Hi All I am contemplating buying a coffee roaster. I welcome your recommendations. The selection of roasted decaf beans here in Canada is limited/poor, and quality is hit and miss, so roasting my own would improve my access to beans that I might like. I did (some years ago) have a Behmor and encountered numerous roasting success challenges, to the extent that I eventually sold the machine. My main challenge is that I am quite hard of hearing, such that I (with the Behmor) I couldn’t hear the first or 2nd crack, above the noise of the drum motor and fan, even with a microphone placed outside the unit (and an equalizer to filter out extraneous noise). I had few roasts that I could call tasty. My second challenge is our cold climate. The Behmor produced some extend of coffee roasting exhaust and associated smells. This was acceptable in the summer, as I roasted coffee outside, on the deck of my cottage. However my wife would not likely tolerate that odor indoors. Positioning the unit on our stove top, beneath our unvented kitchen stove fan, would not be a viable option with her. So this needs to be a basement located operation, with no migration of any odor into the house. So the machine needs to have some kind of air cleaner or alternatively an air exhaust that I can easily duct to the outside. My wife drinks Kurig coffee; so my Lelit, NZ and accessories are viewed as consuming kitchen counter space. I think that you may get my drift about this. Hopefully roasting technology has paralleled the “prosumer” trend in espresso machines, such that there are products available that meet the following needs: * machine detection of first and second crack * machine monitoring of temperature within the heart of the bean load (centre of the load/mass) * good rotation of beans * Bluetooth connection to a PC, that controls the entire roasting process using a temperature/time/airflow recipe that I input * automatic logging of roast data, downloadable to a spreadsheet * ability to upload roast profiles received from others * quiet * low or no odor * Reliable (solid build) * Readily available parts * Able to roast 1 kg (ie 2 pounds) * Compact * Max $1,000 Cdn, hopefully much less

> @"JHCCoffee"#p34422 Able to roast 1 kg (ie 2 pounds) > Compact > Max $1,000 Cdn, hopefully much less I daresay that even a machine that only answers your last three points doesn't exist.

I'm sure others will chime in, but as far as I'm aware the only fully automated smokeless home roaster is the Ikawa, capacity is only 100g though, and the cost is £1,270! The bigger the batch the more smoke you'll produce though, so given that concern multiple small batches might actually be better for you.

Unfortunately I think it will be hard to get all of those features, especially first crack detection on a machine under $1000. The market seems to be moving in that direction but at the moment a lot of the products are Kickstarters which are always a gamble. Machines like the kaffelogic nano 7 fit most of your requirements but don't have first crack detection and are right at the top of your budget. Machines like the ikawa are over your budget but are fully automated. So far one of the only machines that fulfills all of the features is the roest but it is way over your budget. You might want to keep your eye on the bunafr that is on Indiegogo currently Although I can't recommend backing a product that doesn't have any prototypes out in the wild. It feels like the products are a year or two away from being easily available to home users at reasonable costs

@"JHCCoffee"#p34422 - No offence, but you are searching for a unicorn. :-)

Such a roaster does not exist and I am not sure ever will.

I have an Ikawa and it suits my needs. But the fact that they increased the price for £999 to £1270 late last year, but then decreased the monthly editing Plus subscription cost from I think £29.99 to £4.99. @"JHCCoffee"#639 The only other smokeless home roaster is the Sandbox R1 or R2, but I think they would blow your budget.

I have been using a Kaffelogic Nano7 for a couple of years now. While it can not roast 1kg, it can roast back to back to back roasts of 100g and, with the new extender coming soon, should be able to do 200g batches. A fan vented from your basement to outdoors is all you would need to keep the house odour free. One caveat, it is very, very difficult to get a great result from/with decaffeinated beans. You just cant get the delicious flavours that you will get from single origin caffeinated beans. You can, however, mix your average decaff roast with a great SO roast and enjoy a great flavour with less buzz.

I have an Aillio Bullet 1kg capacity (which means 800g in reality) and while I can wholeheartedly recommend it, the price is too high. [URL=https://i.imgur.com/yMhluG8.jpg][IMG]https://i.imgur.com/yMhluG8.jpg[/IMG][/URL]

@"tompoland"#p34442 That's some epic venting. Reminds me when I had a Gene Cafe.

> @"MediumRoastSteam"#p34428 No offence, but you are searching for a unicorn. :-) No offense taken. Not too long ago the NZ was a unicorn. As was what is now the Lelit E v3. *Let’s take price off the criteria list for the moment and see what ideas pop up. I’m also hearing that I’ll need to consider a smaller batch size.* This may end up being a two step process: 1) finding something now, possibly a used item to fit my budget, and then 2) buying one of the roasters that are under development now, once they’ve been released and matured. I am also betting that once the market becomes abit more saturated with these newer products, overall price levels will come down.

Contemplating Buying a Coffee Roaster … but

ajohn

Talking briefly to a roaster the sampler and experience seems to come into things. It’s a business that started from roasting at home. That resulted in 2 Topers. Then Probates when they moved premisses. It seems the Probates allow a gentler roasting profile. She commented that the beans had to come out very quickly when they were ready. At odd times some one else has roasted them and they are slightly different.. This to produce an unburnt 2nd crack bean but for consistency wont any other bean have similar problems?

TBH I wonder if all of a supply of a particular green bean will allow the same dead set controlled cycle to roast them properly? This appears to be the aim of certain home gear,

InfamousTuba

ajohn At odd times some one else has roasted them and they are slightly different.. This to produce an unburnt 2nd crack bean but for consistency wont any other bean have similar problems?

A lot of issues we had with different people roasting the same beans was down to when they marked first crack so if the software they use is good enough it could be more consistent. The roest is fairly good at detecting but it is still preferable to listen yourself.

ajohn TBH I wonder if all of a supply of a particular green bean will allow the same dead set controlled cycle to roast them properly? This appears to be the aim of certain home gear,

You can produce very consistent results if all of the various factors are kept exactly the same, it depends on the machine and how well it can control everything from between batch protocols, accurate bean temperature reading and also adequate heating capacity. Full automation is still a work in progress but it is getting there quite fast

InfamousTuba

I still have the same doubts with the bunafr that I had when I first saw the indiegogo, they show loads more features and claim better roast quality than every other roaster but they haven’t shown the roaster in action yet, no prototypes and only one roaster attached to the project. I’m also not convinced by the chamber having to cool the beans down to room temperature to then heat up again for the next batch, it makes the machine compact but it will slow down back to back roasting. The smoke filter needs replaced every 25-50 roasts, and the design is propietary so that may not be around forever and is an extra cost for roasting.

I am curious about how it would stack up next to the ikawa, roest or the aillio bullet in side by side tests. I think a 220v version is still a long way away so I won’t get a chance to test it alongside those three for quite a while.

I hope it can perform as well as they claim because at a full price of £758 before shipping and tax it could be a good machine, but like all kickstarters it is a gamble to buy an untested product this early in the production cycle.

DavecUK

I used to see some small sivetz type units on AliExpress, they apparently did 300-500g? and had a power control for heat. I always thought they might work, but they are manual.

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005003799906056.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.main.3.44af6b921Fkgdm&algo_pvid=141ccc59-8db7-4882-901d-5951c4153aaa&algo_exp_id=141ccc59-8db7-4882-901d-5951c4153aaa-1&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2212000027209780281%22%7D&pdp_npi=2%40dis%21GBP%21277.32%21277.32%21%21%2199.92%21%21%402145288516730491775137401d0761%2112000027209780281%21sea&curPageLogUid=2i0cYrWZl7ti

JHCCoffee

I’m back to thinking about this, now that my spouse is used to the idea of somewhat larger budgets for espresso equipment… And my birthday is coming up in the fall…

I will obviously need to bump up my price criteria to about $2k CDN and reduce my min batch size to say 200g. And as I now have a remote mike that pairs with my hearing aids, I might be able to hear first and second crack, so less need for automatic first/second crack detection; a nice feature but I can live without it.

But I still will need to be able to visually watch the progress of the roast on a time/temp graph, and be able to adjust the roast profile, either on the fly or for the next roast.

And as I will within 2 years be downsizing to a condo, unit size, and bring relatively smoke and oderless, is key.

Any updates on gear or experiences?

Ernie1

https://ikawahome.com/ ?

JHCCoffee

Ernie1 https://ikawahome.com/ ?

Thanks. But it only produces 100g of coffee. So that’s 4.5 roasts to produce 1 lb of coffee!

JHCCoffee

My min is 200g.

Ernie1

JHCCoffee

Sorry I realised after I posted it the capacity wasn’t 200g.

However as I understand it it only takes 10-12 mins to roast 100g and you can feed continuously up to a few kg. So all you’d need to do is drop another 100g in while it’s on.

I’ve been thinking about getting one and they seem quite confident that you can do ‘60 back to back roasts’ which is obviously 6kg a day. Admittedly not the fastest but if you were really roasting 6kg a day you’d probably be looking at a different roaster.

For a smokeless unit in a very nicely designed package I think it’s hard to beat their offering. Some people complain that custom roast profiles come at the cost of an app subscription but I think if it works as well as advertised it’s a very neat solution.

Again, for those of us without the option to vent in any way, it seems ideal.

JHCCoffee

Ernie1 However as I understand it it only takes 10-12 mins to roast 100g and you can feed continuously up to a few kg. So all you’d need to do is drop another 100g in while it’s on.

Thanks for the guidance.

So to roast 1 lb, it would take 50 minutes?

I consume about 1 lb per week and like to rest my beans at least 2 weeks, so am I right in saying it would require 100 minutes (almost 2 hours) to produce two 1 pound bags? That’s a lot of time. Am I missing something here?

MediumRoastSteam

Im yet to see how it’s physically possible for a coffee roaster to not produce smoke. Unless you don’t roast he beans, of course. I’d take smokeless with a pinch of salt.

I never seen or used one, but I had a few roasters, including a Sandbox Smart, and that produced smoke even with 100g roasts, which is its nominal capacity. The Behmor in fact did not produce visible smoke as it had an afterburner (e.g: it burned the smoke to a very high temperature creating micro particles). The room was left with an unpleasant smell for a few days.

Maybe the Ikawa dissipates smoke fast, maybe it has filters which will “trap” the smoke, I don’t know. But it will produce smoke as a by-product of roasting. It’s impossible for it not to happen.

MWJB

MediumRoastSteam Ikawa reviews say there is no visible smoke, but it can still trip smoke alarms so roasting under an extractor hood is common.

MediumRoastSteam

MWJB - same with the Behmor, however you’d usually roast 250g or so, so you’ll get more smoke. Invisible, arguably more harmful, and it stinks.

I can say it because I had one, and I’d advise no one to roast indoors, even though it’s advertised as such. Unless, of course, you have an extractor fan so powerful which can effectively extract all the (invisible) smoke outside.

Ernie1

I agree it seems impossible for it to be smokeless but as above it does seem to be quite true. Maybe the slower speed of roasting and the capacity help filter the smoke quickly enough.

If it can indeed roast 60 100g batches back to back without smoke that would be very impressive.

Given the high price I’d expect to see people reviewing it as untrue if the smokeless claim was false.

MediumRoastSteam

Ernie1 Given the high price I’d expect to see people reviewing it as untrue if the smokeless claim was false.

I’m sure it’s a well designed product. Even on their website they explain how it works. But it’s about extraction, rather than suppression. Ultimately, the smoke has to go somewhere and, if you roast in a poorly ventilated environment, ultimately you’ll end up with smells and smoke.

Just because it’s expensive doesn’t mean it’s magical. But it’s likely a lot of effort and r&d had been put in to minimise the roast smoking.

The cynical in me, however, has a different opinion: it’s an expensive product, and people are unwilling to express the real opinions about it given the price paid for, so, when they come to sell it, the value of the product is kept high. That’s my view at least..

IMMV.

Ps: https://www.home-barista.com/blog/ikawa-home-roasting-system-review-t86206.html

Definitely not smokeless.

Ernie1

I didn’t mean it was magical because it was expensive, just that I thought people might complain if it didn’t do what it said after they’ve paid so much.

I know if I’d spent £1000+ on something that didn’t work as advertised I’d be complaining for sure.

InfamousTuba

You can’t use an ikawa without having it by a window or under a kitchen extractor. It is definitely less smoky than other roasters but without ventilation it would be a hazard.

The home version of the ikawa doesn’t have as much control as the pro version but you can still roast well on it, and it is very hands off.

It is still more of a sample roaster so you would have to work out how much coffee you would go through and how many roasts that would require.

We switched to the roest l100 because it has increased consistency and better workflow but the ikawa was still very good and no real problems with the pro model

JonWoo187

JHCCoffee Of course many variables at play, but what I’ve read about the roaster in question is if you plan to go darker expect to cut the batch down to around 75 grams to offset that. Then of course factor in 16-18% loss due to moisture burning off, depending on development level obviously. Overpriced turds for those that want push button convenience, but to each their own.

MediumRoastSteam

JHCCoffee Am I missing something here

Nope. It’s a sample roaster.

Rob1

JHCCoffee

JHCCoffee Thanks for the guidance.

So to roast 1 lb, it would take 50 minutes?

I consume about 1 lb per week and like to rest my beans at least 2 weeks, so am I right in saying it would require 100 minutes (almost 2 hours) to produce two 1 pound bags? That’s a lot of time. Am I missing something here?

I think I responded to the original post saying there was no way you’d get a machine with the features you want in the price range quoted. You’re looking at about £6000 for fully automated profiled roasters capable of producing a decent batch size.

I have a Dalian Amazon I’ve hooked up to a computer that can control the heating element. It’s possible to go one step further and control fan and drum speed with further modifications…..not that I’d really want to. With some work I’d be able to make the computer automatically make the adjustment to the heating element to maintain a profile, but I just use it for recording the roast and manually modulating the power to the element as I would if I were using a potentiometer. The total cost of the mod was just over £100 - those special SSRs are expensive.

The Dalian takes about 20 minutes to heat up and a further 20 minutes to roast, you have to stay with the machine as it cools down and make sure you perform maintenance - cleaning the chaff collector, cleaning under the cooling tray, applying lubricant to bearings eventually etc etc. You shouldn’t be leaving a roaster unattended at any point so whatever you do you’re going to be spending about an hour roasting + maintenance on top of that.

If you’re looking for air roasters like the Ikawa, Kaffelogic etc I don’t really see what makes them worth the price. There are plenty of air roasters out there to choose from. The selling point f the Kaffelogic is the profiles you can download but it’s not something I’d be interested in. Not really sure what the selling point of the Ikawa is, I think it’s that it’s portable and can be taken to farms….not something that home roasters are going to be doing. I’d say look on Alibaba and check for reviews for anything that you find interesting.

For example:

https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/1kg-coffee-bean-roasting-machine-drum_1600379955291.html

Cuprajake

Home roasting is fun. It’s an itch I scratched I came to the conclusion buying is best for me, as you roast alot at the start and not all are brilliant 😂

MWJB

JonWoo187 What home roaster would you recommend for an apartment dweller, who can’t vent the smoke outside?

« Previous Page Next Page »