Cleaning a Fresh Roast SR500 Coffee Roaster

[pshankstar]

Well I am two months into roasting my own coffee beans and have been enjoying it! I started off roasting a half pound every week to a full pound every other week (+/-). With that being said, my roaster is showing some signs that a cleaning may be needed. There is oil build up and what not, that a simple wipe doesn't do a good enough job.

I was curious to know if others who have a Fresh Roast SR500 (or similar models) how they go about cleaning the chamber and the top pieces (chaff collector)? I have oxi-clean free and PBW that I could let them soak in for a little while, scrub and rinse really well. I also have dye and fragrance free dish soap or vinegar to use. I searched Sweet Maria's webpage and did some searches but cannot find any documentation on how to clean them properly. I may be overthinking it, but I would rather error on the side of caution.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions! Cheers!

 

[SoulToast]

I've got a very early FreshRoast, nothing but a mechanical timer, and pretty well gave up on trying to keep the carafe completely clear years ago. Thinking back, I seem to recall advice from Sweet Maria's to not clean the carafe beyond the occasional light scrub with regular dish detergent. Something about the oils helping insulate...don't quote me on that.

When it starts getting pretty dark, I'll give the chaff collector a decent scrub out to keep airflow up. A PBW soak and rinse wouldn't hurt anything though.

It's gotta be about 15-16 years old at this point, and still going strong. I can't really say I'm disappointed, but it's hard to justify getting a newer/larger roaster when that one works about as well as it ever did.