John, Chad gave you some good recommendations on how to use the Hot Top, if you have it wired w/another temp probe or two. Quite a few Hot Top users roll with a seperate (aftermarket) bean mass temp probe and also their own environmental probe. But if you are running it stock like I have been with mine (for the past 300 roasts) you can successfully run with the default profile albeit with a few tweaks. Like Chad, I wait for the temp to run up to around 230-240 before I drop my beans which equates to 16:30 on the time clock. For 90% of the beans I roast I'm using the default heater profile and like it fine. I also run the fan on 25% for the entire roast after it hits 325 degrees. If it's cold in the garage (where I roast) or I have a slow stubborn bean, like Peter's Lintong, I may add time to the end of the roaster so I can hit 2nd crack.
99% of the time I start out w/280 grams of green beans in my drum. I get a nice even roast. What I do with the rear filters is rotate them. I run one for 10 roasts then remove it and put a fresh filter in, and soak the dirty filter in a TSP/hot water solution. Also, when I clean the air filter (every 10 roasts) I also soak the cooling tray, front sight glass and the bean chute cover in the TSP solution. All of it is in a 4/5 gallon plastic bucket and fits nicely
When cleaning the air filter, all I do is let it soak about for 10 minutes, swish it by hand in the solution then run it through clear water to rinse it then let it air dry. You'll know when to replace and you'll have plenty of warning to enable you to order spares. Which reminds me, I need to order the small filter on top of the roaster, mine is shot
I personally didn't get involved adding temp probes to my roaster. In my experience (300 roasts) my Hot Top B model roasts fine as delivered. I only roast so I can drink and pull tasty espresso shots, like this one on the Salvatore One Black HX I used to own
I can pull shots that taste as good as this one looks using the Hot Top default controls. About this pic...bean is the Bali BM Draagoth distributed last year. I took it into the front of 2nd crack. The bottomless PF I had just drilled using a 2.25" holesaw and hadn't at time of the photo, finished clean the sharp edges of the cut. This was literally my first pic using a bottomless PF. At the risk of patting myself on the back, I'd say I have a pretty good handle on the PF side of espresso making (tamp and grind). I've since cleaned up the jagged edges of the PF using a flat and round tail file, some emery paper too, then i went to work on the chrome plating using NEVR-DULL Magic Wadding Polish to remove the TSP stains
Jake
Reddick Fla.
“Be Who You Are and Say What You Feel Because Those Who Mind Don't Matter and Those Who Matter Don't Mind.†-Dr. Suess
I have a couple simple questions that are probably answered in the instructions but the layout of these instructions is not working for me.... 
Why do I have two different colored back filters?
When should I replace either/both filters?
What are the load parameters? Is it 250G without fail or is there some wiggle room worth knowing about?
I've tried 5 times to look at the book to scan for this info but it's organized more like a novel or something and not like a step by step instruction book. I'm going to have to sit down and read the thing at some point but apparently I have attention problems.
