If you are about to do some maintenance on your Hottop Coffee Roaster I am going to try to outline some tips which might make things a bit easier beyond what has been written in the various repair procedure pages.,
Whether you are just going to do a basic cleaning or are thinking about major repairs or even a refurbishing of the entire machine, organization is where you need to begin. The Hottop uses a lot of screws of different types and lengths. It would be nice to be able to give you a list of them specifically, they have changed over the years to an extent that it would be very difficult to accurately create such a catalog of fasteners.
Before you begin, get an old muffin tin and put a piece of masking tape in the bottom of each compartment. Get a fine tip permanent marker. As you remove screws write the name of their source location and drop the screws into that compartment. If it looks like the roaster might be apart for some time, use envelopes of small baggies. Anything to keep them separated and identified. If that sounds like overkill, the rear cover of the current KN-8828B-2K+ has four different types of screws, four of each type for a total of sixteen! It will be far less stressful when you are reassembling the roaster if you do not have to worry about what goes where.
Have your phone handy! Take photos of each step you do. For example, you remove the main fan from the back cover. Place it on your work table with the screws which were holding it and take a photo. If you are replacing an internal component, take a few photos of the wiring and how it is routed, the location of the tie wraps, and even a closeup of the location of the wires on the main circuit board. Even those things are documented fairly well in our repair procedures, knowing you have those photos ready if you need them allows you to concentrate on the job at hand.
A dedicated work area is a must. I was recently overhauling a customer's roaster and a parts shortage meant that it stayed disassembled for two weeks on my workbench. Fortunately I have a large workbench and I am the only one who uses it (or even gets near it!). One or two medium size cardboard boxes kept parts safe. Spousal approval factor will be in the high 90's if you don't leave the disassembled roaster on the dining table.
Having a soft surface of some sort under the roaster can be a way to avoid chasing a small lock washer across the floor. It is astounding how far one of those can roll, and equally astounding how deep in the carpet they hide.
Removing the rear cover is quite easy to do and replacing it equally so. But getting deeper into the roaster increases the difficulty. The top cover comes off fairly easily, but getting it back into place is challenging. Get a "partner in repair" to hold the cover in place with the screw holes aligned while you insert and tighten them.
The Main Motor is challenging as well. Roasters which have been through many dozens (or hundreds) of roasts go through heat and cooling cycles that 'realign' parts. I have had roasters which had changed alignment to the point that I used a woodworking style clamp to pull the sides of the roaster together to get the motor's mounting bracket aligned with the sides of the frame.
A very useful tip here for 'fine adjustment' of the alignment when inserting screws is to start both of the screws on the left first (looking into the rear compartment from the back). Only tighten them about three turns- enough to hold but still allow movement of the bracket. Now start the upper, right-side screw that goes into the rear wall of the roast chamber. Again, dt do not tighten them. If the last mounting point ( frame, right side) does not align, the leg of the motor's mount at that point can be bent a little with a pair of pliers. Visualize which way it needs to move and bend accordingly. Be careful not to strip the screws when tightening them.
I will try to add more to this article as time progresses, but you can always contact us if you have any questions. That's why we are here!