Hottop cooling tray - fan died

[rgrosz78]

I did several roasts in the last two days. I noticed that the beans and the cooling tray were hot on Thursday for one roast, but paid no attention.

Today, it happened for EVERY roast. I watched and listened carefully - it appears that the blower fan below the cooling tray has died. I tried Googling for any suggested fixes, but found nothing. Then I searched within several web sites like coffeegeek and home-barista, but still came up empty.

Any suggestions from you experienced Hottop users out there? If not, I plan to contact Michael at Hottop USA on Monday.

[GC7]

Sorry about the inconvenience.  Great thing about the HotTop is that everything is replaceable on the unit.

This link may help

http://hottopusa.com/traybase.html

You might just thake it apart, clean the fan and wire connections and see if it comes back to life. If not hen Michael will let you know what parts to buy.

Good luck

[ScareYourPassenger]

Almost looks like a PC fan. In a pinch microcenter down the street may have something.

[smico]

And good excuse to make yourself external bucket cooler.  Ever since I made it, I no longer use Hottop cooler.
It takes some 40 seconds to cool the batch down to room temperature.

[rgrosz78]

And good excuse to make yourself external bucket cooler.  Ever since I made it, I no longer use Hottop cooler.
It takes some 40 seconds to cool the batch down to room temperature.

I made one a few years ago for my Behmor. I like the "hands off" cooling on the Hottop MUCH better - no more coffee chaff flying into my eyes.

[juker]

One of the Peter’s past distros (Ethiopian) produced insane amount of chaff, which triggered me to build cooling/chaff collector device.
It built around 4inch high power fan ($15 @ eb-bay), some scrap plywood, 2 screens (dollar store items: frying pan splatter guard for fine mesh and cookies cooling tray – large mesh), some quarter-round or similar trim pieces to hold screens. All assembled using Gorilla glue. Basically it is tree plywood boxes built around one another. It easily holds two (or even 3) Hot Top loads. Cools beans in 20 sec.
Note to Rick: the fan SUCKS air downwards through beans which prevents chaff flying into my eyes. (Chaff is collected on fine mesh)

[mp]

Mighty fine looking fan Juker!

Ever think about making it commercially?

 

[kaotep]

that looks like a nice looking build you got there Juker 

[peter]

that looks like a nice looking build you got there Juker 

Yes, indeed!  Very nice workmanship, and the fact that you used things on hand and/or things inexpensive makes it all the more marvelous.

It looks like you can get the fan off w/o too much hassle, which is good since it will get caked w/ roastium, which will reduce your airflow.

[kaotep]

and it looks like it's an AC fan which is good because you can just plug it directly into a wall socket 

[smico]

Juker,
Very cool cooler.
You can proudly display it close by HG One.

[rgrosz78]

Sorry about the inconvenience.  Great thing about the HotTop is that everything is replaceable on the unit.

This link may help

http://hottopusa.com/traybase.html

You might just thake it apart, clean the fan and wire connections and see if it comes back to life. If not hen Michael will let you know what parts to buy.

Thanks for that link. I had to unscrew the back and the bottom to loosen it enough, but finally removed the cover for the cooling tray. I shook out all the loose chaff and other assorted debris. Then I tested the fan, and it worked properly.

I never did get the stupid plastic side cover back on properly. After 20 minutes of wrestling with it, I was ALL LIKE Fuhgeddaboudit   

[GC7]

Sorry about the inconvenience.  Great thing about the HotTop is that everything is replaceable on the unit.

This link may help

http://hottopusa.com/traybase.html

You might just thake it apart, clean the fan and wire connections and see if it comes back to life. If not hen Michael will let you know what parts to buy.

Thanks for that link. I had to unscrew the back and the bottom to loosen it enough, but finally removed the cover for the cooling tray. I shook out all the loose chaff and other assorted debris. Then I tested the fan, and it worked properly.

I never did get the stupid plastic side cover back on properly. After 20 minutes of wrestling with it, I was ALL LIKE Fuhgeddaboudit   

Glad you got it functioning again. You have to love "other assorted debris" that always manages to find an unlikely home  It is frustrating putting things back together sometimes. I always curse at getting the sheet metal frame around the drum back when I give it a cafiza bath every so often. It gets fewer and fewer washes as time passes and I think about putting it back together.

If you need to cool a bit quicker in warm weather just purchase one of those small clip on fans and attach it to the table or in my case bench where the roaster sits and point it at the bean tray on the roster turn it on when the beans drop at the end of the roast. Works like a charm for about $10.

[mp]

I never did get the stupid plastic side cover back on properly. After 20 minutes of wrestling with it, I was ALL LIKE Fuhgeddaboudit   

Well done rgrosz78!

Glad you have it back together and working again.

 

[juker]

Thank you guys...

Peter, I wouldn't worry about airflow - that sucker is WAY too powerful for the application.
It literally cools down beans in 15 seconds. It's like a turbine. If you throw some beans on the mesh, plug it in, turn the thing upside down, unplug it - you'll have to wait 10-15 seconds before the beans start fall down...
 
I use it to cool down Hot Top like GC7 suggests.