Help venting and getting chaff out of a 25kg Ambex

[Hochstedler2]

So we bought a 25kg Ambex on ebay about a year ago and have some questions about the venting. I've been told that is was originally a Toper that Ambex bought and refurbished. We have been roasting on a sivetz for the last 10 years and decided to make the switch. It is set up differently than I think most drum roasters I have seen. The part that you see under the cooling bin looks like some sort of a chaff collector. The problem is that the chaff collects in there but after about 3 roasts without sweeping it out it gets so hot or a stray bean gets down in there and starts a small chaff fire. The exhaust exits from the drum and passes through this air space and then the blower sucks from that air space out through the exhaust pipe. Does anyone know what to do in the situation or how to get the chaff out into the cyclone? This probably sounds really confusing but I thought maybe someone has dealt with this situation on their roaster. Thanks for any help or input!

 

[expat]

I can't help with your question although I've see other comments on this forum about that particular design so someone will definitely give you an answer.

I'm writing because your post prompted a question . . . What reasons moved you to switch from the Sivetz sytle roaster to the traditional drum roaster. I've got to think that if you ponied up the money for a 25kg roaster it is more than you 'just wanted to give it a try', especially since you've been on the Sivetz for a decade?

 

[topher]

I've never seen a roaster that big with a fire box. When I say fire box I mean built in chaff collector. I have used 2, 5 and 10 kilo roasters that are set up like this and every 3 batches you need to put out a small fire. I would imagine it would be worse in a 25 kilo All I can suggest is keep it clean and keep a water bottle and hose handy. The cleaner you keep your fan blades the less of a problem. When I needed to clear the chaff in between roasts I would turn the burner off and close off the damper so no air was going into the chaff collector. I then vacuumed as quickly as possible, closed the door opened the damper fired it up and continued on. Not fun when you have 15 + batches to do.

 

[Hochstedler2]

Hey expat. So we are still using the sivetz in a daily basis. We got a pretty sweet deal on the drum roaster. I wanted to be able to have more control over time and temp than the air roaster offers. We actually have a air speed control on the air roaster which is different than a lot of them but still didn't have the ability to fine tune the roast. Especially with lighter roasts, I wanted to be able to stretch the roast our to 14-16 minutes and it just wasn't possible with the sivetz. It would also be really grassy and somewhat sour. As far as reliability, the sivetz is a complete work horse!