"But do we have enough coffee?!"

Those were the first words out of my beloved's mouth when I gave her the news. The unthinkable happened sometime in the last few weeks: the roaster broke and I didn't realize it.

The source of all things good here in Benson had a problem. I'm not completely sure when it happened but I think it might have been a while ago. The roaster has a drum that rotates and an induction heating system to get it to roast temperature. There's a speed control for the drum and a fan for drawing in air to move chaff to the chaff collector and to remove excess heat. That later device, the fan, is the culprit.

The rear of the roaster is devoted to the chaff collector. It's basically half of a tub-like piece. One hole on the collector lines up with a transfer tube that carries the chaff-laden air from the drum to the collector and another hole in the chaff collector lines up with the impeller of a fan. The collector itself contains a cup-shaped wire screen that serves as the filter for the collector and collects the chaff on the exterior of the cup. The fan creates a vacuum and draws air from the roaster that (we hope!) brings with it the chaff that has loosened from the beans as they roast. The screen cup strips the chaff out of the heated air where it collects on the outside of the cup or falls to the bottom of the half-tub cavity. A motor spins the impeller and is speed controlled. That motor is supposed to operate in the 600-3000 rpm range. Being stuck at about 800 rpm does not constitute 'working properly'.

So I contacted Aillio support in Taiwan and asked for guidance. The warranty expired this past January so there won't be any free replacement parts, but Matt Yau of Aillio support (he has helped me several times) got back to me immediately to tell me what to do ("run the calibration for the fan") and report back. When I gave him my report his reply was "you need a new fan motor". 

So Matt sent a copy of the e-Mail to Sweet Maria's in Oakland, California telling them I need version 2 of the exhaust fan motor. Sweet Maria's knows when they sold the roaster to me and they skipped the "sorry but we need to charge you" discussion. They were quick about getting back to me and I should see the parts in a few days. In fact I just saw the shipping notice in my e-Mail.

In the mean time we limp along with a couple spare bags of coffee...



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