Sonofresco / Q&A / Tip & Tricks

[aariddle920]

Hey to all of you fellow sono guys and gals here.  I have just purchased a new 1# sono.  Is it normal to reach 2nd crack on every preset including 2 or 3.  I have roasted several origins from Central and South America.  On preset 4 I had pretty much a french roast on all origins.  Dialed it down to preset 3 and still went well into 2nd crack, dialed it down to 2 and still reaching 2nd crack around 9:00 into all roasts.  Is this normal?  If not should I adjust gas valve?  Any advice would be appreciated.

[Joe]

You need to clean all the metal parts, with a green scrubby or Brillo until smooth. Soak the rest in citric acid or alike including screens. Use a dry green scotch brite on the thermocouple. If that doesn't work then your thermocouple is bad. I have resurrected a few using 99.9% isopropyl alcohol or electronics cleaner. You will have normal settings after that

[aariddle920]

Joe should I do this even if the unit is brand new?  I only have about 10 roasts in it at most.  I followed all cleaning procedures by the book.  I cleaned thermo couple with green scotch bright as well. 

[Joe]

Joe should I do this even if the unit is brand new?  I only have about 10 roasts in it at most.  I followed all cleaning procedures by the book.  I cleaned thermo couple with green scotch bright as well.

Possibly, depending on what you roasted. Getting in a good cleaning habit is a daily, weekly, etc chore. Definitely wire brush the screen at that point.

Seeing as how it is so new the first thing I would do is check the amount you are roasting. You should weigh it to 1lb 3 oz and don't go over that amount. If that all checks out then you might be dealing with an altitude issue or a more in depth problem and I would give sonofresco a call. They can walk you through more detailed diagnosis.

[aariddle920]

Perfect thanks Joe!  I'll try all that you suggested and go from there.  I haven't been weighing my full batches, just using the provided can.  I have weighed my sample batches at 120g, but I will check the weight in comparison to can.  Am I right in thinking that at a preset of 2 or 3 I shouldn't get to second crack or is that not necessarily true?  I am new to this so I am trying to get a base knowledge.  Thanks for the help!

[Joe]

the can is useless. A can full of Sumatra is significantly heavier than a can of Ethiopian and the air flow would be much worse.

[aaronranson]

Joe should I do this even if the unit is brand new?  I only have about 10 roasts in it at most.  I followed all cleaning procedures by the book.  I cleaned thermo couple with green scotch bright as well.

Possibly, depending on what you roasted. Getting in a good cleaning habit is a daily, weekly, etc chore. Definitely wire brush the screen at that point.

Seeing as how it is so new the first thing I would do is check the amount you are roasting. You should weigh it to 1lb 3 oz and don't go over that amount. If that all checks out then you might be dealing with an altitude issue or a more in depth problem and I would give sonofresco a call. They can walk you through more detailed diagnosis.

Do you mean 1.3 lb or 1lb 3oz?

[Joe]

Joe should I do this even if the unit is brand new?  I only have about 10 roasts in it at most.  I followed all cleaning procedures by the book.  I cleaned thermo couple with green scotch bright as well.

Possibly, depending on what you roasted. Getting in a good cleaning habit is a daily, weekly, etc chore. Definitely wire brush the screen at that point.

Seeing as how it is so new the first thing I would do is check the amount you are roasting. You should weigh it to 1lb 3 oz and don't go over that amount. If that all checks out then you might be dealing with an altitude issue or a more in depth problem and I would give sonofresco a call. They can walk you through more detailed diagnosis.

Do you mean 1.3 lb or 1lb 3oz?

1lb 3 oz

[Smksignals]

aariddle920,

Does your Sonofresco have the Advanced Definition Roasting software? If yes, maybe adjust the roasting curve?? I have an older 1lb'er w/o ADR and leave the roast level set at 4 and roast 1lb exactly every time. I usually get to full city, full city+ by 9:30 to 10:00 minutes depending on the bean, and then turn off the gas switch to start the cooling. The '3' setting comes pretty close to these times but I like to shut the heat down on my own.

I like to roast one pound at a time. A little better agitation in the beginning, the roast always turns out good, and my coffee is kept a 1lb increments.

Also wire brush the screen after every roast. Its an easy and important habit to have.

Good luck with the new machine. You'll get it figured out. The Sonofresco is a great rig.

[jmp]

I agree that cleaning the screen and roast chamber after every roast is more important than it seems. I also roast 1lb 1oz to lb 2oz per roast. I also never use the pre-sets and roast by smell,look and 1st and 2nd crack. Great roaster and have used it for 5 years.

[808Chaney]

Hi All, or as some folks say in this neck of the woo...Ocean, Alooooohaaaa from Kailua Hawaii. This is my 1st post in this forum and might not be the appropriate place for an introduction but I've never been one to comply until I've been yelled at. So, I found this site and so far it has the most Sonofresco info I've found. So, I've spent the better part of my day reading several pages of tips n tricks. I've been in the coffee business for 22.5 years as the GM of an Office Coffee Service in Honolulu Hawaii. Boy did I think by now I new all there was to know about coffee. Kinda like Bubba and his knowledge of shrimp. Well, I was wrong. I started roasting about a year ago in a Ronco, graduated to a Behmor but since electricity REALLY sucks in Hellwaii I bought a Sonofresco 1 pounder. I love it but it roasts too fast so I bought the ADR upgrade so I can create my own profiles and stretch out the roasts of my Kona coffee a little longer. So far, I keep throwing error code 4's. After reading some of the tips, I will weigh out the coffee now since one of my coffees is super dense and wet processed so it almost always shuts down the roaster. At $18.00/pound, that sucks. Last time it happened I was at 155 degrees C and it was still green. So, I let it cool and fired it right back up. I figured if it was already ruined I couldn't do anything but ruin it a little more. Second time through, it roasted beautifully. Anyhow, I'm looking for somebody who has some profiles that they would like to share. Pick a coffee, any coffee, Being in the coffee business I can get just about anything except African coffees It's against the law to posess green African coffee in Hellwaii. I don't know why for sure but it has to be roasted before it comes here. Anyhow, that's all for now, hope I'm not totally out of line Admins, I'm used to being put in my place but I did look for an introduction thread and didn't find one. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough. I look forward to doing some buying and trading of coffees and such. Peace!

[Joe]

Yeah shoots brah!


Error 4 I have to look up, but definitely weigh it to 1lb 3 oz max and make sure your screen is clean. I also recommend a nice soak in some citric acid for all the metal parts except the thermocouple and polish them clean on the chaff collector. If the thermal couple is starting to go before you trash it for a new one, get some electronic cleaner 99% isopropyl alcohol and give it a good cleaning and use the dry scotch brite.


Aloha and welcome to GCBC. I might be in Kauai.. This January. Got to pet the Sharks every one in a while at Hanalei Bay.

[aaronranson]

I agree that cleaning the screen and roast chamber after every roast is more important than it seems. I also roast 1lb 1oz to lb 2oz per roast. I also never use the pre-sets and roast by smell,look and 1st and 2nd crack. Great roaster and have used it for 5 years.

Do you just roast on profile 9 and watch it? I'm just curious how you accomplish this.

[808Chaney]

Right now I just roast based on sight sound n smell but the whole reason I got the ADR was so I could create my own profiles. The ADR kit comes with7 or so default profiles. They are ALL identical and the 1-9 on the non ADR is all the same profile as well. They just have higher EOR temps. I got some adjustment instructions to avoid E2 and E4 which are pretty much the same error except E2 will happen early in the roast and E4 hits later in the roast. Some of the beans I roast are quite costly and I will surely lower the batch size from 1.4lbs (22.4 ounces ) to 18-20 ounces. I would still like to slow down the roast a bit and try and get it smoother. When I roast this bean in my Behmor, it comes out near perfect if I do 8oz batches but hands down I prefer using the Sonofresco since Hawaiian Electric Company produces such lousy electricity.

[808Chaney]

For the record, I clean my roaster screens ( I have 2) after each roast and clean everything that could cause back-pressure. I've not used Citric Acid although I have 20-30 pounds of it in our warehouse since we use it to de-scale brewer tanks. As far as my roaster parts, I use straight Simple Green which you probably all know was developed originally for cleaning coffee roasters. This is another thing I never knew until I started roasting. The Behmor instruction manual states the fact on Simple Green and if you go to their site Simplegreen.com it will state that as well. If the Citric Acid is readily available in your area and it works well, great. I may give it a try but for me to get Citric Acid out here, I have to order it in and shipping costs more than the pales of citric acid.