could have easily turned this into a 911 call and an insurance claim.

Shadow I am not trying to belittle you, but these pictures are fantastic, this is a first hand view that this is NOT a joke when roasting to keep an eye on it.

A lot of us are complacent, or think oh ill just grab a beer, I'll be back in 30 seconds, what can happen in that short of time?  Well being in my mid 50's  CRS is taking hold and that 30 seconds happens 5 minutes later in a truly Oh SHIT moment.

Im pretty sure the Gene Cafe is a throw away machine, and you are not going to repair that thing.  Even though in Korea they should have a help line or customer service link, e mail them anyways, they should be able to help you.  If this WAS a failed over temp device, that could potentially be a class action / recall issue, .. not saying to sue, I hate people like that, but something they might take a VERY hard interest in,and they may even want the old unit back to investigate, and potentially send you a new one for your troubles.   You won't know until you try it.

Yes it wore out, you did get a ton of good use out of it, but dying in THAT fashion...  not good.

Aaron

[shadow1117]

All good input.  I am very thankful that this was the extent of the damage and the garage did not catch fire.  There is absolutely no salvaging this unit.  And my booberry roast is gone  . 

I got plenty of use out of the Gene, but this happening is making me want to go elsewhere.  Looking at the Huky 500T.  Would love to hear any first hand thoughts about this unit.  I roast a few pounds a week and feel like a more robust roaster is the direction I should go...

[Ascholten]

I know of a few people using the Huky's and they seem to like them very much.  I know little about them so will leave the experts to chime in on them.  There should be a huky thread somewhere on our forum too.

I am an Artisan fan myself, it's all electric which is a big turn on (pun semi intended) for me
For you that'd be the Artisan 3, a bit steep price range but if you ever think of upgrading or roasting more, that's the way you will want to go.  It can do half a pound easily and all the way up to 3 they claim, but you can actually get a lot more out of it, but again you MUST watch it when pushing it that hard.

Aaron

[peter]

Like they say in my car forums when someone posts a pic of their wreck, "That'll buff out."

[brianmch]

All good input.  I am very thankful that this was the extent of the damage and the garage did not catch fire.  There is absolutely no salvaging this unit.  And my booberry roast is gone  . 

I got plenty of use out of the Gene, but this happening is making me want to go elsewhere.  Looking at the Huky 500T.  Would love to hear any first hand thoughts about this unit.  I roast a few pounds a week and feel like a more robust roaster is the direction I should go...

Sorry for your loss. Hope you got your money's worth out of it and glad nobody was hurt.

I'm a Huky user/fan.  They're great little machines that can produce stellar roasts.

I wouldn't call them hard to use but there are a couple operational quirks like bean loading and cooling that are not perzactly plug and play.  The Coromat and Kaldi are Huky-ish competitors. 

The only move up from mine would be to a Bullet because of its capacity, or something like a 1 kilo gas drum roaster.  My professional roaster buddies use Probats, Deidrich's, San Frans, and Ambex's so its easier for me to hone my skills using similar equipment. 

Several folks here like Aaron and Joe (I think) use fluid bed roasters (Sonofresco's, Artisans, etc) with good results too.

Having had a Behmor 1600 I wouldn't be much interested in their new Kilo roaster. 

[shadow1117]

So I contacted GeneCafe.  They responded within an hour and asked some specifics about the roast time, temp, bean type, etc.  Sent them a quick reply and the photo of what happened and no word since.  I am not sure that anything other than sending me a new roaster for free would have taken me back to that roaster.  One because of what happened.  Two because I think it was a sign that it was time to upgrade.  Placed my order for a Huky and am now anxiously awaiting my new toy...