|
Name |
Price |
Batch Size (by weight) |
Roast Time |
Size LxWxH |
Waranty/Life Expectancy |
Controls |
Roast Type: Heating Source |
Major Positive Features |
Major Negative Features |
Name |
HotTop KN8828-Programmable |
$920 |
9 oz |
15 to 17 min. |
20" x 10" x 15" |
1 year manufacturer's warranty/parts availability from Hottopusa.com |
Roast time, temperature, fan speed and heater power can
be changed during the roast - profiles can be saved and replayed |
Electric heating element in drum area. Perforated metal
drum with vanes to move coffee. 110v/750 watts |
Control features are very advanced, built in line voltage
control, color LCD display, beans cool outside the drum for quick cooling,
upgradable to Programmable model, very solid supportand out of warranty
parts availability to keep the machine working for years. |
Expensive |
HotTop KN8828-Programmable |
| HotTop KN8828-Basic |
$720 |
9 oz |
15 to 17 min. |
20" x 10" x 15" |
1 year manufacturer's warranty/parts availability from Hottopusa.com |
Roast time, temperature, fan speed and heater power can
be changed during the roast |
Electric heating element in drum area. Perforated metal
drum with vanes to move coffee. 110v/750 watts |
Control features are very advanced, built in line voltage
control, color LCD display, beans cool outside the drum for quick cooling,
upgradable to Programmable model, very solid supportand out of warranty
parts availability to keep the machine working for years. |
Expensive |
HotTop KN8828-Basic |
Gene Cafe Drum Roaster |
$495 |
8 oz, 230 grams |
15-20 minutes |
19 x 10 x 9 |
1 year manufacturer's warranty/the machine came out in
May 2006 - so still too soon to really judge |
analog; two control knobs for temperature and time |
Convection, off-axis mechanical drum agitation. Roast
combines better body of drum roasting with brightness of air roasting 110v,
1300 watts |
The roast is easy to observe, and the controls make it
easy to modify; change the roast time or roast temperature any time you
like, and as much as you like. It features an oversized chaff collector
that can deal with the most chaff-laden coffees. |
Cooling is not as rapid or as effective as in HotTop.
You need to stop roasts a tad short of where you want it to end up. Fairly
new machine, introduced to US market April 2006 |
Gene Cafe Drum Roaster |
Behmor 1600  |
$299 |
4 oz, 8 oz, or 16 oz |
varies by weight |
17.5 x 12.5 x 10.5 |
1 year manufacturer's warranty |
4 pre-programmed roast times, 5
power level profiles |
mesh drum in chamber with quart halogen heating element
110v |
Only home machine that actually does roast a full pound,
affordable price, some smoke reduction, self-cleaning cycle |
Limited use for dark roasts beyond 20 seconds into second
crack, not for use with small beans and heavily chaffed coffees, limited
visibility |
Behmor 1600 |
Hearthware i-Roast 2
|
$179.99 |
5 to 6 oz. |
8-15 minutes |
12" x 7" dia. |
1 year manufacturer's warranty/ about 2 years* |
digital with 2 pre-set profiles and up to 10 user-programable profiles,
count-down timer |
Fluid Bed Air Roaster: Electric Element, automated
thermal roast control. 110v
Note- not fully fluid bed - "fountain" agitation pattern
aided by roast chamber central column |
LIke the i-Roast 1, the machine roasts very evenly. They made the programmable
5 stage roast "profiles" savable, and improved the fit of the
chaff collector.
Basically this is the i-Roast 1.02 - an improvement over the first generation. |
Some problems with the i-Roast 1 were not addressed -
namely, user interface could be better, programming could
be easier, chaff collector should be bigger. Still not
perfect, but better! Like other air roasters, roast can be much effected
by ambient air temp. and voltage |
Hearthware i-Roast 2
|
FreshRoast Plus 8
|
$72.50 |
2.25 oz, 64 grams |
3-8 minutes |
11.5" x 7" dia |
1 year manufacturer's warranty/ about 2 years* |
manual spring-loaded dial: time setting |
Fluid Bed Air Roaster: Electric Element, no roast profile
control 110v |
Quietest air roaster, Roast easily visible,
Fast, Very simple and fairly reliable |
No roast profile, Timer knob setting is a little clumsy,
fast roast time makes stopping the roast at the right "degree" more
difficult. Like other air roasters, roast can be much effected
by ambient air temp. and voltage |
FreshRoast Plus
|
|
Nesco Home Coffee Roaster
|
$149 |
4 oz, 110 grams |
18-30 minutes |
12" x 7" x 12" |
1 year manufacturer's warranty/ about 2 years* |
digital: roast setting numbers |
Screw-drive agitator in glass chamber -convective/conductive
roast, no roast profile 110v |
Smoke-neutralizing catalytic converter is very effective, agitator
very effective, innovative design, quiet. It produces a full bodied roast.
It is very good for targeting lighter City roasts |
It produces a full bodied roast, but there
is a middle range of the cup profile that is missing in the darker roasts,
Full City+ and darker. The extreme delay between
1st and second crack and the ineffective cooling cycle might be the problem.
This machine was formerly known as the Zach and Dany's roaster |
Nesco Home Coffee Roaster
|
Stainless Steel Popper  |
$38.40 |
8 oz+, 225+ grams |
10+ minutes |
17" x 9" dia x 8" |
No warranty/ you may need to make some adjustments to
adgitator blades - but ought to last a long time |
No timer |
100% Conduction roasting with manual agitation |
Inexpensive way to roast 1/2 lb of coffee. |
Fully manual, standing at the stove and cranking for
10+ minutes: no cooling, just a tad dangerous. More uneven roast results
and more difficult (i.e. easier to have bad results) than other methods.
Cranks can wear out over time, especially if you roast over a flame that
is too hot. Keep roast temperature moderate and shoot for a 7-9 minute
City roast. |
Stainless Steel
Popper |
Stovetop Popcorn Popper (Whirley Pop)
|
$26.50 |
8 oz+, 225+ grams |
10+ minutes |
17.5" x 9" dia x 8" |
No warranty/
plastic gears can fail or warp from high
heat, but years if you are careful and replace parts as needed (which
may take some ingenuity) |
No timer |
100% Conduction roasting with manual agitation |
Inexpensive way to roast 1/2 lb of coffee. |
Fully manual, standing at the stove and cranking for
10+ minutes: no cooling, just a tad dangerous. More uneven roast results
and more difficult (i.e. easier to have bad results) than other methods.
Cranks can wear out over time, especially if you roast over a flame that
is too hot. Keep roast temperature moderate and shoot for a 7-9 minute
City roast. |
Stovetop Popcorn Popper (Whirley Pop)
|
Air Popcorn Popper (see our Coffee Library
Page)
|
$14 new at K-Mart, $2 at Thrift Stores |
3 oz, 85 grams (Original Poppery is 110 grams) |
7+ minutes |
|
No warranty/
using the popper for coffee roasting runs the machine longer than for popcorn,
but a good popper can last years, even a trip or two to the thrift store |
No timer |
Fluid bed, very fluid...110v, wattage varies from model
to model |
Inexpensive! Even roast, good cup results that rate with the dedicated
roast appliances. Modifications possible (at your own risk). Yes, you CAN
start roasting for next to nothing! |
Fully manual, no cooling, just a tad dangerous -plastic
hood gets hot and can melt a bit. Be sure you use the right type of popper!
(see our Coffee
Library Page) Like other air roasters, roast can be much effected
by ambient air temp. and voltage |
Air Popcorn Popper (see our Coffee Library
Page)
|
Your Own Home-Built Roaster
Drum Roaster by Ed
Needham
|
? |
1/2 to 5 Lbs! |
7-20 minutes |
|
No warranty/
depends on how well you make |
It's Up To You |
Build a homemade drum for your Barbecue |
Roast a LOT of coffee! Depending on your skills, you could get near
professional results either roasting by experience and intuition, or
by getting high-tech |
We have a page with photos and links for Home
Made Home Roasters!
The downsides are also up to you and your design ... but there's quite
a few people on our HomeRoast List doing
this, and the best web sites of our home-roasting customers are Ed
Needham's Homeroaster.com and Jim
Gundlach's. Charlie
Herlihy has a brick oven design, there's a BBQ roaster video by North
Sullivan (AKA: JKG), and Doug
Cadmus displays his version of the grill roaster. |
Your Own Home-Built BBQ Roaster
Drum Roaster by Ed
Needham
|
| Caffe Rosto
|
$143 |
4.8 oz, approx. 136 grams |
6-14 minutes |
|
1 year manufacturer's warranty/some models were great
and lasted a long time, others were duds and failed early (a big reason
we don't sell them anymore) |
manual spring-wound roast timer. roast setting numbers, with on-off switch |
Fluid Bed Air Roaster -not as fluid as other methods
-some roasting is conductive.: Electric Element, no "roast curve"110
v |
Roasts evenly, over a wide range of roasts. Sturdy construction. Easy
roast visibility. Larger batch size than Hearthware -but don't overload
it! |
Small and hard-to-clean chaff collector. Machine has the roast chamber
built in, so the machine has to cool before you can dump out the beans,
making it a bit hard to stop a roast, but not a major drawback. |
Caffe Rosto
|
| Aeroroast |
$250 |
1 Lb. |
50 minutes!!! |
|
|
Timer |
Drum roaster like the Alpenrost |
Roasts 1 Lb |
Bakes coffee! This is not a roaster
it is a coffee baker. It is built off a chasis for a Rottisserie electric
oven - not really made to be a home roaster at all. |
Aeroroast |
| Diedrich IR 12 K |
$17000 |
24 Lbs Green |
9-18 minutes |
|
Nearly infinite life span, plenty of parts
available, like an old VW |
No dial |
Convective and conductive heat |
Larger batch size, even roast, very controllable |
Okay, this is not a home roaster, but since I have one and
cup all the roasts versus the Diedrich, I thought I would toss it in the
mix... |
Diedrich IR 12 K |
