# Gene dimmer mod....my take on it!



## eusty

I've been meaning to mod my Gene CBR-101 roaster for quite a while now, but as with most things I do getting started was the first challenge!

The next problem was that both the dimmer and power meter mentioned in the Coffee Time wiki are no longer available so I decided to do something different.

I found a power meter (ebay link) and decided to use a motor controller (ebay again). The controller says it's rated at 2000W, but as it's from ebay I'm dubious, but it handles 1250W OK.

Anyway it looks like..









And inside









The box is possibly on the large size, but it allows for greater heat dissipation than if it was crammed in a tiny box.

One thing I noticed when opening my Gene was that they seem to have changed the design from that in the Wiki, the heater connection is arrowed.









Checking further the terminal labelled 'Ter4' was at the same potential as the neutral line, meaning the terminal marked 'Heater' is the heaters live connection (arrowed).









I've tested it and it works OK, hopefully tomorrow I'll try roasting some beans in it


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## DavecUK

You should add an update to the Wiki


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## eusty

I tried, but it told me' Guests and low-karma users are not allowed to publish links on this site.' As I just signed up I guess my karma must be low


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## DavecUK

eusty said:


> I tried, but it told me' Guests and low-karma users are not allowed to publish links on this site.' As I just signed up I guess my karma must be low


Just join the site, then you can publish what you want.


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## eusty

I did join! It just won't let me post links (images) ?

Posted by Tapatalk


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## MediumRoastSteam

.


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## MediumRoastSteam

eusty said:


> I've been meaning to mod my Gene CBR-101 roaster for quite a while now, but as with most things I do getting started was the first challenge!
> 
> The next problem was that both the dimmer and power meter mentioned in the Coffee Time wiki are no longer available so I decided to do something different.
> 
> I found a power meter (ebay link) and decided to use a motor controller (ebay again). The controller says it's rated at 2000W, but as it's from ebay I'm dubious, but it handles 1250W OK.
> 
> Anyway it looks like..
> 
> View attachment 27620
> 
> 
> And inside
> 
> View attachment 27621
> 
> 
> The box is possibly on the large size, but it allows for greater heat dissipation than if it was crammed in a tiny box.
> 
> One thing I noticed when opening my Gene was that they seem to have changed the design from that in the Wiki, the heater connection is arrowed.
> 
> View attachment 27622
> 
> 
> Checking further the terminal labelled 'Ter4' was at the same potential as the neutral line, meaning the terminal marked 'Heater' is the heaters live connection (arrowed).
> 
> View attachment 27623
> 
> 
> I've tested it and it works OK, hopefully tomorrow I'll try roasting some beans in it


I know it's been a while since this post, but could you let me know where you sourced the box and the on/off switch from? Do you have links? It looks impressive!

I am going to try this with a lightbulb first and if all good will move on to the Gene at some point. Looks like the dim mod is the thing to do, the more I read about this


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## eusty

All from ebay!!

Box

Switch

Well worth doing as it gives you greater control.


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## MediumRoastSteam

eusty said:


> All from ebay!!
> 
> Box
> 
> Switch
> 
> Well worth doing as it gives you greater control.


Thank you so much! May I ask you, if it is not too much trouble, if you could draw the schematics of your circuit? I don't know much about electricity, so any advice is greatly appreciated.


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## eusty

I did it without one to be honest, as it's my line of work.

The info I based it on is Here


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## MediumRoastSteam

eusty said:


> I did it without one to be honest, as it's my line of work.
> 
> The info I based it on is Here


Thanks! I'll figure it out. I've been reading that for the past 3 days. Electricity is not my forte, so I'll need to read up and ask the experts before I plug that in 

Thanks again!


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## MediumRoastSteam

eusty said:


> I did it without one to be honest, as it's my line of work.
> 
> The info I based it on is Here


May I ask you what type of tool you have used to cut holes in the box? For example, to attach the switches and the energy meter?

Thanks!


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## eusty

MediumRoastSteam said:


> May I ask you what type of tool you have used to cut holes in the box? For example, to attach the switches and the energy meter?
> 
> Thanks!


Actually I used a mini-jigsaw, as I happened to have one handy, and filed to suit. But if I didn't then I'd drill small holes around the edges then file it.


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## MediumRoastSteam

eusty said:


> Actually I used a mini-jigsaw, as I happened to have one handy, and filed to suit. But if I didn't then I'd drill small holes around the edges then file it.


Do you think one of those drills that you buy from B&Q, battery powered, would do the trick? (As you can see, I haven't got the faintest idea...)


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## DaveP

I think it would be cheaper if you got all the parts and then asked someone on the forum to do it for you,

the postage both ways would be a lot cheaper than buying the tools and then having to get even more boxes and also drilling holes in the dining room / kitchen table.


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## MediumRoastSteam

DaveP said:


> I think it would be cheaper if you got all the parts and then asked someone on the forum to do it for you,
> 
> the postage both ways would be a lot cheaper than buying the tools and then having to get even more boxes and also drilling holes in the dining room / kitchen table.


I have the tools  - well, I do have a drill, I am just not sure if it can drill through though plastic well. 

All I need now is a crimping tool.


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## ddoyle

Sounds like you're biting the bullet and going for it?







If your drill can drill through metal, wood or brick then plastic wont be a problem, just dont drill too fast.


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## MediumRoastSteam

ddoyle said:


> Sounds like you're biting the bullet and going for it?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> If your drill can drill through metal, wood or brick then plastic wont be a problem, just dont drill too fast.


I've got a few ideas that I want to improve on the the aforementioned design. I've ordered the bulk of the parts, I need to do some crash course in circuits and electricity and in basic building skills. 

So, my plan to start with is to build the circuit. Then I want to test with with a light bulb / lamp shade to prove the point, and after that will adapt it to use it to control a heating element on a cheap convection heater.

So, maybe we are looking into next year for the actual modification to the Gene itself, but as soon as I have this up and running on my lightbulb I'll share it the schematics of my circuit. The stakes and expectations are high. Let's hope I can deliver.


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## ddoyle

Good to hear that you're going to take it slow with the modding.

I'm going to learn how to roast properly with the Gene Cafe before doing any mods, best not to run before I can walk and not over complicate things with new variables in the equation.

Need to master using the profiles in the excellent BB guide first and then work on my own profiles. Once I've taken it as far as I can then I will start modding. Eventually I want some sort of coffee profile automation with a PID or Raspberry Pi.


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## Rob1

If you click the link to the thermocouple mod in my sig you'll see a link in the post #5 to my source which includes further modification to the gene to automate roasts using arduino and raspberry pi.


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## ddoyle

Thanks Rob1, had a look, looks good and I will come back to this once I am ready to mod my gene.


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## MediumRoastSteam

----- THIS IS WORK IN PROGRESS -----

----- PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW -----

Thanks to @eusty & @DavecUK, for inspiration, I have wired a circuit to control the temperature of the gene roaster. So far, I have not modified the Gene at all, but I have created the circuit and tested with a light, and I can confirm it works.

This is a photo of the circuit just on the table, for testing. I tried to use as little wire as possible as I don't want to waste any of my wires & cables. Anyhow, for anyone interested, I will draw the diagram of my circuit and post it here later.

The black cable is coming from the mains. The white cable is an extension lead where the lamp with a 40W light bulb is attached to.

The idea here is simple:

The brown wire coming from the light would be equivalent to the wire going to the heater on the Gene.

The brown wire coming the main is the "live" wire, and would be equivalent to the "heater" slot in the Gene PCB.

My circuit was entirely based on the material available here:

http://coffeetimex.wikidot.com/gene-cafe-dimmer-control-mod-stage-1

Notice that I have added a meter directly attached to the wire coming from the mains. I checked the voltage with a multimeter and the voltage figures displayed in the meter matches the ones in the multimeter.

My next step would be to attach an electrical heater (more load) to this circuit.

EDIT: PICTURE REMOVED TO AVOID CONFUSION.

Disclaimer: I am not an electrician and to be honest I am scared to death of electrocution. Inspired by this thread and the Gene heater dim mod article, I've been reading on how electricity and circuits work, trying to understand as much as I can before plugging it in. I drawn the circuit on paper many times and tested everything offline with a multimeter to make sure the current is going where it should be before I plugged this in.

Therefore, do so at your own risk and please please take extreme care and precautions before attempting this.


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## eusty

You might want to check the dimmer wiring....

Although it's working with your bulb it's incorrect. The terminals you have linked are the neutral connection so they need to be connected, if you check the pcb they are actually connected together so you only need one neutral connection.


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## DaveP

Looks good... but (theres always a but, lol)

Please rob a bit of your flex and replace the green/yellow that you have used as live, with the proper colour 'brown'.

Only use green/yellow as the protective earthing conductor

Only use blue for neutral

Only use brown for live

The logic is... one day in the future some one else, or even you when your brain gets old may be using or fault finding your creation and not be clever enough to work it out before assuming that things are as they should be.

But great work and well done.


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## MediumRoastSteam

eusty said:


> You might want to check the dimmer wiring....
> 
> Although it's working with your bulb it's incorrect. The terminals you have linked are the neutral connection so they need to be connected, if you check the pcb they are actually connected together so you only need one neutral connection.


Thanks for this, appreciate the advice.

When I draw the diagram and post it here, would you mind taking a look and point out what's wrong and how it should be done instead?

I will edit the post and put a big writing at the top so people don't try to follow this up, at least not yet.


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## DaveP

Dimmers are 'conventionally' 2 wire operation.... live in and live out, the metal bracket may need to be grounded ... but a piccy of the underneath of the circuit board will tell all.


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## MediumRoastSteam

DaveP said:


> Dimmers are 'conventionally' 2 wire operation.... live in and live out, the metal bracket may need to be grounded ... but a piccy of the underneath of the circuit board will tell all.


Top:










Bottom:










Question if you don't mind me asking, as my electric knowledge is very basic: Why is this any different, in terms of circuit, to the one presented on coffeetime? (link on OP). Is it because that one is implemented with standard light switch grade equipment? Why do we need to wire a neutral wire to this version and not on the original one?


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## DaveP

> Why do we need to wire a neutral wire to this version


Do you ?

Its working fine with out it ?

The green / yellow loop wire you have fitted to the dimmer is not required, as its looped on the circuit board (this internal loop is just for passing a neutral / neatness of wiring)

The metal bracket is isolated so is not a concern.


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## MediumRoastSteam

DaveP said:


> Do you ?
> 
> Its working fine with out it ?
> 
> The green / yellow loop wire you have fitted to the dimmer is not required, as its looped on the circuit board (this internal loop is just for passing a neutral / neatness of wiring)
> 
> The metal bracket is isolated so is not a concern.


If I don't add that loop, then my lightbulb does not turn on 



I'll do the diagram tonight, so hope people with better understanding of all of this Benjamin Franklin business can give me some input and suggestions.


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## MediumRoastSteam

The Power display:


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## MediumRoastSteam

So, this is the proposed wiring diagram:

What do the experts think?

It might be that i don't need the bridge in the voltage regulator, but my test with the light bulb will only work if I do that.

Any advice is highly appreciated. Thanks!

Edit: Picture removed to avoid confusion.


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## MediumRoastSteam

@eusty, may I ask what you did / how to affix the voltage controller to the plastic box? Thanks!


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## eusty

Just drilled a hole for the spindle and a smaller hole for the tab which stops it spinning.

Ah.... Just remembered! The box is too thick so I used a flat twist drill (the ones you use on wood) to counterbore it so the plastic was thinner.

You could use a proper counterbore bit, or even a router.


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## MediumRoastSteam

eusty said:


> Just drilled a hole for the spindle and a smaller hole for the tab which stops it spinning.
> 
> Ah.... Just remembered! The box is too thick so I used a flat twist drill (the ones you use on wood) to counterbore it so the plastic was thinner.


But t how did you keep the metal plate attached to the box? Did you super glue it?


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## eusty

As regard your voltage regulator...

If you look at the terminals you will see an In and Out marked on the middle two terminals I think. This is your feed in and out, but one of the end two need to be connected the the neutral.

It may work on a bulb but it could be doing something weird like half wave rectification.


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## MediumRoastSteam

eusty said:


> As regard your voltage regulator...
> 
> If you look at the terminals you will see an In and Out marked on the middle two terminals I think. This is your feed in and out, but one of the end two need to be connected the the neutral.
> 
> It may work on a bulb but it could be doing something weird like half wave rectification.


Thanks, I appreciate it. On mine, the left most two terminals say "in", the other two say "out".

If you see my diagram on one of the posts above, where would you get the neutral wire from? Direct from the mains?


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## MediumRoastSteam

Well, looks like I don't understand enough about electricity to carry out this mod on the Gene itself, even though it worked with a light bulb.

If there are any electricians or like minded members here who are interested and would like to get involved a bit more so we can then publish the schematics for the benefit of the forum, let me know, I'd love to see this idea validated by someone qualified in the field.


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## MediumRoastSteam

After further research into the controller mentioned, I found that:

- The two terminals at the edge are just linked together in the circuit board. They do not, in any way, have any wiring into the dimmer circuit itself. Therefore, the yellow wire in one of the pictures is totally and utterly unnecessary. I have just checked that.

- The two connectors in the middle are the input and output for the wire that goes through the dimmer circuit.

There is a picture of the circuit board of the regulator / dimmer in one of the previous posts.

After speaking to some colleagues at work, it is my understanding (and theirs) that no neutral connection is required for the controller to work. The neutral wires can just be connected outside of the controller circuit board if necessary. I'll carry on with my project and will keep you posted.


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## DaveP

> After further research into the controller mentioned, I found that:


You were already advised by someone... I wonder who it was

https://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?38948-Gene-dimmer-mod-my-take-on-it!&p=530255#post530255https://www.coffeeforums.co.uk/show...dimmer-mod-my-take-on-it!&p=530255#post530255

o'h it was me, lol

My next piece of advice is to save you trying to countersink the case, is to make/create a bushing which in practice would have the effect of extending the thread of the control potentiometer like this..










https://www.coffeeforums.co.uk/show...dimmer-mod-my-take-on-it!&p=530255#post530255


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## MediumRoastSteam

DaveP said:


> You were already advised by someone... o'h it was me, lol
> 
> https://coffeeforums.co.uk/showthread.php?38948-Gene-dimmer-mod-my-take-on-it!&p=530255#post530255


I know, I know....


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## eusty

Also checking your power meter, it should have 4 wires.

The middle two should be a phase/neutral to power the meter and the outside two are to detect the load current.

Two of the phase connectors can be together, I'd draw it but I'm on my phone!


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## MediumRoastSteam

Yep. I got that one correct. The middle ones are the input and the outside ones are the output. The input/output are next to each other as you say. I measured that with the multimeter) :







:


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## MediumRoastSteam

eusty said:


> Also checking your power meter, it should have 4 wires.
> 
> The middle two should be a phase/neutral to power the meter and the outside two are to detect the load current.
> 
> Two of the phase connectors can be together, I'd draw it but I'm on my phone!


Thanks for all the info.

May I ask a question? The terminal on the Gene marked "ter4". Is that just a neutral line that goes into the heater element?

Would it be possible to have that also wired out of the Gene, and use that line (ter4) and the heater line (labelled heater) to go through the Meter Display unit so no need to wire the mains into the box?

Just a thought.

PM me if you feel like it btw, I don't mind.


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## eusty

MediumRoastSteam said:


> May I ask a question? The terminal on the Gene marked "ter4". Is that just a neutral line that goes into the heater element?


Yes it is.



MediumRoastSteam said:


> Would it be possible to have that also wired out of the Gene, and use that line (ter4) and the heater line (labelled heater) to go through the Meter Display unit so no need to wire the mains into the box?


No, but you could use the wire from your switch which then goes to the heater. The terminals marked LOAD only have live connectors to them. (There is current in the neutral, but convention says use the live/phase).


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## MediumRoastSteam

eusty said:


> Yes it is.
> 
> No, but you could use the wire from your switch which then goes to the heater. The terminals marked LOAD only have live connectors to them. (There is current in the neutral, but convention says use the live/phase).


Thank you, really appreciate the information given.


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## MediumRoastSteam

@eusty, would you mind if I PM you with a question regarding the gene Mains PCB and the Power Display?


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## Olek

Hello,

Nice mod, I hope the thread can still be active.

My dimmer "mod" took 5 minutes to install for test and cost 6€ for a variator of the cheap models.

The Ulka5 sort of give 3bar at its minimum, then 4, 6, 9... he high end is OK the start should be better and I did see that a strong 25W resistance in parallel will help the pump to manage the dimmer better.

I am not sure what input AC wire I did use, not the one with the thermal security anyway, but in the Ulka I dont know how is the inside diode connected (and if that have an importance at all)

I also ordered a priming valve , do you think it will help to obtain zero pressure in the single boiler after the shot ? (or better, get rid of vapor pressure - I don't think so- building between shots ? )

WHat I noticed with the extractions I obtain, is that they have bit more flavor they are more tasty, but the pucks are always wet in the end, almost really muddy.

it flows also a bit faster so I keep 8bar at the most, but obtain generally 1:3 ratio for the time being.

Is it something you experience too ?

I made a few videos ; posted on a French forum

http://expresso.1fr1.net/t15029p25-demande-d-avis-mettre-une-opv-sur-reneka-duo#297434


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## MediumRoastSteam

@olek, this is the thread of a mod for a coffee roaster, not a coffee machine!


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## Voocash

@eustyi'm hoping to make similar mod soon, would you draw a wiring schematic please?


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## Stanic

thanks to immeasurable support from @MediumRoastSteam I was able to put my controller together

It is relatively simple in the hindsight I have to say, but as I also don't have any electrician background, I had to wrap my head around it which took some time

I am already planning to make a smaller box with just the switch and regulator, current box is 20x12x7 cm, bit loo large

I made three roasts, need to rest them so we'll see later


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## jaffro

Stanic said:


> thanks to immeasurable support from @MediumRoastSteam I was able to put my controller together
> 
> It is relatively simple in the hindsight I have to say, but as I also don't have any electrician background, I had to wrap my head around it which took some time
> 
> I am already planning to make a smaller box with just the switch and regulator, current box is 20x12x7 cm, bit loo large
> 
> I made three roasts, need to rest them so we'll see later
> 
> View attachment 40663
> 
> 
> View attachment 40664
> 
> 
> View attachment 40665
> 
> 
> View attachment 40666


 Nice!

I've just bought another few kilos of greens to get back up and running roasting through lockdown.

Wondering whether to try this mod out while I have the time. Seems like a cheap and simple one to sort?

Any initial thoughts?


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## Stanic

jaffro said:


> Nice!
> 
> I've just bought another few kilos of greens to get back up and running roasting through lockdown.
> 
> Wondering whether to try this mod out while I have the time. Seems like a cheap and simple one to sort?
> 
> Any initial thoughts?


 highly recommended - it is cheap, simple and effective

best thing is (apart from better roasts) it is completely reversible without any trace


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## jaffro

Stanic said:


> highly recommended - it is cheap, simple and effective
> 
> best thing is (apart from better roasts) it is completely reversible without any trace


 Great. I have some research to do in that case... I'll see what I can work out and I'll give it a go!


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## Stanic

the delivery was fast and I was able to put the smaller box together today


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## MediumRoastSteam

Stanic said:


> the delivery was fast and I was able to put the smaller box together today
> 
> <img alt="K52S9908.thumb.jpg.8bcb15502090c9ab96df7d09a28ab25a.jpg" data-fileid="40752" data-src="<fileStore.core_Attachment>/monthly_2020_06/K52S9908.thumb.jpg.8bcb15502090c9ab96df7d09a28ab25a.jpg" src="https://www.coffeeforums.co.uk/applications/core/interface/js/spacer.png">


Excellent. So pure roasting by Gene air temp, but controlling the intensity of the heating element? Let us know how it goes!


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