This section of the guide will focus on troubleshooting roast issues and equipment problems

The following resources are strongly suggested for success with the RK Drum roasting system.  The roasting guide provides a textual guide to the roast process.

The Roasting Guide



Roast Video Tutorials  (Especially Roast Lesson #1)

Here's a 3 pack replacement kit of spiders if you need.



Let's understand why this could be happening.  Spider Grommet breakage most commonly occurs when the rubber of the grommet is sitting too close to the heat and is softening as a result.  The weight of the drum and coffee pressing against it causes the spider grommet to slice through a bit like a hot knife through butter.  


So the answer is to keep that grommet from getting too hot.  As a generality, Spider grommets commonly break on the 12LB Drum and to a lesser extent on the 8LB drum and almost not at all on the smaller drums, save for rare cases where the grommet was in bad condition to begin with.    Note that the 12LB drum fully loaded can put upwards of 34LB of pressure on the grommet and combined with heat, it can cut through.  Once again, we need to keep that grommet from getting so hot.  There are several approaches to solving this. 


Shield the grommet and coupler from the heat


Build a Heat Shield similar to this one pictured above.  This shield essentially blocks the heat emanating from the rotisserie hole, which as you can imagine is quite hot.  As a result the coupler and grommet is largely shielded from the heat blast.


Move your motor further away

In some cases users have installed the motor too close to the grill.  If it's an option, you need to move the motor further away from the heat.  An ideal distance should be 4-5 inches away from grill (see below).  It may be necessary to move your motor away from the grill.  See the following section on how to move your motor further away.




If your grill box (excluding trays) is wider than 33" you may need to opt for a longer rotisserie rod.  This is an option in our extra wide 50" rotisserie kits.  (Standard is 40").  The extra long rotisserie is available here.


If you already have a kit, contact us about getting just a longer rod if that's all you need.


Here's a 3 pack replacement kit of spiders if you need.

Now, There's a quick fix, that can get you by in a pinch. Go to the autoparts\hardware store and grab one of these hose clamps.

hose clamp for rk drums

Should cost $1 or so. Assuming there's still enough of the Spider to put back into the coupler, reassemble the coupler with spider. (Usually one of the lobes breaks off).

Snug up the clamp just to keep it all together, and it will allow you to roast until these parts come in.

Don't tighten the clamp so much that you can't insert and reinsert the rotisserie.  This should function long enough until your new parts arrive.

coupler temporary repair with a hose clamp

It is possible the latch may have been been bent during shipping. We try to ship the latch in the opened position to prevent this, but sometimes the weight of the drum can cause the latch to bend if the package gets handled roughly.


The latch is built in two parts, that are designed to separate from each other with enough force.


Part 1 is attached to the drum and you cannot remove it without drilling out the rivets. This part has two "toes" on it.


Part 2 is a flat (and it should be flat) piece that has the hook that goes over the door and the thumb tab for opening and closing. This part is T shaped.  This is the part that is bent and it is not latching over the door.


You can remove Part 2, by gently prying up the "toes" on part 1 with a flat screwdriver. And pulling part 2 out....


Part 2 should look the below picture....if it isn't flat, the postal service likely dropped the box bending the latch and now it no longer closes the way we want it to. The fix is simple. Basically lay it on a flat table and hammer the bent part gently until it looks like the picture and then reposition part 2 under the toes of part 1.  Insert on one set of toes, and then pry up the second toe and slide the latch under.  The lip of part 2 should now latch over the front of the door.  Things should operate as expected now.


ideal latch shapes
ideal latch shapes